Useful Travel Tips for Visiting Iceland with a Toddler

Iceland is known for its magical landscapes and outdoor adventures. And luckily, many of these sights are accessible with short hikes that are totally doable with a toddler or preschooler! However, we learned the hard way that being out in nature all day with a toddler or preschooler can be unpredictable. From choosing hikes he could handle to planning around snack breaks and sleep, we picked up a few lessons along the way to make our trip easier. Follow these practical travel tips for visiting Iceland with a toddler to help you see more, plan smarter, and hopefully avoid a few meltdowns along the way for your own Iceland trip!

Have Your Own Wheels

Some of the most stunning landscapes that we saw in Iceland are ones that the tour buses don’t take you to. With our own rental car, we could spend as much or as little time at each stop as we wanted. Parents know that traveling with a toddler or preschooler rarely goes according to plan. Between unexpected potty breaks, slow mornings, and surprise car naps, having our own car meant we could follow our own schedule and still see everything we wanted to see without stressing about keeping up with a tour.

We rented a regular car for our trip, although camper vans are another popular option. Just make sure you choose a vehicle that matches the adventures in your itinerary. Since we weren’t driving the entire Ring Road, a regular car worked fine for us. The Ring Road is mostly well paved, and overall an easy drive. But a 4×4 would have made us feel more comfortable on the few gravel roads we encountered.

Prepare Car Activities

Most sightseeing in Iceland involves a lot of time in the car. The speed limit is lower than what we’re used to in the United States, and distances are longer than they look on a map. So trips take longer than you would expect. To avoid an endless stream of “are we there yet?” we made sure to prepare some car activities for our kiddo.

• Snacks: a guaranteed hit with our kid. Look for supermarkets like Bonus, Netto, and Kronan along the way to stock up on snacks. Gas stations are another great place to find snacks on the go, though the supermarkets will be cheaper. This snackle box is so good because it’s stainless steel and it has separate compartments if you just want to take out an individual container. It might be a little bulky to take on an international trip, but it would be good for the plane ride too.
• Sticker Books and Activity Books: this sticker book was clearly designed by a parent because the sticker page is right next to the page that you stick the stickers on. So you don’t need to keep flipping pages back and forth. Genius! It keeps our kid entertained for quite a while. Now that our kid is a preschooler, we’ve found he is actually more engaged with activity books that challenge him a little more. These ones are great for the car.
• Fidget Toys: when our kid was a younger toddler, pushing all the buttons on this busy board kept him entertained.
• Magnetic blocks: these construction magnetic blocks are fun for older toddlers or preschoolers. Just beware that it may involve some picking them up from the floor if the car goes over a bump. These travel magnatiles with a tin box are great too.
• Phone holder: sometimes screens are the easiest answer. This phone holder clips on to anything and saved my arm from having to hold the phone up in front of my kid’s face for hours. It’s great for airplanes too!
• Toniebox: some of our friends say the Toniebox works really well for screen-free entertainment. We’re not that strict about screens while on vacation so have yet to try this. But it sounds like a great option to avoid having to make up stories yourself!
• I Spy: now that our kid is older, I Spy is one of his favorite car games.

Always Have Snacks

We spent a lot of time out of the house in nature on this trip, which is kind of the point in Iceland. But that also meant our mealtimes were less predictable than they are at home. And our kid was doing a lot more hiking and walking than usual. We always had a backpack full of snacks ready to go for a mid hike break, or to stave off the hangry kid until we could stop for lunch. Although there are food stands at the major stops, they are pretty expensive. Save yourself some money and pack your own snacks!

Stock up on snacks at grocery stores like Kronan, Bonus, and Netto. I was pleasantly surprised by how healthy the food in Iceland was compared to the US. Even the snacks seemed healthier! Case in point: we only found plain Goldfish crackers instead of the neon-orange cheese ones we usually get at home. We also discovered that peanut butter is much less sweet than what we’re used to. Which unfortunately meant our kid rejected the peanut butter sandwiches I had planned as my easy backup lunch. Thankfully, Skyr yogurt pouches were a big hit!

Pack Waterproof Everything

Even in the summer, there can be quite a bit of rain in Iceland. Rather than letting that ruin our itinerary, we just made sure to pack waterproof layers for jackets, pants, and boots so that we could stay outdoors regardless. Another reason for waterproof clothing is that you can get quite close to some waterfalls and get pretty wet from the spray.

