Iceland on an Irish Licence — The Side Switch Plus the F-Road Trap

For an Irish driver, Iceland asks two adjustments rather than one, and they compound. The first is the side of the road: Iceland drives on the right, and the danger window is your opening hour out of Keflavík — pulling out of the rental lot, taking a roundabout the opposite way, or glancing left when you should look right. Take that first stretch slowly; the airport road and the open countryside beyond it are far kinder for re-wiring your instincts than anywhere in town.

The second adjustment is what you can actually drive where. Iceland’s interior runs on F-roads — mountain tracks restricted by law to 4WD vehicles. Take a standard hire car onto one and the insurance is void the instant you turn off the marked route, and many of these roads ford rivers with no bridge, which is the single most common way tourists wreck a rental. Stay on the paved Ring Road and an ordinary car is fine; want the highlands, book a 4WD and check the rental terms cover it.

There are no motorways here. Sealed roads cap at 90 km/h, gravel at 80, and gravel is everywhere — the real skill is slowing right down where tarmac turns to loose stone, both to keep grip and to spare the windscreen. Weather doubles the caution: wind and whiteouts close roads at short notice even in summer, so check road.is before each leg. Driving off-road or onto a closed track draws a fine from about ISK 10,000 (around EUR 65).

Alcohol is 0.05, the same as Ireland, though with single-car crashes common it’s worth keeping to none. Fuel is steep at roughly $2.15/litre and the emergency number is 112. Read the full rules on our Iceland driving guide and confirm your paperwork with the driving permit checker before you collect the car.