Camper Rental Iceland vs Black Sheep Campers

Camper Rental Iceland takes the broad-catalog approach, publishing five vehicle categories under one operator: compact campers, large campers, 4x4 campers, rooftop-tent 4x4s, and full motorhomes. Most of its lineup is a built-out vehicle where you sleep, cook, and shelter inside — its campervans and 4x4 campers put a kitchen, a bed, and a Webasto diesel heater in the vehicle itself, and the motorhome tier adds a full self-contained interior. Black Sheep Campers is structurally the opposite: its entire fleet is 4x4 SUVs, and you sleep either in the back of the vehicle or in a hard-shell roof-top tent. There are no built-out campervans, no motorhomes, no built-in kitchen, no water tank or sink, no toilet, and no standing height anywhere in the range. Its lineup is a compact set of SUVs — a Suzuki Jimny with a roof-top tent, Dacia Dusters (sleep-in-the-back and roof-tent variants), the automatic Subaru Legacy, and the largest, a Ford Explorer that sleeps four split between the back and a roof tent — rather than a tiered van catalog.

The two genuinely overlap on just one format: roof-tent 4x4s, which Camper Rental Iceland offers as a single category alongside its vans, but which are Black Sheep's whole business. On highland capability the SUVs are strong — every Black Sheep vehicle is 4WD, and every model except the automatic Subaru Legacy is F-road legal, so most of the fleet can reach interior routes a 2WD camper cannot, and note that most of those campers are manual. Camper Rental Iceland matches highland access with a dedicated 4x4 campervan tier, but crucially keeps the kitchen, heater, and bed inside one vehicle, whereas Black Sheep has you cook outside on a camp stove regardless of model. On what comes included, Black Sheep is unusually complete for a budget operator despite the stripped-down format: bedding (mattress, two sleeping bags, two pillows, sheets, two towels), a full camp-stove kit (stove, kettle, pots, pan, coffee press, cutlery, dishes, washing-up), a passive cooling box rather than a powered fridge, two chairs and a table (removed in winter), and unlimited mileage, all in an all-in EUR price that already bundles taxes and standard insurances. Heating, though, is winter-only — a 220V electric unit provided from November 1 to April 15 that needs a campsite hookup, with no diesel or parking heater at all — while Camper Rental Iceland's vans heat off-grid and carry running water. Camper Rental Iceland gates full cookware, budget-4x4 linen, and any water on its rooftop-tent models behind caveats or paid add-ons, and its insurance excess ladder is not surfaced publicly, so deductibles should be confirmed before booking.

On logistics the two are closer than the fleets suggest: both pick up at Keflavik Airport and in the Reykjavik area. Camper Rental Iceland runs four pickup options split across Keflavik and Reykjavik. Black Sheep is entirely self-service: a lockbox lot next to the BSI bus terminal in central Reykjavik and Keflavik Airport (with a free shuttle from BSI), flexible around-the-clock returns, minimum age 20, a license held 12+ months, and a three-day minimum rental. That self-service key-box handover is the single thing renters most often find confusing, and reviewers also flag some older Dusters showing warning lights and the sleep-in-the-back or roof-tent setup being tight or cold for a minority. Both offer a free full refund on cancellations made more than 48 hours before pickup (Camper Rental Iceland charges a 15% fee on motorhomes; Black Sheep takes no deposit at booking, only a card hold at pickup, and does not refund early returns). Where they diverge most is verified reputation: Black Sheep carries a strong, well-evidenced record — 4.9 from 148 Google reviews, 4.5 (Excellent) from 39 on Trustpilot, and 9.1/10 across 103 on the Northbound aggregator, praised for responsive staff, included-gear value, and capable, economical 4x4s. Camper Rental Iceland's public footprint is thin and harder to verify — around 4.2 from roughly 21 Google reviews in our data and no cleanly attributable Trustpilot score, partly because similarly named competitors muddy the results — so read recent feedback for the exact vehicle and rate you are booking.