Plan your trip
Faroe Islands: buses or a rental car?
Last checked: 19 September 2026
The short answer
Take the bus if you are based in Tórshavn, travelling between towns, or visiting Nólsoy, Vestmanna, Klaksvík or Sandoy. Rent a car if Saksun, Gásadalur at a weekend, or several villages in one day are on your list. The network is good at connecting towns and poor at connecting villages, and no amount of planning changes that.
Source: Strandfaraskip LandsinsRoute overview — every scheduled bus and ferry routeTourist Travel Card — prices and conditions
What the buses do well
On the trunk corridors, scheduled transport is genuinely competitive with driving.
- The airport connection: route 300 links Vágar Airport with Tórshavn on a service that is not restricted to weekdays.
- Town to town: Tórshavn to Klaksvík on route 400 or 401, Tórshavn to Vestmanna on route 100, Tórshavn to Sandoy on route 650.
- Island crossings: the ferries are the transport, and a car adds queueing rules rather than freedom.
- In Tórshavn itself, the town buses are free, so a car is pure cost.
Source: Strandfaraskip LandsinsRoute 300 Tórshavn – Airport – SørvágurRoute 400 Klaksvík – TórshavnRoute 650 Sandoy – TórshavnTórshavnar kommunaTórshavn by bus — town routes and timetables
Where the buses stop short
The gaps are specific and predictable rather than general.
- Saksun has no scheduled bus at all.
- The west of Vágar beyond Sørvágur is weekday-only, on route 350, with few trips.
- Gjógv exists on the network only as a telephone booking, on request route 201.
- Tjørnuvík is weekday and schoolday only, on route 202.
- Fitting two villages into one day is often impossible even where both have a service, because the branches connect to the trunk route rather than to each other.
Source: Strandfaraskip LandsinsRoute 350 Tórshavn – Vága Airport – Sørvágur/BøRoute 201 Oyrarbakki – GjógvRoute 202 Oyrarbakki – Tjørnuvík
The middle path
Many visitors do best with neither extreme: use the buses and ferries for the trunk journeys and the island crossings, and hire a car or book a tour for the one or two days that include Saksun, Gásadalur or a string of villages. A Tourist Travel Card covers the bus-and-ferry days without committing you to them for the whole trip.
Source: Strandfaraskip LandsinsTourist Travel Card — prices and conditions
Practical notes if you do drive
Several of the island links are subsea tunnels, some single-track tunnels remain on the smaller islands, and the ferries have their own vehicle queueing rules — vehicles must be queued no later than 15 minutes before departure on the Suðuroy crossing, for example.
Source: Strandfaraskip LandsinsFerry route 7 Suðuroy – TórshavnFerry route 56 Klaksvík – Kalsoy
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