Iceland is one of the most amazing countries on the planet, and there are a lot of things I wish I’d known as a filmmaker before going. Here are ten, and they apply whether you go in summer or winter.
Note: this is from November 2017. The advice holds up, but prices and drone rules in particular are worth re-checking before you fly.
1. Rent A Four Wheel Drive
You’ll read a lot of debate about whether you need one. If you’re only doing the Ring Road and the main sights, you don’t.
But you’re going as a filmmaker, which means you want to get to places that are pretty and remote and film them. As soon as you leave the main roads the surface turns to dirt and then gets rougher from there.
One thing to be absolutely clear about: do not drive off-road. It’s illegal, you will get a ticket, and about 90% of the country is covered in moss that took thousands of years to grow, takes two seconds to destroy, and takes decades to grow back.
2. Buy The Insurance
I normally tell people to decline rental insurance, because in the US and most other countries your credit card already covers you. Iceland is the exception, because of what they offer: sand and ash insurance.
Sand, because if you’re driving the beaches or the sandy parts of the country and the wind gets up, it will sandblast the paint off your car. Ash, because the country is formed by volcanoes and a good many of them are still active.
3. Buy A Prepaid Gas Card
This one is specifically for Americans. Icelandic pumps run on chip-and-PIN. American cards are chip-and-signature, so you can arrive at an unmanned pump in the middle of nowhere, have a perfectly valid card, and be unable to buy fuel.
Buy a prepaid gas card, put money on it, and the problem goes away.
4. Buy Your Food At Grocery Stores
Iceland is the second most expensive country on earth. Our favourite shop was Bónus, and we went back repeatedly for sandwich supplies, chips, apples and a genuinely delicious orange soda. It costs a fraction of eating out. The exception is hot dogs, which are two or three dollars and excellent.
The other reason matters more: once you leave Reykjavík there is not much food. Some gas stations, not a lot else. If you’re going out to film all day, take your own food and water.
5. A Power Adapter And A Surge Protector
Iceland uses the European plug standard, so you need a European adapter or you are not charging any camera batteries. About $25.
I’d also add a miniature surge protector. Between the two I can charge camera batteries, drone batteries and everything else at once, and I’m never hunting for a socket.
6. Rent Through Airbnb, Not A Hotel
This is the tip that saves you the most money, and it also gets you better footage.
Most Icelandic hotels are around Reykjavík or the other towns. But you’re there to film landscape, not to sit in a hotel with a lot of other people. Rachel and I rented a small cabin for about $120 a night, out in the middle of nowhere with zero light pollution, and we saw the northern lights nearly every night.
Our hosts were also excellent. I messaged them ahead and asked whether they’d mind me leaving a camera on a tripod overnight to shoot the sky. They said absolutely, we’d love it. This link gets you $40 off your first booking.
7. Bring Your Drone
Iceland is stunning from the air and the drone laws are minimal. Don’t fly near the airport, don’t fly over central Reykjavík, and beyond that about 99% of the country is flyable.
You’ll see photos of no-drone signs, and they’re real, but they are at exactly four places: Skógafoss, Gullfoss, Þingvellir National Park and Geysir. Nowhere else in the country is banned.
8. Don’t Do The Touristy Things
Every bit of research you do will tell you to see Geysir, Gullfoss and Þingvellir. Those places are popular largely because they’re a short drive from Reykjavík, so tour buses run out to them and come straight back.
If you’ve never been and you have one day, go and see them. But as a filmmaker you will not be satisfied standing in front of a landmark with two hundred other people. Our favourite day of the whole trip was touring the western peninsula, because the tour buses don’t go that far.
Go and find your own adventure and film things people haven’t seen.
9. Buy The Photographer’s Map
This is the most important tip in the list and I’d do it before any trip.
It’s the International Photographer’s map of Iceland, and it was invaluable. Short of digging around Google Maps thinking “that looks like it might be interesting”, it is genuinely hard to know where the good spots are. Somebody drove the entire country and marked them.
10. Respect The Country
Here’s where I get slightly sappy.
Most of the land is privately owned, by farmers and ranchers and people who live there. When you go traipsing up to a waterfall, you are usually on somebody’s property.
So ask. The people of Iceland are the friendliest I have ever met, and I’m from Texas, where we consider ourselves pretty good at this. Find whoever owns the land and ask, and I all but guarantee they’ll say yes. They love their country and they want you to love it too.
All the gear I took is on my gear page, and my Iceland travel films and vlogs are in this playlist.