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Travelling the Faroe Islands without a car

Can I do this without renting a car?

Yes, but it changes which trip you can have. Here is what is genuinely reachable and what is not.

7 min read Reviewed 30 August 2026
The short version
  • Tórshavn works completely without a car; city buses are free.
  • The national bus network reaches most villages but often two or three times a day.
  • Some places — Saksun, Gjógv, most trailheads — have no practical bus at all.

The honest answer is that a car-free Faroese trip is entirely possible and quite pleasant, provided you accept a different itinerary rather than the same one more slowly.

What works well

  • Tórshavn as a base — everything in town is walkable and city buses cost nothing.
  • The airport to Tórshavn on bus 300, which is frequent and reliable.
  • Klaksvík, Runavík and the larger villages on the trunk routes 400 and 500.
  • Kirkjubøur, either by bus or on the marked path over the ridge from Tórshavn.
  • Suðuroy, which has a better local network than most islands, reached by ferry on foot.

What does not

  • Saksun and Tjørnuvík — no scheduled service.
  • Gjógv — route 201 runs on request only, with two hours notice by phone.
  • Most hiking trailheads, which are not at settlements.
  • Anything requiring you to be somewhere at a specific hour of the evening.

Rural buses can finish for the day in the middle of the afternoon. Always check the return before you commit to the outbound.

We do not know: Live bus times

There is no machine-readable national timetable feed. BEST can tell you a stop exists and where it is, but not when the next bus comes. Check SSL directly.

BEST flags car dependence on every stay, so you can filter out anywhere that assumes you are driving.

Find stays that work without a car

Trip shapes that use this

Four days without a car

A genuinely car-free trip that does not pretend you can reach places you cannot.

4 nights Works without a car

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