Renting cars in Iceland can be a real bank breaker – even now with the weak krona. And the roads are often unsuitable for taking more than one person in a tiny hatchback. There are times one just needs something a wee bit bigger. Personally, I’ve never been able to afford that luxury until now.
As it turns out I have some pretty clever friends – for that read friends with burglar alarms on their wallets – who always know where the best deals are to be had. These people have actually had me waiting out on the dockside at six in the morning waiting to “save money on fish”. It’s sensible practice of course, but still it takes a special type of person.
This time round there was no waiting at the docks, but the savings were still substantial. Reykjavik Rent a Car is a small Iceland car rental company which I would probably never have heard about on my own.
Reykjavik Rent a Car offers new “we mean business” 4x4s at a price lower than many of their bigger rivals offer a Volkswagen Polo. As if that weren’t enough, they also turned out to be genuinely decent people with whom it was a pleasure to do business.
My sister was visiting Iceland from Brazil, where she works with Amazon River Dolphins in some conservation programme. Not a lot of snow in Brazil. So having secured the car for a few days, it was time to put it through its paces.
My sister is crazy about skiing, you see, and she was climbing the walls with excitement about coming over here and trying out the Blafjoll ski slopes near Reykjavik. But the Icelandic weather rarely plays ball, and had decided that we were not to be blessed with snow.
That was where Reykjavik Rent a Car entered the picture: we made the decision to drive around Iceland to the far north-western town of Isafjordur – a place where the snowy mountains demand to be noticed almost as much as Bjork wearing a swan and screaming “It’s oh so quiet!” at the top of her voice. We were sure there would be snow on the slopes up there.
Iceland’s Westfjords are a memorable driving experience in the winter, to say the least. The gravel roads are generally covered in a thick layer of ice as they navigate hairpin turns and sheer cliff drops. The views are spectacular and a confident driver in a trustworthy vehicle can really have a LOT of fun. Anybody else would surely suffer some sort of panic attack.
That this story has dwelled upon the journey so heavily is perhaps indicative of my personal lack of love for skiing – but we did find plenty of snow and my sister did get her fill of the piste before heading back to the sweaty tropics. Mission accomplished – thanks to Reykjavik Rent a Car.
For more information or to book a low price rental car in Iceland, visit www.reykjavikrentacar.is
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Reykjavik Rent a Car has been very popular these days especially in foreign places wherein people prefer renting a car than buying ones.