Go in summer if you want to ride, though. Ask me how I know that October will freeze your fingers off I'd 100% recommend visiting Iceland in October in general

Go in summer if you want to ride, though. Ask me how I know that October will freeze your fingers off I'd 100% recommend visiting Iceland in October in general. It's a lot less busy around attractions and the sea climate makes it not that cold (the main challenge usually is breaking the wind). Walking/driving around is absolutely no problem, and outdoors swimming is also fine because the pools are heated geothermally. Heck, glacier hiking wasn't a cold experience at all with fairly regular winter clothing (keep an optional rain layer in your backpack for the unpredictable weather though). There has been only one activity where the icey wind got the better of me despite adequate clothing (I don't know what more I could have put on, the only solution I see is electric heating or walking parts of the way to warm up). If you go, take at least a full week excluding travel days and 'cheap campervans' was by far the best deal that I found for a vehicle (seemed almost too good to be true but everything was as advertised and the people super friendly). The experience taught me a thing or two about weather at home as well. I don't like raincoat material so I never had rainproof clothes. Now it was kind of essential to prepare for that and I found there are more plasticy pants and jackets as well that are no problem. Layering and wind breaking is how one stays warm beyond staying dry. In the future I'm going to be enjoying the outdoors more during winters at home :)