Where you can go
Where a Key Car Rental car can take you in Iceland
Key Car Rental keeps a modern fleet at Keflavik Airport, so the right choice is less about the badge and more about the surface under your wheels. Collect your car a two-minute walk from arrivals, point it east with unlimited mileage and insurance already included, and here is how to match a Key vehicle to the routes you actually want to drive, sealed asphalt classics and summer gravel alike.
Paved classics: the MG ZS and the automatic Dacia Duster
Iceland's headline drives are all on sealed asphalt, which is exactly where the economy car and easy automatic in the Key fleet feel most at home. The MG ZS Luxury, from around 5,039 ISK per day, is the natural budget pick for two or three travellers on the Golden Circle, the day loop from the capital region that links Thingvellir National Park, the geothermal field at Geysir and the thundering Gullfoss waterfall. For those who prefer to leave the gearbox alone on the same roads, the Dacia Duster Automatic, from about 5,534 ISK per day, is a relaxed front-wheel-drive compact SUV that eats up the South Coast run to Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, the black-sand beach at Vik and, further east, the glacier lagoon at Jokulsarlon and its neighbouring Diamond Beach. Every one of these sights sits on paved road, and with unlimited mileage on all Key rentals the distance never counts against you.
The full loop and the west: a comfortable 4x4
When the trip grows longer, a roomier all-wheel-drive car comes into its own. The Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross automatic 4x4 and the roomy Toyota RAV4 are the Key cars for touring the full Ring Road (Route 1), which loops the whole island in roughly 1,300 kilometres past waterfalls, fjords and fishing towns, where the extra comfort and traction pay off over long days between stops. Both suit the Snaefellsnes peninsula too, often called Iceland in miniature, where a glacier-capped volcano, lava fields, bird cliffs and the photogenic Kirkjufell mountain fold into a single scenic circuit. Travelling as a group of up to nine? The automatic Volkswagen Caravelle nine-seater keeps everyone in one vehicle for these paved routes, with unlimited mileage keeping the long legs simple.
F-roads and the Highlands: only a true 4x4
The interior of Iceland is a different country, and it calls for a genuine four-wheel-drive car rather than a badge alone. The manual Dacia Duster 4WD, from about 6,280 ISK per day, and the Toyota RAV4 are the Key vehicles with the drivetrain and clearance the mountain tracks demand, so these are the ones to take onto the gravel that climbs toward Landmannalaugar, with its ochre and rust rhyolite peaks and natural hot springs, or into the green glacial valley of Thorsmork. Two honest caveats apply. First, the F-roads open only in the short summer window, roughly mid-June to September, once the snow has cleared, and many require fording unbridged rivers that are never covered by rental insurance. Second, check that your Key insurance tier suits rough terrain before you leave the tarmac; the front-wheel-drive MG ZS and automatic Duster are for sealed roads only and should never be driven onto an F-road.
Drive and sleep: the roof-tent camper
If your idea of Iceland is waking beside the route rather than driving back to a hotel, Key also offers campers fitted with a rooftop tent and a kitchen box. It is a neat way to combine the reach of a capable car by day with a two-person sleeping platform by night, so you can stop where the light is best along the Ring Road and South Coast and cook a simple meal at the roadside. Whichever car you choose, the same Key principles travel with you: insurance included, unlimited mileage, zero deposit and 24/7 road assistance, plus a self-service pickup that lets you collect the keys and go, even after the office closes at 16:00.
