Where you can go
Where a Project Car Rental car can take you in Iceland
Project Car Rental keeps a capable fleet at Keflavík Airport, so the right choice is less about the badge and more about the surface under your wheels. Collect your car after a short shuttle from arrivals, point it east with CDW already included, and here is how to match a Project vehicle to the routes you actually want to drive, sealed asphalt classics and summer gravel alike.
Paved classics and the full loop: the Dacia Dusters and RAV4
Iceland's headline drives are all on sealed asphalt, which is where the four-wheel-drive cars in the Project fleet feel confident and relaxed. The Dacia Duster 4WD, from around EUR 34 per day, is the natural value pick for two or three travellers on the Golden Circle, the day loop that links Thingvellir National Park, the geothermal field at Geysir and the thundering Gullfoss waterfall. For a longer tour, the newer Dacia Duster III 2025, from about EUR 41 per day, and the roomy automatic Toyota RAV4 Premium, from about EUR 52 per day, are the cars for the full Ring Road (Route 1), which loops the whole island in roughly 1,300 kilometres past waterfalls, fjords and fishing towns. All three eat up the South Coast run to Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, the black-sand beach at Vik and the glacier lagoon at Jokulsarlon, and their extra comfort pays off over long days between stops.
The west and the peninsulas: a comfortable 4x4
When the trip broadens beyond the south, the automatic Toyota RAV4 Premium comes into its own. It suits the Snaefellsnes peninsula, 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. Its GPS, included as standard, is a quiet help on the less-signposted lanes of the west. Travelling as a larger party? The 9-seat Minivan, from about EUR 103 per day, keeps everyone in one vehicle for these paved routes, though as a passenger van it is best kept to sealed and well-maintained roads rather than rough gravel.
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 Dacia Duster 4WD, the Dacia Duster III and the Toyota RAV4 are the Project 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, and many require fording unbridged rivers that rental insurance never covers. Second, only true 4x4 vehicles may drive the F-roads, and adding Gravel Protection before you leave the tarmac is a sensible move on any interior route.
Drive and sleep: the rooftop-tent RAV4
If your idea of Iceland is waking beside the route rather than driving back to a hotel, the Toyota RAV4 with a top tent, from about EUR 135 per day, is the answer. It combines the reach and traction of a true 4x4 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 settle in for the evening on your own schedule. Whichever car you choose, the same Project principles travel with you: CDW included, no deposit, free cancellation up to 48 hours before pickup, and a free airport shuttle to get you on the road in the first place.
