Following strong international interest in its Self-Navigating Cars campaign, Visit Faroe Islands is expanding the initiative with 15 new locally curated routes and transforming the sustainablity-minded concept into a year-round tourism experience
The campaign’s expansion, which is now a total of 45 beautiful routes, comes as the answer as destinations around the world continue searching for new ways to address overtourism and encourage more mindful travel behaviour.
Originally launched in summer 2025, the initiative invited travellers to surrender traditional trip planning in favour of surprise journeys across the Faroe Islands. Combining navigation technology with local storytelling, the routes guided visitors away from overcrowded hotspots and towards lesser-known villages, landscapes and cultural experiences across the archipelago.
Not only scenic and inspiring, early observations from the initiative suggest participants who rented one of the branded pilot cars drove approximately 50% fewer miles than standard rental-car users in the Faroe Islands – helping reduce unnecessary driving, emissions and congestion while encouraging visitors to spend more time within local communities.
“In a world confronting climate change and overtourism, we need solutions that encourage people to travel differently,” said Guðrið Højgaard, CEO of Visit Faroe Islands. “What we are seeing is that small behavioural nudges — subtle, systemic and replicable — can create meaningful cumulative impact.”
Rather than directing travellers toward the same well-known attractions, the Self-Navigating Car system reveals destinations one stop at a time through curated routes designed by Faroese locals. No two journeys are exactly alike, and travellers never know what is waiting around the next corner.
The new routes have been specifically designed to showcase the Faroe Islands across all seasons — from remote winter coastlines and autumn landscapes to hidden summer fjords and spring villages.
“We discovered that when people stop optimising every moment of travel, they begin to experience places differently,” said Marta Káradóttir, Content & Communications Manager at Visit Faroe Islands and project manager behind the initiative. “The goal was never simply to move people geographically, but to create a deeper connection between travellers and the places they visit.”
The initiative generated global attention during its first season, with over 3 billion impressions generated from paid and local media as well as press coverage from international media, including BBC, TIME, Financial Times, Fast Company, Forbes, Lonely Planet and CNBC.The Self-Navigating Cars campaign continues to operate across the Faroe Islands in partnership with 62N car rental.
Getting There
Twice-weekly flights to the Faroe Islands from Edinburgh operate from mid-April – October and cost from £200 pp return. A Gatwick service to the Faroe Islands runs twice weekly on Saturdays and Tuesdays for summer 2026, until 30August, from £120 one way. Visit atlantic.fo for further information, or to book.
Choose where to stay from a wide selection of hotels, guesthouses, and farm stays across the 18 Faroese islands. To learn more, visit Staying in the Faroe Islands.
