The first thing we have to say: don’t plan on doing this! Iceland has plenty of beautiful hiking areas, and you should stick to those for your adventure. Many do choose to bike-pack around Iceland, but walking the ring road would be dangerous, with cars blasting past you on narrow mountain passes – not so much fun!
Route 1, the road that runs along Iceland’s coast and connects most major towns, is approximately 1,300 km, or about 800 miles long. Of course, many visitors to Iceland choose to do the ring road in a car. If you’re in a real rush, you could do it in two days (but that wouldn’t be much fun). Realistically, most people doing the ring road will want to spend anywhere from three days up to a week on the trip.
For walkers, assuming an optimistic pace of 20 miles per day (2 miles per hour, over the course of 10 hours. Not easy, but doable on a paved road), you could potentially complete this journey in a bit more than a month.
An interesting side note is the story of one Reynir Pétur Ingvarsson, sometimes referred to as Iceland’s Forrest Gump. In 1985, he walked around the entire island to raise money for Sólheimar eco village. For the record, he completed his walk in 32 days. So, it is possible, but we would not recommend it for your next vacation!
