Introduction to road trip around Iceland in Winter

Iceland is a very beautiful island country in Europe. Its unique climate and cultural customs are admirable. Most areas are covered with snow and ice. However, due to the complex geographical and geomorphological environment, there are a large number of hot springs and warm areas, which are suitable for living. Around Iceland, go on road trip is also a good experience.

How does Iceland make me feel? Loneliness is like escaping from the earth. The sky is low and the clouds are low, as if walking on the road to the end of the world. When the wind rolled the blizzard and the waves beat the black sand, it seemed that the end was coming.

Iceland has a high risk factor of driving in winter, so we are lucky. There are no accidents on the road, but the atmosphere of tension and worry still happens from time to time. The climate in Iceland is changing very fast. Now it may be stormy, and later it will be sunny.

Play a edited self-driving video first, and then make up some later. We will talk about expenses, car rental and overseas travel insurance. On this trip, we settled the travel change insurance, and two people almost paid 13000, and the itinerary in Britain will also be written.

Iceland's itinerary is very simple. You can go around 1 expressway counterclockwise or clockwise. The scenic spots are basically around the island line. Except for the glacier hiking and Lan Bing Cave, all other scenic spots are free.

Around the island, 7- 12 days is enough. Adjust your stay time at each point according to your own interests. In winter, the road conditions are bad and the sunshine time is short. It doesn't dawn until after 10 in the morning, and it gets dark after 4 pm, which is a long time. If the road conditions are good and the sunshine time is long in summer, it will be faster to leave the island.

Winter in Iceland, snow, rain and strong winds are all normal, so wherever you see them, the dressing guide emphasizes wind and water resistance! You can't expect to have an umbrella. The fact is that there is no umbrella in Iceland, and people who are windy will be blown away.

When you go to Iceland in winter, don't expect to dress like a fairy. Jackets and trousers are the first choice. Iceland is not as cold as I expected, and the temperature is not very low, about 0 degrees, but the wind is too strong, so photographers will freeze, so they will not pay attention to taking pictures as usual. If they can't take good photos, why don't they pose again? The wind just wants to get into the car quickly.

Entering Iceland, from the plane, it is white.

The location of Game of Thrones, the waterfall of the gods, is in bad weather, and the photos do not capture the features of the frozen land of the gods when winter comes.

Sinville national park

The geyser is actually a very small geyser, much smaller than the old faithful geyser in Huangshi National Park.

Driving on the road is like this when the weather is good.

such

This is the case when the weather is bad.

In this way, the snow on the roadside was blown by the demon wind and danced on the road.

You can't even see the road ahead.

However, this is the most dangerous section we have ever driven. The road is full of hard ice and slippery. If you are not careful, you will lose control of the car.

Scenery along the way

Tundra landform

It's like an enchanted black beach.

Glacial lake, these floating blue ice floes are all melted from glaciers, and they are all Millennium ice.

The diamond beach in the sun is very dazzling and beautiful.

Straw hat mountain, named after it looks like a straw hat.

On the winding ramp, the red-topped church stands quietly.

Hiking on glaciers is a must-see for Iceland. If you want to see the mysterious and magnificent caves in Lan Bing, you must come to Iceland in winter, and the caves will melt in summer.

Walking on the Lan Bing, there is a sense of sight in the interstellar space.

To participate in this project, you must follow the tour guide. Ice claws and axes are both necessary to move on the ice. It was still raining that day, but fortunately, the weather was not very bad and the project was not cancelled, otherwise it would be a pity.

About renting a car, renting a car in Iceland in winter, four-wheel drive and snow tires are the basic configurations. Car rental platform, well-known car rental website is very convenient. This time we rented a car in Iceland.

: northbound.is, a relatively niche platform, the price is much cheaper than renting a car. We rent for 9 days+car insurance, less than 5000 yuan.

Precautions for driving, be sure to look at the weather forecast and road conditions in advance. If there is a storm and blizzard forecast, don't go out, and don't rush in if the road conditions are bad.

Check the http://en.vedur.is/. Meteorological website.

Http://www.road.is/, is a website for checking road conditions.

In the picture, green indicates good road conditions and easy traffic, and red indicates impassability. Sometimes there are orange ones and blue ones, which means it is snowy and slippery. You can drive but drive carefully.

Roads in Iceland are numbered. 1 bit road is the best, followed by two-digit road. The three-digit road is even worse. It is recommended not to cross in winter. This kind of road is generally remote and there is no snowmobile operation. If something happens, you can't get help from passers-by. You have to wait a long time for help, and the cost is high.

About the cost: Wuhan-Shenzhen, Hong Kong-London, the per capita air ticket is 2600 yuan, and London-Beijing-Wuhan, the per capita round-trip air ticket is 3750 yuan.

Iceland 10 day trip costs nearly 10000 yuan per person.

This part includes round-trip air tickets from London to Iceland, car rental and transportation expenses in Iceland, room and board, and the expenses of participating in the Lan Bing Cave Project. The cost of traveling to London is extra.

Iceland is very expensive. Have a meal outside 200-400 yuan. Almost all our accommodations have kitchens, and basically we always cook by ourselves, so eating this part saves a considerable amount of money. The most expensive project is Lan Bing Cave, with a per capita cost of 1.700 yuan.

