In October of 2019, I visited the Faroe Islands and rented a car from Arctic Rental Cars. Back then, the company was RentalCars.fo, but they changed it within the last few months. I think this is a smart move, since the old name is easy to confuse and hard to find.
I rented from Arctic after comparing prices with other companies in the Faroe Islands. I had a good experience, and I am happy to recommend Arctic. The car was clean, new, and worked well. And Arctic’s customer service was responsive.
There are a few quirks you should be aware of, though. Let’s dig in!
Picking up your rental car at Vagar Airport
There’s only one airport in the Faroe Islands, and you’ll be here at Vagar Airport picking up your car. Arctic now has an office in the airport, but the primary way to get your car is to skip the office and go find your car. Here’s a map of your walk from the airport terminal to where you’ll find your car:
Follow the green line from the airport terminal to where you’ll find you car waiting. It’s about a 500 meter walk. Here’s the parking lot you’re heading to:
GPS coordinates of the pickup parking lot: 62.0699, -7.282. (That should work on Google Maps or most other mapping programs.) You head out of the airport, follow the road to the left until it hits the main road, turn left, and walk until you see the area above.
There’s no need to stop at their airport office– leave the airport and start walking. Arctic will send you an e-mail with a link to your contract; that contract will include the license plate of your car. Note that the car you’ve been assigned might change; I recommend you check once you’re in the Vagar airport.
The keys will be in the car; hop in and drive away. When you return the car, just reverse the steps: leave the car in the parking lot and walk back to the airport. (Leave the keys in the car!)
Arctic Car Rental price and deposit
It’s a little odd to pick up and drop off your rental car without ever talking to anyone. But the process worked fine, and I admit it was much nicer (and faster) than standing in a line!
A major benefit of Arctic, at least in my experience, is that the price is the lowest out there. (See some price comparisons in my post about car rental prices in the Faroe Islands.) I’m not positive that this is related to the self-service process, but it seems like a good guess? I saved about 1000 DKK for my 6 day rental by choosing Arctic over the next cheapest option for an automatic transmission car.
You do have to pay a deposit, which may be another way Arctic keeps prices low? Other rental car companies in the Faroe Islands also charge deposits, but many do not. Arctic charges a 1490 DKK deposit.
You’ll spend some of this deposit on subsea tunnel tolls; unless you’re only staying on Vagar Island (and no one does that!) you’ll pay at least 100 DKK for a tunnel. No need to stop and pay for the tunnel: Arctic will just take it out of the deposit. Here’s a map of the 2 toll tunnel locations (tunnels end with “tunnilin”, and Tórshavn is the capital):
The deposit was added to the cost of my rental when I made the online reservation. And then a credit for what remained was automatically returned to my card 3 days after I returned the car. They didn’t charge for any damage. (Which is good because I don’t think there was any damage!)
Arctic Car Rental Fees
There are a couple of fees I didn’t love. One is a registration fee of 150 DKK that is charged for the reservation. This fee is not included in the price quotes you’ll see while you are looking at the different classes of cars, though you’ll see in once you click through. (There are also 2 airport pickup and drop-off fees of 88 DKK each, but these are included in the initial quote you see.)
The other fee I don’t think I knew about, and that’s a 120 DKK fee for processing the return of the remaining deposit. In other words, the deposit refund amount I received took out the actual cost of the tolls plus a 120 DKK fee. I’m sure there is a charge to send the money back to my credit card, but it would have been nice to know about this fee up-front.
Arctic Car Rental in the Faroe Islands Summary
Even with the fees, I got a great price for renting a new car. Arctic says that almost all of their cars are model year 2019 or newer. One the cars get even slightly old, the company puts them up for sale!
My car had just under 16000 km on it; it was a nice shiny blue Honda Civic. Here it is parked in Trøllanes after a ferry ride:
The walk to pick up the car was a little rough in bad weather, but it only took a few minutes. I could have easily spent more time waiting in line with a different car rental company. And I wasn’t charged for any damage or any other issues. (I paid full price for my rental, and Arctic didn’t know I was a travel writer.)
I had a good experience, and I recommend Arctic car rental if you’re visiting the Faroe Islands, especially if the price is right.
Let me know how your experience was with Arctic or any other car rental company in the Faroe Islands!