When my husband and I travel outside of Iceland, we usually realize how good we have it here in Reykjavík when it comes to Parking. There’s usually plenty of street parking available in residential areas and unless you’re looking to park in the downtown area it’s mostly free. Where you do have to pay, parking is relatively inexpensive compared to most cities we’ve visited.
Now, that doesn’t stop Icelanders from complaining about parking and how expensive it is. We also think that having to drive for longer than 15-20 minutes to work is a “long commute”. I’ll just leave it at that.
In the downtown area, where most of you are probably staying, we have zoned street parking that varies in price depending on the zones. Dotted around the area we also have parking houses (car parks) that usually not full. I will say though that the parking houses in Vesturgata and at City Hall are usually pretty full so unless I’m driving downtown first thing in the morning, I don’t even try them.
Since I live close to the downtown area, I’m horrible at parallel parking and there are few things I hate more in life than parking – I usually use other forms of transportation to get downtown. I’m lucky because many of the direct bus lines stop practically right outside my house and on a good day it doesn’t take me more than 20-30 minutes to walk. However, the few times that I have some business in the downtown area that forces me to take the car, I usually don’t have to search for long for a parking space. So I actually don’t know where this hatred of parking comes from.
The only time parking downtown is a problem is when there’s something big going on and all the suburbanites flock into town to take part. We’re talking days like our Independence day and Culture Night in August. After the terrorism in Europe where big vehicles were used to drive into groups of innocent passers-by, we now usually have barricades on big days that block all traffic from the downtown area so even if you’re staying there you’ll need to park somewhere else.
Parking fines in Reykjavík are quite hefty. Icelanders, in general terms, are quite terrible at parking which may be the reason why these fines are always going up. We just park wherever we see a free space (because walking a few steps from a legitimate parking spot is also a “long commute”) and just hope no one catches us.
As someone who spends a considerate amount of time in the downtown area, I can tell you though that our parking inspectors are very efficient and they don’t hesitate to give you a Ticket. The police have also made a point of giving out tickets on big days in the hopes it will encourage people to follow the law when it comes to parking or maybe even just leave the car at home and use public transport.
So even though I’m always telling you to take local advice and do as the locals do, please don’t follow our example with this.
The parking zones
There are four parking zones in Reykjavík and the way to know which zone you are in is to look at the P-signs that are located on lamp posts close to the parking area. The basic thing to keep in mind is that the closer to Laugavegur (the main shopping street) and Lækjargata/Austurstræti you are, the likelier it is that you’re in P-zone 1.
On this map, you can see where in central Reykjavík you need to pay for parking. The different colors represent the different zones and the prices for each zone are explained below the map. Where you don’t see any color the parking is free if it’s not private.
The prices below are current as of spring 2019:
P-Zone 1 (red and pink)
Price: 370 ISK per hour Hours: Mon-Fri: 09:00-18:00 Sat: 08:00-16:00 Sun: Free
P-Zone 2
Price: 190 ISK per hour Hours: Mon-Fri: 09:00-18:00 Sat: 08:00-16:00 Sun: Free
P-Zone 3
Price: 190 ISK for 1. & 2. hour 55 ISK per hour after 2. hour Hours: Mon-Fri: 09:00-18:00 Sat: 08:00-16:00 Sun: Free
P-Zone 4
Price: 190 ISK per hour Hours: Mon-Fri: 08:00-16:00 Sat: Free Sun: Free
Tickets bought in P-zone 1 are valid in all P-zones
Tickets bought in P-zone 2 are valid in P-zones 2, 3 and 4
Tickets bought in P-zone 3 are only valid in P-zone 3
Tickets bought in P-zone 4 are only valid in P-zone 4
Parking is free on the following public holidays
New Years Day, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Monday, First day of summer, May 1st, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, June 17th (Independence day), Bank Holiday Monday in August, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
How to pay
Meters
For street parking inside of the parking zones, you will either have parking meters by the parking spot or ticket machines close by The meters are being phased out and I actually don’t remember seeing one anywhere recently. In case they are still around somewhere, you can usually only pay with bigger coins (10, 50 and 100 ISK) and they don’t accept cards.
