Planning an Iceland trip and don't know where to start?
Six questions, in the order they matter: when, how long, who with, budget, car or tours, where to sleep. We point you to the answer for each one.
Is My Road Open? Live Iceland Road Conditions Today
Check an exact road or mountain pass
This page opens Vegagerðin's own road report without the Icelandic road vocabulary. It tells you what the road authority says. It does not decide whether you should drive.
Not sure what this means for your vehicle? Check Can I Drive Today. That tool takes your car, your confidence and today's wind, and gives you a Go, Caution or Not today with a better time window.
We display Vegagerðin's official status and add a separate Fylgja explanation. The official wording is theirs. The plain English reading beside it is ours, and it is an interpretation, so road.is is always the source to confirm before you leave. Open road.is
What Icelandic road status words actually mean
Vegagerðin uses a fixed vocabulary on road.is. Translated into plain English, and into what a resident would actually do.
Easily passable (greiðfært)
Bare, dry or wet road. Normal driving. This is the only status that means a road is genuinely clear.
Slippery (hálka) and slippery patches (hálkublettir)
Ice on all or part of the surface. Common from October to April, including in Reykjavík. Drop your speed well below the limit and leave a long gap. Studded tyres help, they do not remove the problem.
Snow covered (snjóþekja) and wet snow (bleyta og snjór)
Compacted or fresh snow on the road. Whether a normal car copes depends on the tyres, the wind, the visibility, how steep the road is and how used to snow the driver is. Lane markings disappear and stopping takes far longer than on a dry road, sometimes many times longer on ice. If you are not confident, this is a day to wait.
Difficult driving (þungfært)
Deep or drifting snow. Realistically a 4x4 situation. If your plan can move, move it.
Impassable (ófært) and closed (lokað)
Do not drive it. Closed means barriers. Driving beyond a closure may breach your rental agreement and puts you and any rescue team at risk, and you may be billed for a call out.
Mountain vehicles only (fjallabílar)
Specialist vehicles only. This does not mean continue carefully. Do not enter in a normal rental car. High clearance 4x4 with an experienced driver, and check your rental conditions. Most highland F roads carry this status all season.
Wind warning (vindur) and spot wind
Gusts strong enough to move vehicles. Campers, vans and towed trailers should treat this as a stop sign even when the road itself is open.
Which Iceland roads close first, region by region
Closures are rarely random. The same handful of passes and exposed stretches go first, every year. Search any of these names in the box above for the live status.
South Coast
Route 1 between Hvolsvöllur and Kirkjubæjarklaustur. Wind and sand rather than snow. The section past Skógar and Vík is the most exposed stretch of Ring Road most visitors ever drive.
East Iceland
Öxi (939), Breiðdalsheiði (95) and Fjarðarheiði above Seyðisfjörður. Fjarðarheiði closes often and it is the only road to the ferry town, so allow slack if you have a ferry or a flight.
North and northwest
Holtavörðuheiði on Route 1, Öxnadalsheiði into Akureyri, Möðrudalsöræfi in the northeast highland stretch, and Víkurskarð when the tunnel is not used.
Westfjords
Steingrímsfjarðarheiði, Dynjandisheiði, Hrafnseyrarheiði and Klettsháls. Several are closed or served only by scheduled clearing through winter. This is the region where a closure changes the whole day.
Snæfellsnes
Fróðárheiði first, Vatnaleið second. Útnesvegur around the tip of the peninsula is exposed to wind off the sea.
Highlands
All F roads plus Kaldidalur (550) and Kjölur (35 highland section). Closed from roughly September or October until late June. Opening dates are announced by Vegagerðin each spring and vary by several weeks year to year.
Reykjavík area
Hellisheiði on Route 1 towards Selfoss and Þrengsli as the alternative, plus Mosfellsheiði on the way to Þingvellir. The usual Golden Circle approach from Reykjavík goes over Mosfellsheiði to Þingvellir, so a Hellisheiði closure does not automatically cancel it, but it does close the southern way home through Hveragerði. Check both.
When the road feed updates, and what that means for your morning
Vegagerðin staff update conditions during staffed daytime hours, which are longer in winter than in summer. Overnight the map still shows the last human assessment, so a status at 05:00 in January may be several hours old. This matters if you are leaving early for a flight or a tour pickup.
A road with no listed segment is not the same as a clear road. Only monitored named segments appear in the feed. Small local roads, hotel access tracks and car parks are never in it.
Closures can happen within minutes when a storm arrives. The honest routine is: check the night before to plan, check again just before you turn the key, and if the two disagree, believe the later one. Pair this with the wind check, because a road can be officially open and still be a bad idea in a camper.
The three checks, in this order
- 1. vedur.is for the weather and any warnings.
- 2. road.is for road status and closures.
- 3. Can I drive today? which reads both feeds for your exact spot and answers in one line: Go, Caution, or Not today.
You might also need
Can I drive today?
The live wind for your destination, translated into a plain verdict.
Driving in Iceland
Wind, gravel, single-lane bridges and the full first-timer guide.
Weather in Iceland
Why the forecast keeps changing and how reliable it really is.
Transport and taxis
Tours, Hopp taxi and other ways to skip the drive on a bad day.
Road data © Vegagerðin (Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration). Check the wind too