Iceland on a UK Licence — The Right-Side Switch & a 4WD-Only Interior
United Kingdom
Iceland
British drivers switch from left to right in Iceland and meet a 0.02 alcohol limit against the UK's 0.08. An IDP is recommended, and the highland F-roads are 4WD-only.
Iceland asks British drivers to change two habits the moment they leave the airport. Traffic runs on the right, the opposite of home, and the drink-drive limit is a far stricter 0.02 BAC against the UK’s 0.08. Take both seriously on day one and the rest of the trip is about the road itself.
The side switch is the thing most likely to catch you. The reflexes built over years of left-hand driving — the glance at a junction, the line into a roundabout, the lane you drift to after a turn — are all reversed here. Spend your first hour on quiet roads near the airport rather than in Reykjavik, and be deliberate at every junction until it stops feeling backwards. An International Driving Permit is recommended to carry beside your licence; arrange it at home, as you can’t get one in Iceland.
On alcohol there is no British-style margin. 0.02 rules out a drink with dinner if you’re driving after, and enforcement is real, with fines and licence confiscation on the table.
Beyond that, Iceland is shaped by surface and weather, not speed. There are no motorways — the ceiling is 90 km/h on paved rural roads, 80 on gravel and 50 km/h in towns — and much of the road network beyond the ring road is gravel that narrows to single-lane bridges at blind crests. The highland F-roads are legally 4WD-only; a 2WD car on one voids your insurance, and the unbridged river fords are excluded from every standard policy. If the interior is your goal, book a real 4x4 and check opening dates on road.is, since many F-roads stay shut into late June.
The weather turns faster than anything in Britain — sun to horizontal sleet and door-ripping crosswinds within an hour. Read vedur.is and safetravel.is each morning. Speed cameras are common and a 10 km/h overrun is about ISK 10,000 (≈ €65); 112 covers all emergencies, with signal dropping out in the interior.
Confirm the rules on our Iceland driving guide, check your paperwork with the Driving Permit Checker, and estimate a penalty with the Speeding Fine Calculator.
Speed limits, fines, equipment & license requirements
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Winter tyres in Iceland — 2026–27 season
Winter tyres are required in Iceland whenever conditions are wintry — No dated winter-tyre mandate; 1 Nov - 14 Apr: 3.0 mm tread on all tyres, studs permitted; snow/ice: chains or winter-pattern tyres.
- Legal winter tread minimum: 3 mm — not the 1.6 mm figure most guides quote, which is the year-round minimum.
- Accepted marking: No marking requirement — the law sets a tread-depth minimum, not a tyre type
- Studded tyres: allowed
In Icelandic the rule is vetrardekk, and snow chains are snjókeðjur — that is the wording on signs, in hire-car paperwork and on any penalty notice.
Checked against national legislation, 19 Jun 2026 · Full Iceland tyre law · Compare all countries
Frequently Asked Questions
The right. Coming from the UK, your first hour is the danger window — roundabouts flow the other way and your instinct at junctions will be wrong. Start on quiet roads, not in Reykjavik traffic.
An IDP is recommended alongside your UK licence. It is not always checked, but some rental desks prefer it. Arrange it before you travel — you cannot get one in Iceland.
0.02 BAC, a quarter of the UK's 0.08. There is no comfortable margin — treat it as zero before driving, as fines and licence confiscation apply.