Ticket machines
New ticket machines were recently introduced and because I use an app on my phone to park downtown I have to admit that I’ve never used one. I see perplexed tourists (and many locals for that matter) huddled in front of them all the time though so they seem to be a bit confusing.
We used to have a pay-and-display system here where you would get a ticket from the machine and put it in the window of your car which the parking inspectors then used to determine whether they should write you a ticket.
With this new system, you need to put in the license plate number into the machine (I recommend you take a photo on your phone if you are bad at remembering stuff like that) and then you just take the ticket with you and there’s no need to put it in the window anymore. The parking inspectors have a little gadget with them where they scan your license plate and get info from the system whether you’ve paid or not.
The process is simple: You just put in your license plate number, decide how long you need to park and the machine will tell you how much to pay. You can pay with coins (10, 50 and 100 ISK but no change is given) or you can pay with a credit card.
This video explains how to use the new parking ticket machines but unfortunately, it’s only available in Icelandic.
The leggja.is parking app
It’s also possible to use a parking app to park in downtown Reykjavík (this is what we do) but it’s not really suitable for tourists on short visits. If you plan to stay in Iceland for a while, it might be worth looking into though. I hope your Icelandic is good because the app and their website are only available in Icelandic.
Parking houses (Car parks)
Like I mentioned earlier in this post, in addition to street parking, downtown Reykjavík also offers multiple parking houses. These tend to not be that full (apart from City Hall and Vesturgata) and they’re close to many hotels, restaurants and any other services you might be looking for.
One thing you should keep in mind for the parking houses is that they’re usually quite small on the inside and the parking spots are tight. It’s OK if you’re used to the narrow streets of Europe but if you’re from the US where each parking spot often comes with its own yard and a swimming pool, you may find this a tad uncomfortable. They also have limited opening times (from 07:00 to 24:00 every day) so if you plan to leave the city on a road trip before 7 am, you need to find street parking.
Stjörnuport and Vitatorg are cheaper than the rest with the first hour costing 150 ISK and every hour after that 100 ISK. The rest of them cost 240 ISK for the first hour and then 120 ISK per hour. In the parking houses you drive in, find a spot and then you pay at the ticket machine before you leave.
You’ll find the locations of the city-run parking houses on the map below. There’s also a private parking house in Harpa that charges 250 ISK per hour and soon some more parking will become available in Hafnartorg (just keep in mind that soon is a relative term). You can see how many spaces are available at each one at any given moment at the official website for Reykjavík Parking. The orange number is the total number of spaces and the green one how many are free at this moment.
Parking tickets
Like I mentioned before the parking inspectors in Reykjavík are busy bees and the love to give out tickets. Below you can see what they give tickets for and how much you have to pay for each fine.
Where to pay your parking ticket
You can take the ticket to the nearest bank and pay it there. If you are a resident in Iceland and you have an Icelandic kennitala and online banking, the ticket will automatically show in your unpaid bills section. If you think you can just skip paying the ticket because you’re driving a rental car anyway it’s not quite that easy. The car rental agency can and will match the ticket with whoever had the car when the fine was issued and send you a bill for the ticket (or just charge your card, depending on the rental terms). You can be sure that if they have to spend the extra time finding out who’s ticket it is they will add an extra charge on top of the ticket (plus you are probably in the after 28 days category once it gets processed). So you might as well just pay as soon as you get the ticket.
Eco-friendly cars = no paying for parking (sometimes)
Be careful not to confuse this with the Akureyri Parking Clock that you will see in many rental cars (in particular in cars from Europcar since their headquarters are in Akureyri) as those are only valid in Akureyri are not restricted to eco-friendly cars.
Please keep in mind that this is voided if your rental car is fitted with studded tires in which case you need to pay like everyone else.
Handicap parking
If you have an official handicap tag from the EEA you can park for free in any of the parking zones in the streets. It has to be an official card and it needs to be visible in the window of your car. Parking in the parking houses is not free with a handicap tag, but you can make use of the conveniently located handicap spots.
This post first appeared on I Heart ReykjavÃk - Iceland Travel, please read the originial post: here
