Iceland is a motorcycle destination that I have talked about doing for a number of years, but whenever I looked into trying to organize a trip over there I could never seem to find a local company that would rent a motor bike out to me for a few weeks. Anyone who had done a motorcycle trip to Iceland seemed to have come over by ferry boat from one of the Scandinavia countries with their own vehicles.

For North Americans, this did not leave us with many options except to air freight (very expensive) a bike over to the island. Also anyone familiar with Iceland previous to their economic meltdown knows that Iceland was a really really expensive place to visit.

Times have changed, in the last few years a number of companies have sprung up offering to hire out motorcycles to the mass of tourists who can now afford to visit Iceland.

The company that I contacted for planning my trip over to Iceland was
Ridingiceland (Riding Iceland :: Home) The owner of the company Haddi
had a number of bikes for hire, from Kawasaki KLR650, Suzuki VStrom 650
as well as some recent Yamaha XT 660. After some discussion on what would be a suitable bike for my ride around Iceland, I eventually settled on a Suzuki VStrom outfitted with some dual purpose tires. (I will discuss later in my ride report on whether or not this was the right choice or not for the trip)

I had originally planned on doing this trip with a brother or mine who is also afflicted with the motorcycle bug but a few weeks before we were to leave on the trip he came down with some health issues, so my journey to Iceland would be a solo effort.

From other ride reports I had read about touring in Iceland, I learned that there was a road that went around the circumference of the country - The Ring Road. Most of it is paved or hard surfaced gravel. There are a series of roads that cross into the interior of the country but these are dirt and graveled roads, with water crossings and other hazards more suited for more serious off road bikes and riders.

The Journey begins

I would be flying from Ottawa Canada to Reykjavik Iceland.
Icelandair has daily flights out of Halifax. My flight itinerary for this trip would be

Air Canada - Ottawa to Halifax
Halifax to Reykjavik Iceland (Keflavik International Airport)

The flight to Iceland from Halifax Nova Scotia is an overnight flight
The flight leaves Halifax at 10:00 Maritime time and arrives into Reykavik
at 5:15 the next morning. (Flying time 4:15)

The Icelandair flight over to Iceland was aboard a cramped Boeing 757.
I am not sure if there was some kind of Icelandic youth group affair going on, because the plane was full of Icelandic teenagers on their way back home to Iceland. Contrary to my fears about being on a plane with 150 teenagers, it turned out to be a very quiet flight over to Iceland.

As our flight departure had been delayed 30 - 40 minutes we did not arrive to Reykjavik until 5:45 that morning.

The main international airport in Iceland is not in Reykjavik but in the town of Keflavik some 35 - 40 km west of the capital city of Reykjavik

The main terminal is called Leifur Eir�*ksson Air Terminal

The Keflavikairport only services international routes. There is another local airport in Reykjavik that provides domestic service to Greenland, Faroe Islands and other points in Iceland.

As we were the only flight arriving that early in the morning, claiming my baggage and getting through customs and immigration was pretty much just a walked through and getting your passport stamped.

Geting ready to land in Iceland - Wing tip of Boeing 757 Icelandair



Leifur Eir�*ksson Air Terminal - Display model of Viking boat



Following the crowd to baggage claim area




Hoping that all my motorcycle gear came over on plane