Iceland does not have a passenger rail network that Visit Iceland offers as a way to get around. Its getting-around pages say the choices are roads, buses, ferries, and domestic flights. Keflavík is where most international flights land. It is not where the domestic network starts.
Buses
In Reykjavík, Strætó city buses are yellow and marked with an S. The same operator, Visit Iceland says, reaches nearly every town and village on the Ring Road and into the Westfjords. Rides longer than about two hours should usually be booked ahead on straeto.is, because a trip may be cancelled if nobody has reserved. Towns within about an hour of Reykjavík, the article says, including Keflavík, are the exception it groups with shorter rides. The seven-hour bus from Reykjavík to Akureyri is described as departing twice on summer weekdays. Route 55, the airport bus, is a different product with its own fare table. That table is on the transport page, taken from Strætó’s own airport page, not from this paragraph.
Domestic flights
Visit Iceland says it is easy to reach another part of the country from Reykjavík Domestic Airport. It says Icelandair flies daily to Akureyri, Egilsstaðir, and Ísafjörður; Eagle Air several times a week to Höfn and to Vestmannaeyjar (Heimaey); and Norlandair twice a week to Bíldudalur, Gjögur on Strandir, and Grímsey. Domestic flights, it says, have no security gates. The flight to Akureyri is around 45 minutes, and that airport was described as being expanded. The domestic airport is an hour’s drive from Keflavík. An older Isavia page about connections was not the source used here, because this guide is following the Visit Iceland article that was actually read. Airlines change schedules. Treat the list as that article’s description.
Akureyri also has seasonal international flights of its own. Visit Iceland’s “how to get there” article says so, including direct flights from London and Manchester in season. That is a second international door, not a reason to skip KEF if your ticket says KEF.
Ferry and the sea
The practical-information page says the car ferry Norröna sails weekly between Denmark and Seyðisfjörður in the east, which is how a visitor brings a vehicle without flying it. A related description adds a stop in the Faroe Islands. Hornstrandir, in the Westfjords, is the place Visit Iceland says you reach only by boat. Those are two different boats and two different plans.
Cycling and walking exist. The airport has a path toward Reykjanesbær. The Ring Road is a highway, not a bike path this guide will pretend to have measured. If you are not driving, a guided bus is the option Visit Iceland names alongside public buses. This site does not sell either one.
Sources
- Visit Iceland, Getting around
- Visit Iceland, Getting around overview
- Visit Iceland, How to get to Iceland
- Visit Iceland, Practical information
- Strætó, route 55
- Visit Iceland, The Westfjords