Sólheimasandur DC-3 wreck: walk or shuttle

The DC-3 on Sólheimasandur is a US Navy cargo plane that came down on the sand in November 1973 on a flight from Höfn to Keflavík, by the shuttle operator's account. What is left is a fuselage on a plain of black outwash, 4 km from the car park on Route 1. Getting there is the whole decision: a flat walk of close to two hours there and back, or a shuttle that does the trip in an hour. It suits anyone on the South Coast who likes a strange object in a big space. It does not suit someone short of daylight in December, and the walk does not suit a day of hard wind or sleet.

The figures, read today. Parka's page for the car park gives 750 ISK for a car of up to five seats, 1,000 ISK for six to eight, 1,800 ISK for a minibus of 10 to 18, and 300 ISK for a motorcycle, valid for the day from midnight; an unpaid stay draws a 1,960 ISK surcharge after 24 hours, and overnight stays are prohibited (2026-11-01). Icelandia's shuttle page names the activity provider as Icelandic Mountain Guides by Icelandia and lists the fare as 3,400 ISK (2026-11-01). It runs all year, seven days a week from 10:00, with the last departure at 17:00 depending on daylight, 10–15 minutes each way, about an hour in total; tickets online or on the bus. The operator puts the car park 6 km east of Skógar and 27 km west of Vík, and gives the walk as close to two hours return.

#The arithmetic

On the Keflavík–Vík day of the seven-day and ten-day Ring Road journeys, and day 3 of the five-day South Coast and Golden Circle, the car park is on the road between Skógafoss and Vík; by OSRM on OpenStreetMap the stop adds under two minutes of driving. By shuttle the stop costs about 90 minutes: an hour for the shuttle, 15 to park and buy a ticket, a 15-minute buffer for a departure. On foot it costs about 150 minutes: the operator's two hours, 15 at the wreck, 15 for the car park. From a Vík bed it is 25 km and 22 minutes each way by OSRM, so the shuttle visit is about 135 minutes as a separate outing.

#What goes wrong

Weather on open ground: the walk is 4 km of featureless sand each way, with no shelter and nothing to steer by in fog or blowing sand. Safetravel's hiking page, read today, asks short-walk hikers to carry a phone, hat, gloves and windproof outer layers and to leave a note in the car with their route and return time; that advice fits this walk exactly. Light: from November to February the operator's last shuttle depends on daylight, and a walker who sets off late comes back in the dark. Cancellations: the operator lists flexible cancellation on its page but gives no terms there; read them at checkout.

#Alternatives on the same road

Six kilometres west, Skógafoss and the first hour of Fimmvörðuháls is the climb. Three kilometres west, the Sólheimajökull glacier walk is the guided ice. In Vík, the Reynisfjara beach walk is the other black sand, with surf.