Been Googling since posting this...finding lots of interesting things to see and do. Is, say, 8-10 days realistically enough time to see a good portion of the country? I see the ring road is only 1300km so that's only 100-200km a day at most assuming there are stretches where it's scenery, not all of which is "we have to stop for an hour to take it in" type stuff. Could totally do 2 weeks honestly but I'd like to do 1.5 weeks so there's time to recover and maybe do a little weekend motorcycle getaway as well once we're back.
Biggest question at this point is travel restrictions. Right now it's a minimum 5 day quarantine with 2 negative tests in that period before you're clear to travel. Assuming that changes for the better come the summer once vaccination gets well underway, and we can prove vaccination, it would seem those restrictions will be waived, but I don't think most countries have really go that far at this point so far as communicating their plans.
Some of the roads in March/April were...dubious at best, like massive craters. We had a little hatchback (think Golf) and we had to take our time going to some specific scenic vistas. The main Ring Road is typically 1 lane each way and honestly the views are so awesome just driving that we found ourselves jumping out of the car constantly to take pictures and enjoy it.
I could share our itinerary if you like, i'm sure i have it saved somewhere. We did it in about 12ish? days and we used 1 throw away day of doing nothing, the rest of the time we were on the road.
Our plan was to grocery shop our lunch and dinners, we stayed at guest homes each night except while staying in Reykjavik we did a Hostel and 2 nights in a hotel in the North West as a treat. All the guest houses/hostels/hotel we booked provided breakfast so that was one meal we never had to plan out.
I would say plan 1 full day only for Reykjavik, it's really not that big, 2 days imo is certainly overkill, time better spent elsewhere. The Blue Lagoon is a rip off, head up to Mývatn (geothermal city in the north) and do the geothermal pool experience there. You get great scenic mountain views, less people and it's cheaper.
Gas was $2/l when we were there, think we did about 3,500kms on our trek, so be prepared to open your wallet. As
@crankcall alluded to, everything is fairly pricey. We did a restaurant in Reykjavik and i think i it was $75 for just my lamb shoulder, no sides included.
You said summer right? All prices go up for tourist season, no chance of Northern Lights and the touristy areas get jammed. Game of Thrones has made Iceland pretty famous, i think i read they saw 20% tourism increase every year since that show launched. When we arrived in mid March the snow had pretty much just melted off the road but as i said it never got below 8 degrees much. Just dress in layers and it's fine.
Tons of scenic views, it has the most diverse landscape on the planet. Just driving from the airport it looked like we were on an alien planet.