Pack One Day Worth of Clothes in Your Carry On

You only have to deal with delayed luggage once to appreciate the value of packing a full day of clothes in your carry-on. I started doing this after our first experience with delayed bags, which left us scrambling to buy clothes and essentials at the airport. This is especially important when traveling with kids, since finding children’s clothing and necessities abroad isn’t always easy. And you don’t want to spend your first day of vacation shopping for things you already packed!

Because flights to Iceland are not that frequent, it seems delayed bags are common if you have a tight connection. Our checked bags missed the connecting flight and were delayed by a day. Thankfully, we had a day’s worth of clothes in our carry-ons. So we could stick to our itinerary as planned.

If your luggage is delayed, file a claim with the airline right away. Airlines usually have a policy to reimburse you for reasonable necessities. Some premium travel credit cards, like Chase Sapphire and Capital One Venture X, may offer additional baggage-delay coverage (contact me for a referral for extra bonus points!). It takes a little paperwork and persistence. But I think it’s worth it to get reimbursed for expenses you didn’t need to make!

Don’t Overpack Your Days

There is a LOT to see in Iceland. It can be tempting to cram everything you see on social media into one day. But don’t underestimate the drive times! The Ring Road is basically a highway with one lane in each direction, and the highest speed limit is 90 km/h (about 55 mph). So while distances may not look that far, getting from place to place can take longer than you expect.

You want to leave enough time to actually enjoy each destination. Some waterfalls are easy stops right from the parking lot, but others require a 30–45 minute hike each way (more on that next). And parents know that walking with toddlers means plenty of detours and delays to look at rocks or whatever else catches their eye. I planned a couple of must-dos each day, with a few optional stops if we had time. Unsurprisingly, we never actually made it to any of the optional ones.

Include Kid Downtime Activities

With so much to see in a short time, it’s easy to try to fill every day with hikes and sightseeing. But kids (especially jetlagged kids) still need some downtime to regulate. We always try to build in rest afternoons in our itinerary. That can look like stopping at a local playground or park for the afternoon. In Iceland, it could be visiting a local pool. Or just staying in our accommodations for some play time. We’ve learned that trying to maximize while traveling with a toddler isn’t worth it. Slowing down and doing a little less actually makes the trip more enjoyable and helps prevent meltdowns.

Look Up Hike Distances and Difficulty

It’s easy to see all the stunning Iceland photos on social media and add every spot to your itinerary. What those photos don’t show you is how long, or difficult, the hike was to get there. Unless your kid is small enough to carry (and you don’t mind carrying them the entire way), there are some hikes that just aren’t worth tackling with a toddler.

I naively assumed all the popular waterfalls would be an easy walk from the parking lot. It wasn’t until we found the path to Svartifoss. Saw the sign saying the waterfall was 45 minutes away. Then realized the trail was climbing steeply uphill that I thought, maybe I should have researched this a little better!

Our preschooler is now too big to carry, and we didn’t bring a hiking carrier. Luckily, he was excited about his first real hiking adventure and made it to Svartifoss and back on his own two legs. But it was definitely a wake-up call to look up the length and difficulty of every other waterfall hike on our trip before we set off.

Plan B If Your Kid Won’t Walk

If you want to see Iceland’s incredible natural beauty, be prepared for a lot of walking. But unfortunately, most of it won’t be stroller-friendly. If your child doesn’t have the stamina for longer hikes or walking around downtown Reykjavik, do yourself a favor and bring a carrier. A hiking carrier is ideal for stability. But when our kid was smaller, we loved our hip seat carrier with straps because it was smaller to pack. The hip seat made longer walks comfortable for him, while the straps gave us the option to wear it on the front or back for extra stability on hikes.

Plan Potty Breaks

Unlike in the US where there are gas stations and rest stops every couple mile on the highway, you can go for long stretches on the Ring Road without seeing any places to stop. And even if you bring your portable potty (which we did), there isn’t anywhere to pull off on the side of the road to actually use it. Luckily, almost every waterfall we went to had a bathroom (some free, some paid). We just had to convince our kid to actually use it before he needed it.

• I downloaded the Krapp app on a whim. It’s an app that maps out where all the public restrooms are near you in Iceland. And lets you know if they’re open, and whether they’re free or paid. Most of the popular stops do have a bathroom. But we did use the app once and it was helpful in finding a paid bathroom nearby. I imagine it would be more helpful in the eastern side of the Ring Road.

