Don't listen to any scare stories about hiring a car in Iceland. The roads are extremely well-maintained and even in the depths of winter the golden circle route is an easy drive. We went in January and hired a car for £60 from National - a coach trip of the same route would have cost £80 per person.

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There are many different tour operators offering coach journeys to visit one, more or all of the major geographical tourist attractions reached within a day's drive of Reykjavik - Gulfoss Falls, Geyser, the unpronounceable place where the European and American tectonic plates meet and so on.

Instead, hire a car from one of many agencies in the city, which will be promptly delivered to your hotel, and make your own tour instead. It's cheaper, and much more exciting, particularly if you head off early in the morning. Ten minutes from the city centre and it's hard to see any evidence of human life at all save the road, and you can appreciate the majesty of the landscape that much more.

Átak Car Rental
Smidjuvegur 1
IS-200 Kopavogur
Iceland;
tel: 354 554 6040;
fax: 354 554 6081

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If you're on a budget then don't worry about getting a 4x4 - you can still get well off the beaten track in a normal car. The Yaris we hired was fine for driving on the non-tarmac roads (though I'm glad it wasn't my suspension taking that abuse) - we followed some routes suggested by a guidebook and saw some amazing scenery that you'd miss if you only used coach tours. Be sensible though, take a mobile and check the spare tyre as I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to get a puncture, and we sometimes drove for hundreds of kms without seeing a single living thing!

Avis was cheapest when we went in late September, from the airport.

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