We didn’t know about the Faroe Islands tunnel fee system until we were already on the archipelago, standing at a tunnel entrance with a rental car and no idea whether our payment was registered anywhere. That’s a disorienting position to be in when you’re on a small island group with a ferry to catch.

The Faroe Islands tunnel fees apply to four specific tunnels on the islands. They’re not optional, they’re not always obvious, and if you’re a tourist in a rental car, you need to understand how registration and payment work before you drive. This guide explains everything.

Which tunnels in the Faroe Islands charge a fee

The Faroe Islands have more than 20 tunnels in total — most of them free, cut through basalt mountains that would otherwise make road connections between islands impossible or absurdly long by ferry. Four, however, are subject to the toll system, primarily because they are newer, longer, or subsea crossings that required exceptional investment to build.

The four paid tunnels

• Leynatunnilin — connects Tórshavn with the Leyðin area of Eysturoy. Opened 2020. One of the first tunnels to introduce electronic payment. This is the one most tourists hit first without expecting it.
• Noroðoyártunnilin — connects Eysturoy with Borðoy and onward to the North Islands. A long subsea tunnel with a traffic circle inside, at sea level, under the water, connecting three directions. One of the more surreal driving experiences in Europe.
• Eysturoyártunnilin — the main crossing serving the Eysturoy side of the North Islands spur connection. Part of the same tunnelling project that opened travel to the outer islands.
• Sandoyártunnilin — the newest, connecting Sandoy island to the main island of Streymoy, effectively replacing the Sandoy ferry. Opened 2023 and the most recently added to the fee system.

Why these four specifically

The older tunnels — including the Sørvagstunnilin between Streymoy and Vágóy (the airport island) and the older mountain tunnels — are free, funded through general Faroese taxation. The four paid tunnels are part of a public-private partnership that requires direct user fees to service construction debt. Once that debt is repaid, they are expected to become free, as happened with some earlier crossings.

How the Faroe Islands tunnel payment system works

This is where tourists consistently get confused, because there is no traditional toll booth with a barrier. You don’t stop, hand over cash, and drive through. The system is fully electronic: your vehicle’s licence plate is scanned as you pass, and payment must be either pre-registered or confirmed by SMS within a short window after crossing.

Option 1: Register in advance at faroeislands-tunnel.com

This is the method we recommend for any tourist driving their own vehicle or a rental car not already registered by the agency. Before you arrive — or at minimum before you drive — go to faroeislands-tunnel.com, enter your vehicle’s licence plate and a credit card, and set up a pre-pay account. Each tunnel crossing is then automatically deducted as you pass. No action required at the tunnel itself. The site is available in English. Registration takes about five minutes. Pre-loading 500–1,000 DKK covers most touring itineraries comfortably.

Option 2: SMS payment after crossing

If you pass through a paid tunnel without a pre-registered account, the system sends a text message to the phone number registered with your vehicle. For rental cars, this typically means the agency’s number, not yours. The agency may or may not forward the charge to you — and many don’t, then bill your credit card weeks later with an administration fee that can be 2–3x the original tunnel cost. Register in advance.

Option 3: Pay at a registered service point

A handful of petrol stations on the islands are listed as official payment locations where you can pay tunnel fees in person. This works but requires knowing which stations are registered and proactively seeking them out. For a touring itinerary, it is the least convenient option.

Quick-reference fee table and registration checklist

Use this before you drive. Amounts below are approximate 2026 figures in DKK — confirm on faroeislands-tunnel.com before your trip as rates are reviewed annually.

• Leynatunnilin: ~105 DKK per crossing, one direction, passenger car
• Noroðoyártunnilin (North Islands tunnel): ~160 DKK per crossing — the longest subsea tunnel and the highest fee
• Eysturoyártunnilin: ~105 DKK per crossing
• Sandoyártunnilin: ~130 DKK per crossing
• All other tunnels: Free — no registration needed
• Registration: faroeislands-tunnel.com (English available, credit card required)
• Both directions: Each direction counts as a separate crossing and a separate fee
• Cash: Not accepted at tunnels — electronic only
• Rental car users: Confirm with your agency whether they pre-register your plate or if you must register it yourself

What happens if you don’t pay the Faroe Islands tunnel fee

The short answer: the fee plus a penalty will eventually catch up with you, almost always via your rental car agency.