Book Accommodations Early

I was shocked at how quickly accommodations book up in Iceland. Most visitors come during the short summer season, so demand can be greater than availability. Especially in smaller towns like Vik, reasonably priced places can book up fast. I’d even recommend booking your accommodations before your flights, particularly in Vik, so you know you’ll have somewhere to stay. I started looking in March for a late July trip, and almost everything in Vik was already booked. We only managed to snag our amazing cottage just outside Vik because of a last-minute cancellation.

Another tip is to book a hotel or guesthouse with a front desk for your first few nights in Iceland. This is especially helpful in case your luggage gets delayed. Our checked luggage missed our connecting flight. But because we had a front desk, the airline was able to deliver our bags there while we went sightseeing the next day. When we returned to our cottage, our luggage was waiting for us. And we didn’t have to cancel any of our sightseeing plans!

We overheard another passenger on our flight who had rented a campervan and had to basically cancel the first few days of her trip because there was nowhere to have her delayed luggage delivered. The same could happen with an Airbnb, where you may need to stay put and wait for your bags.

• See our recommendations for family-friendly accommodations in Vik and Reykjavik here. Almost all of these recommendations have kitchenettes, which is helpful because eating out can get expensive in Iceland!

Rent Accommodations with Kitchens

In case you haven’t heard, Iceland is expensive. Like $30 for a burger expensive. Coming from the Bay Area, I thought we were pretty used to paying a premium for eating out. But even I had sticker shock when I converted the price of our first restaurant bill. Staying somewhere with a kitchen is an easy way to cut down on food costs. We usually made breakfast at our accommodations and sometimes packed a picnic lunch too.

Another bonus is that accommodations with kitchens often come with a little more space. This is especially helpful when traveling with kids. Having room to spread out and wind down at the end of the day makes it feel more like a home away from home. Some of our favorite moments in Iceland were actually the simplest ones – sitting outside on the porch as a family, taking in the scenery and munching on snacks.

Don’t Completely Adjust to the Time

Because of the really long daylight hours in Iceland during the summer, you could potentially get away with not completely adjusting to the time zone. Most of Iceland’s sights are in nature, so you can explore them whenever you want without worrying about opening hours. The parking lots for most sights are open 24 hours. So you could visit at off peak hours to avoid the crowds.

Usually we try to have our kid in bed by 8-9pm at home. But in Iceland, we were regularly eating dinner at 9-10pm and going to bed at midnight. This meant we had a later start and end to our days, but surprisingly this worked in our favor because we seemed to miss all the tour buses. With daylight lasting so long, we barely knew what time it was anyway! The only catch was making sure we ate before the restaurants closed.

Flexible Nap and Bedtime Schedules

We visited Iceland during the summer, during the long daylight hours. I initially worried that all that daylight would make sleeping difficult. Instead, it ended up being one of our favorite things about summer in Iceland. We could sleep in, start our days later, and still have plenty of daylight for sightseeing. I usually try to regulate sleep schedules more at home for our kid. But in Iceland, we skipped our usual nap and bedtime schedule and let our kid nap in the car whenever he got tired. (Car naps were also great for the long drives! Less entertainment for mom to provide.) And we’d all go to bed around 11 pm or midnight when it finally started getting dark. Then we woke up naturally, usually around 8–9 am. It made our sightseeing schedule feel much more relaxed.

Plan Ahead for Lunch and Dinner

When you’re out in nature all day with a kid, keeping them fed is key to avoiding a hangry meltdown. Luckily, we found plenty of tasty food trucks at popular stops. And Iceland’s gas stations are surprisingly good places to grab a quick meal or snack. Packing a picnic lunch is another easy option. Whatever you choose, just make sure you build mealtimes into your itinerary.

Timing dinner requires a little more planning, too. Because we stayed out sightseeing much later than we normally would, we often didn’t eat dinner until after 8 pm. Since many restaurants close around 9–10 pm, we had to keep an eye on the time and allow enough time to drive back to town before the kitchen closed. This is less of an issue if you’re cooking at your accommodation. But after a full day of sightseeing, the last thing I wanted to do was make dinner. So dinner was the one meal we consistently ate out – and definitely one we planned our days around.