It should be reminded that transferring to other European countries via the UK requires a British visa, and only the Schengen visa at the destination cannot transfer from the UK.

It is necessary to purchase overseas insurance in advance for overseas travel. Although it is not needed at all in many cases, it is just a peace of mind, but this money can't be saved. Overseas insurance must be bought in China before departure. Individual insurance companies have introduced insurance that can be purchased overseas, but only one day after arriving at overseas destinations. After we stayed in Britain this time, the insurance we bought at the beginning expired, and we didn't study the insurance clauses clearly in advance. One day after we missed the update date, we couldn't buy it again. Without insurance, we have to be careful and hope that nothing will happen.

This is the insurance I bought at that time. I bought another insurance without consulting the insurance company after the expiration. Later I learned that the second policy was invalid. If the invalid policy voluntarily applies for surrender, the insurance company will refund the money. But if you don't know that you bought it for nothing, the insurance company will not contact you for a refund.

Just when I was at my wit's end and couldn't buy insurance, I studied the insurance clauses and realized that my original insurance could be settled. I couldn't return to China because of the outbreak of the epidemic, which was in line with Article 5 of the travel change, and the insurance I bought could be up to 8,000 yuan.

The last actual trip was from Beijing, spent the night and flew to Haikou the next day. Because Wuhan can't go back, I can only stay in the field. Hainan is the only place where we can live for free, and there is a place to live in Hainan, so I choose to go to Hainan and wait for Wuhan to unblock it.

After returning to China, I began to prepare claims. Insurance claims are a tug of war! By rights, don't wait for the insurance company to think of you. This is my experience.

The first round: apply for claims in the official account of the insurance company WeChat, and submit materials as required, including accommodation expenses in London, the difference of return air tickets, one-night accommodation in Beijing, and air tickets from Beijing to Hainan. Maybe there is a bug in the application system. I uploaded more than 10 accommodation vouchers, but they didn't read them or didn't read them at all. The staff contacted me and asked me to supplement my passport information and ticket information. I didn't mention the accommodation, which made me feel that there was no problem with the accommodation information I provided, so they didn't raise any objection. I was dumbfounded when I received the notice of the settlement result, and only lost the difference of the international section of the returned air ticket.

The second round: I called the customer service to express my objection to the settlement result, and I didn't pay for the accommodation part, and there were air tickets from Beijing to Hainan. The insurance staff asked me to supplement the information I need to pay. Because I swiped a full currency card, there was a bill settled in RMB at that time, and I also provided credit card payment information, but the amount of claim received was more than 1000, and I found that they only lost their accommodation in the UK. They calculated the amount in pounds, according to the current exchange rate. In February, the exchange rate of British pound against RMB was still around 9, often 9. 1, which was reflected in the credit card settlement bill. However, after the outbreak of the British epidemic in March, the government put forward the countermeasures of collective immunization, and the pound plummeted from 9 to 8. According to the current exchange rate, the amount of compensation directly lost several hundred.

The third round: I called the customer service and said that I still have objections to the settlement result, hoping to explain it clearly. The customer service said that their claims have always been based on the current exchange rate, whether it is travel change or medical claims, so I can only accept the result of this exchange rate, but I still have objections to staying in Beijing and the air tickets from Beijing to Hainan.

The insurance clause says that you can't go back to your daily residence and you have to pay extra. When I get to Beijing, I can't go back to Wuhan, so I have to stay in Beijing and wait at my own expense every day, or go to other places from Beijing. We chose Haikou without paying our own expenses. I think the latter is also reasonable, but the insurance adjuster insists that this is only my own objective reason. Originally, the trip was from Beijing to Wuhan, and I went around other cities from Beijing, which was not within their claim scope. I asked, is it reasonable for me to stay in Beijing and pay for my accommodation every day? The other party replied, yes, no matter how much the accommodation costs, it can be paid within the claim amount. I replied, in that case, it should be reasonable for me to stay in Beijing for one night. Why didn't I pay? The other party said you could pay.

I'm still waiting for the results of the third round, waiting to pay for one night's accommodation in Beijing.

By the way, I confirmed with the adjuster that if I return to Wuhan from Haikou via Beijing, I can also pay for the air ticket from Beijing to Wuhan and the accommodation in Beijing before the official unsealing date of Wuhan. However, we will not discuss the remaining quotas.

Although the claim did not give the ideal amount, it also subsidized the economic loss. I am very satisfied with this result.

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You also need to prepare a foreign currency credit card to travel abroad. On this trip to Iceland, I have never seen what the Icelandic currency looks like. . .

All major banks have launched overseas credit card rebate activities, which are different from those credit cards that have to win the first place to get rebates. China Merchants Bank's "very global" activity is so powerful that 10% cashback will not be given up automatically, and 5% cashback will be shared by everyone. China Merchants Bank credit cards often hold this activity. After cashback in consumption abroad during the Chinese New Year, it is now cashback for overseas online consumption.

I only got about 2000 yuan in cash back, and large households can get more, because every line can participate, up to 10020.

Because we basically always cook and eat by ourselves, and don't eat out. Iceland is very expensive. Eating out for 2-400 yuan per person saves a lot of money.