Renting a Car
I’ve rented cars around the world. Previous to this trip I’d rented a car in Ireland for 14 days for $300 (CAD). I knew Iceland was going to cost more and I researched my little heart out on the internet to find a company that would quote me the price including CDW – the ever important Collision Damage Waiver. I hate surprises, I want to know exactly what it’s going to cost me. And I found it with Budget for ISK 29.000, or about $330 (CAD) for 10 days. I was thrilled.
I show up at the desk in Keflavik and suddenly I’m learning about the Super Collision Damage Waiver and told it covers things CDW does not and decreases my deductible. I had never heard of such a thing. Why had I never heard of such a thing? I’d heard about Sand & Ash Coverage, but never SCDW. Granted it was 10pm, snowing and I had an hour to drive in the dark to get to my hotel – so I may have been gullible, or just exhausted, but after firmly denying Sand & Ash, I caved and got the Super CDW at an extra ISK 23.000, bringing my total up to $590 (CAD).
I asked at the desk and I have since researched, there are very few rental companies that will quote with Super CDW (Budget is not one of them, I could only buy it at the desk). Super Collision Damage Waiver – file that under things I wish I’d known.
But considering what happened to a car behind me (wait for it), anything can happen in Iceland – so maybe the extra insurance is worth it.
Driving
Do not stop in the middle of the road to take photos. Before I got there I read this and thought… duh, pull over. But then I got there, and you can’t. Because of the way the roads are steeped for the winter they’re all raised with markers every 10 meters.
(Disclaimer – these photos were all taken with a GoPro mounted on the rearview mirror)
So more often than not you can’t pull over. And yes there are times when I was the only car on the road – but I also got passed by SUVs doing upwards of 140kph.
While I’m on the subject of cars passing… during instances like the Blizzard some people in smaller cars are not comfortable doing the speed limit, and since there are very few places to pull over, other drivers have to pass. The terrifying thing is that if you get two cars both going slow, rather than leap frog them one at a time, drivers would simply get in the left lane and see how many cars they could pass at once. And I saw this happen again and again. It should go without saying that is extremely dangerous and illegal!
During the Blizzard which, as you can see above, had limited visibility an SUV pulled out to pass six (6!) cars before they saw oncoming traffic. They cut back in behind me, but the car behind me was forced off the road. Thankfully they were forced off into high, snow covered grass and didn’t hit anything or roll, but still – they needed a tow truck and were probably pretty shaken. So please – Don’t do it!
Buying Petrol (fuel/gas)
General road trip rules apply, when in doubt fill up.
Warning to all the Canadians with Visas – they may not work at the pump. The interesting/frustrating thing I discovered, was that my Canadian Visa (with chip) did not work at 2 of the 3 major Stations. N1, Olis/OB & Orkan are the 3 major Stations and I could only pay at the pump at Orkan. The others I could go inside and use my Visa to buy a gift card, then go back outside and use the gift card to fill up. But that only works if there is a physical shop, some N1 “stations” are just pumps on the side of the road.
