Icelandic Road Signs and What They Mean

Most Icelandic road signs are the standard European pictograms. The ones that are not are text, in Icelandic only, and several of them warn about things a visiting driver has never met before. These are the words worth knowing before you collect the car, not after.

• Einbreið brú - single-lane bridge. Very common on the Ring Road, including on fast open stretches. The vehicle nearer the bridge has priority; slow early and be ready to stop.
• Blindhæð - blind rise. The road crests and you cannot see oncoming traffic. Keep right and slow down; some of these are also single-lane.
• Malbik endar - asphalt ends. Gravel begins, often abruptly. Braking hard on the transition is how rental cars end up in ditches.
• Lausamöl - loose gravel.
• Varúð - caution, usually with a second word explaining what kind.
• Ófært - impassable. Lokað - closed. Both mean turn around; neither is advisory.

• Vegur road, gata street, brú bridge, vegamót junction
• Hringvegur the Ring Road, route 1
• Hálka ice on the road; snjór snow
• Vind or vindhviður wind gusts - taken seriously here, because car doors are torn off by them
• Akstur bannaður driving prohibited; utan vega off-road, which is illegal everywhere

A road number beginning with F - F208, F35 - is a highland track. They legally require four-wheel drive, are closed for most of the year, and often include unbridged river crossings that no standard rental insurance covers. Driving a 2WD on an F-road voids the contract.

Our F-roads and the highlands guide covers which ones open when, and what the river crossings actually involve.

The number tells you what kind of road it is before you turn onto it:

• 1 - the Ring Road, paved the whole way round and the only road with a single digit.
• Two digits (35, 54) - primary roads, usually paved, occasionally not.
• Three digits (574, 939) - secondary. Often gravel, sometimes steep, generally fine in a 2WD in summer.
• F-prefix (F208, F35) - highland tracks. 4x4 required by law, closed most of the year, unbridged rivers.

A road being on the map says nothing about it being open. Closures are seasonal, sudden, and enforced.

Three numbers cover almost everything: 50 in towns, 80 on gravel, 90 on paved rural roads. The drop from 90 to 80 at a gravel transition is not advisory - loose surface at 90 in a high-sided rental is how most single-vehicle accidents here happen.

Speed cameras are fixed and signed. Fines are large and are charged to the rental agreement.

Einbreið brú deserves its own paragraph because it appears on fast, empty, straight sections of the Ring Road where nothing suggests you should slow down.

The convention is that whoever is closer goes first. In practice: lift off early, judge the gap, and if it is close, stop before the bridge rather than meeting someone on it. There are passing bays on the longer ones. Locals will flash headlights to say they are coming through.

• Bensín petrol, dísel diesel - putting the wrong one in is not covered
• Sjálfsafgreiðsla self-service; most rural pumps are unmanned and need a PIN-enabled card
• Gjald or gjaldskylda - a charge applies. Several popular sites now charge for parking
• Bílastæði car park, inngangur entrance, salerni toilets

Two sites are the authority and both are in English: vegagerdin.is for road conditions and closures, updated continuously, and safetravel.is for weather alerts and trip registration. In winter, checking these is not optional - see the Ring Road in winter.

For how the words are pronounced, and why ð and þ appear mid-name so often, see the Icelandic alphabet. For what the place names on the signs actually mean, see reading Icelandic place names. General driving practicalities are on getting around Iceland.