This Popular Island Introduced a GPS That Won’t Tell You Where You’re Going

In an age when travel experiences are increasingly shaped by social media loops and TikTok influencers, the Faroe Islands just introduced a program going entirely in the opposite direction. The island group between Iceland and Norway just launched “Auto Odyssey” — a high-tech program that asks visitors to be completely removed from the itinerary process.

The new program includes a series of preset, self-navigating (not self-driving) car rentals available to guests. The twist is that the destinations are entirely secret. Rather than planning every stop in advance, travelers opt into one of 30 pre-programmed, self-guided road trips, and they won’t know where they’re headed until they get there. Navigation is activated via a QR code, with directions appearing on the traveler’s phone one segment at a time. Each trip lasts between three and six hours and stops at as many destinations, each recommended and curated by locals.

What’s even more noteworthy is what the program can promise to travelers: they’ll probably have the site to themselves. While there could be other random tourists who drove themselves there, the “Auto Odyssey” cars are programmed not to assign the same itinerary simultaneously, meaning you won’t have any other Auto Odyssey guests there while you are. It creates a better travel experience for guests, and helps the islands fight overtourism at its most fragile sites.

Addressing overtourism at the edge of Europe

Mulafossur waterfall is hardly the only gorgeous spot on the islands. Photo: Kotenko Oleksandr/Shutterstock

The Faroe Islands are home to around 55,000 residents, and have long attracted those seeking elemental beauty and isolation. But overtourism has been a growing problem — so much so that it’s closed to tourism in the past — thanks to Insta-famous images of places like Mulafossur Waterfall, Mykines Island, and Sørvágsvatn. Most of the islands’ arrivals are heading to just a handful of hotspots, leading to strains on local communities and a loss of solitude and quiet.

Auto Odyssey’s Faroe Island road trips instead send visitors away from the usual sites. The destinations tend to favor lesser-known villages, hidden valleys, and vistas that rarely appear in itineraries or social feeds. No route is published. According to Marta Káradóttir, Content and Communications Manager at Visit Faroe Islands, the program is designed to bring back some of the spontaneity of travel. “We’re really just asking travelers to let go of control for a moment,” she noted in the program announcement. “When you don’t know what’s around the next corner, you open yourself up to something completely different.”

How to book your Faroe Islands road trip

Photo: Visit Faroe Islands

The destinations along each Auto Odyssey route range from isolated turf-roofed churches to remote fjords, outdoor recreation opportunities, and local fish-and-chips spots. Local stories are shared at every location via the navigation system, and everything is done in your phone’s browser, no app required. You can do one trip per day, and rent the car for as many days as you’d like.

The program is run in partnership with local rental company 62N. Rates start at approximately $100–$103 per day, which is in line with rental prices on the island. The Auto Odyssey program is a free add-on you can choose when booking your rental. There’s just one rule: visitors must commit to completing the route without diverting to the typical tourist checklist. The experience relies on an honor system rather than physical enforcement, but following the route is key to ensuring that no guests arrive at the same place at the same time.

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