A rooftop tent on a 4×4 is the simplest way for three or four people to travel Iceland in one small car. It is also the setup people have the most questions about, because very few have slept in one before. This guide answers the ones we hear most, based on the Dacia Duster with rooftop tent we rent from Keflavík Airport.
How it works
The tent lives folded flat on the roof while you drive. At the campsite you undo the straps, fold it open, pull down the ladder and it is ready – about two minutes once you have done it once. Inside is a 210 × 130 cm mattress for two with roughly 150 cm of headroom when open, so you can sit up and change. Bedding stays inside when you close it in the morning, which is the part people love: no packing a tent away wet.
Two more people sleep inside the Duster on the fold-out bed (about 190 × 100–135 cm). Everyone has their own bedroom, and by day the car seats five with the tent closed on the roof.
Wind: the real question
Iceland is windy and a rooftop tent is above the car, so this is the question to take seriously. Three things make it work in practice:
- Park with the hinge end into the wind. The tent is lowest and strongest at the hinge side; point that at the weather and the open side becomes a sheltered lee.
- Use the campsite. Icelandic campsites are usually in hollows, behind shelter belts or next to buildings. Pick a spot in the lee of a hedge or a hut, not the open field with the view.
- Check the forecast. Up to about 15 m/s the tent is fine and just noisy. If vedur.is shows gusts above 20 m/s, sleep inside the car that night – the whole point of the Duster setup is that two can always sleep inside, and four can squeeze for one night.
Never open the tent in a strong gust and never leave it open and unattended on a windy day.
Rain and cold
The tent fabric is waterproof and the mattress sits above the ground, so you stay dry in a way ground tents in Iceland rarely manage. Condensation is the normal issue: leave a vent cracked and it is fine. For temperature, a rooftop tent is like a good three-season tent – fine from May to September with a proper sleeping bag (ours are free when you book), and not something we recommend for winter. From October to April, the rooftop version still makes sense as a four-seat car for two people who sleep inside, but plan to sleep in the car.
Where you can camp
Since 2015 Iceland requires campers and tents on wheels to use registered campsites, except with the landowner’s permission. The good news is that there are around 200 campsites around the country, open from May or June to September, with many open year-round around the Ring Road. Most have a heated kitchen hut, hot showers and electricity hookups for the 220V heater. Fees are per person, typically a few thousand krónur, and you rarely need to book outside July weekends.
Setting up like a local
- Arrive before dark the first night so you can learn the tent in daylight.
- Level the car side to side; a slight nose-down slope is fine, but you will feel a sideways tilt all night.
- Put the ladder on the sheltered side and leave shoes on the ladder hooks, not in the tent.
- Close the tent before you drive to breakfast – it is a two-minute job and it protects the fabric.
- Keep the inside of the car as the dry zone for bags; the tent is for sleeping only.
F-roads with a rooftop tent
Yes, the rooftop setup is approved for the same open F-roads as our Sleep in the Back Duster. The tent adds height but not much weight, and on gravel you will not notice it. The usual rules apply: open roads only, no river crossings (water damage is never insured), and off-road driving is illegal. Our F-road guide has the details.
Is it for you?
A rooftop tent suits three or four people who want to keep one small, capable car and spend the evenings outside or in the campsite hut. It is not a motorhome, and in the worst weather you will spend an evening lying down with a book. In exchange you get the Westfjords, the highlands and the small campsites that larger vehicles cannot reach – in a car that is cheaper to rent and run than any van that sleeps four.
See prices and availability for your dates on the Dacia Duster camper page. Pickup is self-service, three minutes from Keflavík Airport by free shuttle.
