Where it can take you
Where a Lotus Car Rental vehicle can take you
One fleet, two very different kinds of Iceland. The cars are built for the country's superb paved routes, while the 4x4 SUVs, rooftop-tent 4x4s and 4x4 campers unlock the summer Highlands beyond the tarmac. Here is how to match the vehicle you book to the roads you want to drive.
Paved classics for the cars
An economy, medium, large or luxury car, or a family minivan, is all you need for Iceland's headline drives, and every one of them is sealed asphalt. The Ring Road (Route 1) loops the whole island in roughly 1,300 kilometres, threading past waterfalls, black-sand beaches and fishing towns with no gravel required. The Golden Circle makes an easy day loop from the capital region, linking Thingvellir National Park, the Geysir geothermal field and the thundering Gullfoss waterfall. Push east along the South Coast and you reach Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss, the village of Vik with its sea stacks, and further on the glacier lagoon at Jokulsarlon and the neighbouring Diamond Beach, all reachable on paved road.
Two more paved favourites round out the car itineraries. The Snaefellsnes peninsula, often called Iceland in miniature, packs a glacier-capped volcano, lava fields, cliffs and the photogenic Kirkjufell mountain into a single scenic circuit. Closer to the airport, the Reykjanes peninsula offers steaming geothermal fields, rugged coastline and dramatic lava landscapes within easy reach of your pickup. With unlimited mileage included on every booking, the long loops cost you nothing extra in distance.
The Highlands and F-roads for the 4x4s
The interior is a different proposition, and it is where the 4x4 SUVs, rooftop-tent 4x4s and 4x4 campers come into their own. Iceland's mountain roads, the F-roads, are gravel tracks that climb into the uninhabited centre of the island and are open only in the short summer window, roughly mid-June to September, once the snow has cleared. This is the season for Landmannalaugar, with its rhyolite mountains banded in ochre, green and rust and its natural hot springs, and for Thorsmork, a green glacial valley cradled between three ice caps.
A rooftop-tent 4x4 is a neat way to travel this terrain, an SUV by day and a sleep-on-top camper by night, while a 4x4 cabin camper lets you base yourself deeper in. One honest caveat matters here: some Highland routes involve unbridged river crossings, and those are the driver's responsibility and are not covered by insurance. Plan your fords carefully, check conditions before you set out, and turn back if a river looks too high. The economy, medium, large and luxury cars and the minivans are for paved routes only and should never be taken onto an F-road.
