On the Icelandair flight to Iceland I watched a television show on the seat console titled Tough Trucks of Iceland. The show features the special off road vehicles that are able to handle the oversized geography of Iceland.
During my visit to Iceland I traveled some of the same roads as seen in the show. I paid extra to rent a Toyota Land Cruiser, primarily to handle route F208 to Landmannalaugar in the Highlands. F208 is listed at the website dangerousroads.org and I will surely have a future post about that drive. On F208 and elsewhere in Iceland I saw many unique vehicles that are suited for the outsized terrain of Iceland. Many of the vehicles are supersized to handle snowy conditions as well.
To see the best of Iceland (safely) you should have at least a full-size, four-wheel-drive SUV. Surprisingly, many roads in Iceland are still dirt roads such as F208. And many of these dirt roads are only open during the summer months because they are mostly impassable during the rest of the year due to snow and ice, though there are some massive vehicles, including a monster bus (seen below), that handles the snow as well. Below are some of the vehicles I saw on my journeys around Iceland.
Tough Trucks of Iceland Photos
These Defenders are ready to be rented at the Keyflavik Airport. I saw more than a few Defenders on the roads of Iceland, including the one below at a camping spot in Grindavik.
I thought this was a one-of-a-kind vehicle, until I saw another one just like it (photo below) elsewhere in Iceland (unless it was the same one).
The above and below vehicles were seen at Skogafoss Waterfall.
I saw this vehicle in Vik.
Above: The Toyota Land Cruiser I rented. The vehicle is diesel, as apparently most vehicles are in Iceland.
A Citroen Cactus
The coolest vehicle I saw in Iceland, a Toyota SUV with a GoPro logo driven by Iceland Safari.
This little Fiat Panda Cross doesn’t look like much, but it’s actually a 4×4 vehicle and I saw one of these on F208.
I saw this vehicle at the Landmannalaugar base camp.
This is listed as a Gullfoss Super Truck at their website. The massive bus is used to take tourists to a snowmobile adventure.
