Auto Odyssey: The Faroe Islands Launch a Self-Navigating Road Trip Revolution for Luxury Travelers
A New Chapter in Exploratory Luxury
On July 8, 2025, Visit Faroe Islands unveiled Auto Odyssey: Self-Navigating Car Adventures—a first-of-its-kind, immersive travel concept designed for those who crave not control, but discovery. This exclusive launch marks a shift in how luxury travelers experience the Faroe Islands, inviting them to trade in fixed itineraries for a guided journey shaped by surprise, local storytelling, and real-time curiosity. The islands, already beloved by intrepid travelers seeking nature in its rawest form, now present a new way to connect with place and people: through the power of purposeful surrender.
Developed in partnership with local car rental company 62N, Auto Odyssey offers travelers access to 30 self-guided itineraries, each artfully designed to disperse guests away from overcrowded landmarks and into the lesser-treaded corners of this North Atlantic archipelago. With a single scan of a QR code, the experience begins. No map. No clues. No way to know what’s next—until you’re there.
A Response to Overtourism, Rooted in Faroese Ingenuity
The initiative is far more than a novelty—it’s a direct response to a global challenge. As noted in a recent McKinsey & Company report, 80% of global travelers visit just 10% of attractions. The result? A clogged network of hotspots and cookie-cutter experiences.
“Across the globe, tourists gather around the same iconic 'hot spots', driven by algorithms and social media that create a closed ecosystem. Faroe Islands have experienced increasing pressure on selected sites themselves, and now we are trying to reverse the flow—quite literally.”
Guðrið Højgaard, CEO of Visit Faroe Islands
Rather than continue directing visitors to familiar names like Sørvágsvatn or Mykines, Auto Odyssey celebrates the underappreciated. From roadside snack shacks with crispy fish and chips to forgotten turf-roofed churches, the route prioritizes the intimate, the local, the deeply human.
How It Works: High-Tech Meets Heimablídni
After booking a standard vehicle with 62N, travelers activate their itinerary via a QR code. From there, turn-by-turn navigation unfolds one leg at a time, revealing four to six surprise stops over three to six hours. Each leg is enhanced with cultural context and local stories—one of many features that make Auto Odyssey less a GPS and more a digital storyteller.
Unlike traditional road trips, there are no repeat journeys. Routes are dynamic, ensuring no two travelers on the road at the same time receive the same experience.
Stops may include a scenic hike through the fjords, a detour to Syðradalur for a cool dip in an outdoor mountain pool, or a visit to Viðareiði Church, whose stones were gathered from the wild northern coastline. One route might lead to Lake Funningsvatn, tucked between towering cliffs, while another guides you toward the historic Funningur Church, among the oldest wooden churches in the archipelago.
“These routes are shaped by the people who live here,” said Marta Káradóttir, Content & Communications Manager and the project’s lead.
“We’re really just asking travelers to let go of control for a moment. When you don’t know what’s around the next corner, you open yourself up to something completely different. Maybe something more beautiful. Maybe just more real.”
Marta Káradóttir, Project Leader
More Than a Drive: A Philosophy of Place
While the Auto Odyssey invites travelers to embrace spontaneity, the campaign is grounded in intentionality—part of a larger ethos the Faroe Islands have long championed. In 2019, Visit Faroe Islands launched Closed for Maintenance, an initiative that welcomed eco-conscious travelers to help with sustainability projects across the islands. With over 40,000 applications from 54 countries, and 62 completed projects across 11 islands, the program became a case study in responsible tourism.
A few years earlier, their Sheep View 360 campaign—a clever twist on Google Street View—used cameras mounted on sheep to document the islands’ scenic roads, capturing international attention and awards from Cannes Lions and the World Media Awards. The campaign ultimately convinced Google to add official Street View coverage for the Faroes.
Auto Odyssey builds upon that legacy with an offering that is both progressive and personal—an invitation to experience the Faroe Islands through the eyes of those who know it best.
Booking the Experience
Auto Odyssey is available for two months exclusively through 62N at DKK 660 per day (approximately $103 USD), the same rate as a standard rental car. After this period, travelers will still be able to access the navigation technology with any vehicle on the islands.
This pricing model makes the program not only innovative, but refreshingly accessible—a rarity in luxury travel. By pairing value with emotional richness, Auto Odyssey introduces a new chapter in high-end experiential tourism. Click HERE to book.
An Evolving Vision for Luxury Travel
As luxury travelers continue to seek more than checklists and photo ops, Auto Odyssey arrives at just the right moment. It doesn’t promise perfection—it promises perspective. The chance to drive with intention but without control. To discover a landscape without looking for it. To be guided not by likes or pins, but by the whisper of what might be.
With one foot in tradition and the other in innovation, the Faroe Islands have once again proven themselves a beacon of meaningful, sustainable, and beautifully unpredictable travel.