• Rental cars: The agency’s licence plate is registered with the tunnel system. If you don’t pay, the agency receives the invoice and charges your credit card — usually with an additional administration fee of 150–250 DKK per incident, significantly more than the original tunnel fee.
• Personal vehicles registered in the Faroe Islands: Non-payment triggers a penalty notice to the registered owner, escalating to debt collection if ignored.
• Foreign-registered personal vehicles: The Faroese system has bilateral agreements with some countries for cross-border enforcement. This is a developing area. For rental car tourists, agency liability makes this largely moot — the agency will charge you regardless.

Rental cars in the Faroe Islands: what to check before driving

This section is the one we wish existed when we landed in Vágóy and picked up our keys. Ask these questions — in writing, by email if possible — before you drive:

• Is the licence plate pre-registered at faroeislands-tunnel.com under an agency account? If yes, tunnel fees will be charged to the agency and then to you as a line item on your final invoice. Ask what their per-crossing rate and admin fee structure is.
• Or am I expected to register the plate myself? Some agencies issue the car and leave registration entirely to the renter. In this case, create an account at faroeislands-tunnel.com using the vehicle’s Faroese plate before your first tunnel.
• What is the agency’s administration fee for tunnels billed through them? Numbers vary significantly between agencies — ask explicitly.
• Which paid tunnels will my itinerary require? If you share your planned route, most agents can tell you exactly which paid crossings you’ll encounter. Faroese rental staff generally know the islands well.

Free tunnels vs paid tunnels — the full picture

Because the paid tunnels sit alongside a much larger network of free tunnels, it helps to understand which crossings cost money before you plan.

• Paid (see section 1 above): Leynatunnilin, Noroðoyártunnilin, Eysturoyártunnilin, Sandoyártunnilin
• Free: Sørvagstunnilin (Streymoy–Vágóy, including the airport connection), the older mountain tunnel near Leira on Streymoy, Klaksvík tunnel spurs, and all smaller mountain tunnels throughout the island chain
• Future tunnels: A planned subsea tunnel connecting Súðuroy to the main network is in early planning as of 2026. The Súðuroy ferry from Tórshavn remains the only connection for now.

If your Faroe Islands itinerary stays on Streymoy and Eysturoy using older mountain tunnels, you may not encounter a paid crossing at all. Most visitors heading north to Klaksvík or west to Sandoy will use at least one paid tunnel, and a loop through the North Islands will use two or three.

Mistakes we made — and what we’d do differently

• Not asking the rental agency about tunnels at pickup. We assumed the car came with some kind of toll registration, like a highway vignette in Central Europe. It didn’t work that way. Staff were helpful once we asked, but we asked too late — after we’d already passed one paid tunnel.
• Assuming the SMS system would reach us. The text goes to the number registered with the vehicle, which is the agency’s number. We never saw any message. The charge appeared on our credit card three weeks later, with an administration fee added.
• Driving the North Islands tunnel without checking the fee first. The Noroðoyártunnilin is the most expensive crossing and catches people off-guard because it’s such a spectacular drive — you’re completely focused on the underwater roundabout. The fee is the last thing on your mind.
• Not reading the faroeislands-tunnel.com site in advance. The site is genuinely clear and well-translated. Five minutes on it before the trip would have saved us confusion and an admin fee.
• Not budgeting for return crossings. Each direction is a separate fee. If you drive to Klaksvík and back, that’s two North Islands tunnel crossings at ~160 DKK each — 320 DKK for a day trip. Small in context, but worth knowing in advance.
• Thinking it would sort itself out. It did sort itself out, just expensively. The Faroe Islands are small and the tunnel system is automated and efficient. There is no ambiguity about whether you owe the fee — only about whether you pay it the cheap way or the expensive way.

Frequently asked questions about Faroe Islands tunnel fees

A final word from Rovaniemi

We live in a place where infrastructure is a daily negotiation with geography. In Finnish Lapland, roads close in blizzards, rivers flood spring access routes, and driving to the next town sometimes means checking whether the road is actually open before you leave. So when we landed in the Faroe Islands and drove through tunnels literally cut through mountainsides into the sea floor, we felt a certain kinship with the engineering ambition involved.

The tunnel fee system is a small administrative detail in a trip that will otherwise demand all your attention — the green cliffs, the puffins on Mykines, the single-track roads with sheep that haven’t read the highway code, the way the weather changes every twenty minutes. Sort the tunnel fee registration before you arrive, ask your rental agency two direct questions at pickup, and then forget about it entirely.

The Faroe Islands deserve your full attention. Don’t let a 160 DKK tunnel fee be the thing you remember most.