The Faroe Islands is one of our Best Places to Go in 2025. Find our full guide here.
When I picked up the keys to my rental car in the Faroe Islands, the agent slid me a contract unlike any I’d seen. No clauses about mileage, no small print on insurance. Instead, it was more of an oath—one that said I was ready to “follow the car’s mysterious path, refrain from rebelling against the GPS overlord, and enjoy the adventure—even if I don’t know where I’m going.”
That’s the idea behind the Faroe Islands’ new “self-navigating” car tours, where travelers relinquish control to a spontaneous itinerary of off-the-beaten-path locales, curated via Google Maps. There are dozens of different routes, which can be kicked off from wherever you choose to start your trip, and will take you to destinations across all seven islands that can be reached by bridges and undersea tunnels. Though the tourism board has set aside vehicles specifically for the tours—rentable through 62°N (a company at the airport)—anyone with a smart phone and wheels can access them.
The new initiative is designed to spread travelers more evenly across the remote archipelago, located in the North Atlantic between Iceland and Scotland. In recent years, the scenic volcanic islands have become increasingly popular among travelers—and their Instagram accounts. In 2023, more than 130,000 foreign tourists visited the Faroe Islands, outnumbering the roughly 54,000 locals. Wary of their home becoming another casualty of overtourism, the government has worked for years to prevent the islands from becoming overrun, including by closing the country each spring for “voluntourism” trail work and by implementing a nightly tourism tax, beginning October 2025.
The art of surprise is deeply embedded in this new program—if two people start a self-navigating route from the same place at the same time, they’ll be given different routes. I began my trip in the capital of Tórshavn, which was my home base for days of exploration. That first morning, after scanning a QR code on my car’s dashboard, the GPS sent me to Kirkjubøur, a tiny seaside settlement that was once the religious and cultural heart of Streymoy island. Today it’s known for its trio of medieval treasures, including the ruins of St. Magnus Cathedral, a 900-year-old wooden farmhouse still inhabited by the same family, and the white-washed Olav’s Church, which continues to host services overlooking the sea. For the 30 minutes I milled around, it was just me (though as I was leaving, a vanload of other tourists pulled up).
