There is a version of Iceland that lives on travel blogs: emerald valleys, a lone hiker on a ridge in a light jacket, waterfalls under a midnight sun. It is real, and it is wonderful. It also does not exist in March. What exists in March is a low, silver light, black-and-white coastlines, and a wind that turns a short walk to a waterfall into a genuine physical effort. We loved it. But we loved it because we went in knowing what it was, and plenty of visitors do not. So before you book, here is what hiking in Iceland in March is actually like.

On the south coast, where we were, daytime temperatures mostly sat between about -2 and 3 C (28 to 37 F). That sounds mild, and on a still day it is. But still days are rare. The wind is nearly constant, and it turns a pleasant reading on the thermometer into something that bites through anything not properly windproof. We had snow, rain, and sudden sun within the same hour more than once, which is entirely normal here. Inland and up high it is far colder, with the Highlands sitting well below -10 C (14 F) and storms adding snow by the metre. If you take one thing from this report, let it be that in Iceland in March you dress for and plan around the wind first, and the temperature second.

The main roads do the heavy lifting in March. The Ring Road, the Golden Circle, and the South Coast route are usually kept open and cleared, though storms can close sections temporarily and without much warning. What is firmly closed is the entire Highland interior: every F-road stays shut until summer, typically not reopening until June or July, because of deep snow and ice. That closure is what rules out the famous treks. Laugavegur, Fimmvorduhals, and the other classic multi-day hut routes are summer-only, and in March they are buried and inaccessible. If a Highland hut trek is your dream, that is a July-to-September trip, and our guides to the best first hut-to-hut hikes and one-week circuits cover Laugavegur for when you go back in the right season.