Happy Campers vs Black Sheep Campers

Happy Campers operates Iceland's largest fleet -- the company states over 200 vehicles -- organized into three tiers of built-out campervans: budget EX vans (older, higher-mileage vehicles at a lower price), standard campers, and 4x4 highland campers. Across all three, the defining feature is that you live inside the vehicle: the bed and a kitchen are built in, so you cook, eat, and sleep out of the weather. Black Sheep Campers is a fundamentally different product. Its entire fleet is 4x4 SUVs set up for sleeping either in the back of the vehicle or in a hard-shell roof-top tent -- a Suzuki Jimny with roof tent, Dacia Dusters in sleep-in-the-back and roof-tent configurations, an automatic Subaru Legacy, and a Ford Explorer with roof tent that sleeps four (the largest in the lineup). There are no built-out campervans, no built-in kitchen, no toilet, and no indoor standing height; cooking is done on a portable camp stove outside. That makes Black Sheep cheaper and more rugged, but it is camping in or on a vehicle rather than living in a van.

Both operators can reach Iceland's highland F-roads, but the vehicles get there very differently. Happy Campers's F-road capability sits in its dedicated 4x4 highland tier, which pairs genuine ground clearance with Webasto diesel heating that runs anywhere, independent of mains power -- a meaningful advantage for winter and interior trips. At Black Sheep, 4x4 is not a tier but the whole fleet: every model is 4WD and every camper is F-road legal except the automatic Subaru Legacy, which is both its only automatic and its only non-F-road vehicle. So even Black Sheep's budget SUVs can access highland routes a 2WD campervan cannot. The trade-off is warmth: Black Sheep has no diesel or parking heater and provides only a 220V electric heater between November 1 and April 15 that needs a campsite power hookup to work, with the chairs and table removed in winter. Combined with sleeping in a tent or the back of an SUV, cold-weather comfort is the clearest gap between the two.

Both offer dual pickup at Keflavik Airport and Reykjavik with a free shuttle, but the handover style differs sharply: Happy Campers runs a staffed, in-person vehicle walkthrough, while Black Sheep is fully self-service -- a lockbox lot next to Reykjavik's BSI bus terminal (or Keflavik Airport, with a free shuttle from BSI) and flexible around-the-clock returns. That keeps Black Sheep's costs and queues down, though the lockbox pickup is a common source of confusion in its reviews. Black Sheep's all-in EUR rate bundles taxes, standard insurance, and unlimited mileage, and includes a genuinely full autonomy kit (bedding, two sleeping bags, pillows, sheets, towels, a complete camp-stove kit, and a passive cooling box rather than a powered fridge), with Wi-Fi as an add-on and no onboard water tank or sink; it also sets a minimum age of 20, a license held 12-plus months, and a three-day minimum rental. On cancellation, Happy Campers allows free cancellation with 24 hours' notice, while Black Sheep gives a full refund only if you cancel more than 48 hours before pickup (within 48 hours or a no-show is charged in full, and early returns are not refunded), with no deposit taken at booking beyond a card hold at pickup. On reviews, Black Sheep's verified scores are strong -- Google 4.9 from 148 reviews, Trustpilot 4.5 from 39 (Excellent), and 9.1/10 on the Northbound aggregator -- while Happy Campers carries a much larger Google sample at 4.8 from around 2,690 reviews, though its Trustpilot sits lower at about 4.0 from 157.