Iceland has traditionally not been the most popular tourist destination, despite its fields of geysers, its preservation of traditional culture, its disproportionately vast musical influence, and its awe-inspiring volcanoes.
Recently, though, people have been travelling to the country in increased numbers, owing largely to its presence in the media.
There is a strange phenomenon whereby disasters tend to negatively harm a place in the short-term – but in the medium and long-term, people travel there more and more frequently, because it’s simply more prominent in their minds.
This is the effect that the Icelandic bank scandal and the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull have had on tourism, and the country is finally beginning to get something like the tourist numbers it clearly deserves.
This is a brief guide to my own experiences in Iceland, which will hopefully be helpful to anyone considering a trip to this unique island.
What To Take – Preparation
In addition to the standard essentials I take everywhere – a dry bag, clothes, emergency rations, water bottles, duct tape, currency, and international health insurance – I also took some equipment especially for Iceland.
A lot of water in Iceland has high levels of hydrogen sulphide. It’s not harmful, but if you want to avoid that trademark ‘rotting egg’ smell making it onto your clothes, I’ve heard baking soda and citrus-based detergents followed by vinegar as the best way to get rid of the smell.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to filter drinking water in the same way.
A waterproof coat is almost-essential if you want to go whale-watching, or if you want to travel anywhere by boat, and I brought warm, tough clothing and lots of it.
Where To Go – Planning The Trip
I planned the trip using an agency who booked me a range of different places to stay in advance, in a counter-clockwise route about the country. This meant I was able to travel all round the country, experiencing every major landmark, and I would recommend it.
The disadvantages of this method of travel are that you’re never entirely sure if there’s going to be a complication when you arrive in a town, or what form exactly your lodgings will take. One hotel closed its doors at 9:00 pm – if I’d known that I’d’ve arrived with a good deal more time to spare than thirty seconds!
The Ring Road of Iceland makes the journey relatively simple to accomplish, though, with the result that I can easily imagine families with young children completing the journey.
I’d recommend taking in, as a minimum, Dettifoss (the largest waterfall in Europe by volume – the sound it makes is simply astonishing!), ReykjavÃk, Geysir and Strokkur, two of the most famous and impressive geysers in the world, and Jökulsárlón.
There are also some stunningly warm lakes kept heated by geothermal sources, incredible whale-watching tours, and the enormous, beautiful church HallgrÃmskirkja (which is in ReykjavÃk, but is worth making a detour to see on its own even if you don’t intend on doing anything else there!).
What To Do – Activities
As well as whale-watching, you can go on fishing boats that allow you to eat their catch (raw) for a small additional fee. It’s quite the experience for the strong-stomached connoisseur!
The nightlife starts at about seven or eight in the evening, and doesn’t let up. In ReykjavÃk the typical fare is nightclubs and overpriced pubs playing loud electronic music, but venture out a little further, to the smaller towns, and there’s a lot of folk music, rock and punk (as well as reggae and rap).
I’d also recommend trying the cuisine. Not the famous rotted shark for which Iceland is slightly infamous, because I would never recommend that to anyone. I recommend the incredibly, eye-wateringly, nose-scrunchingly, gut-churningly spicy pizza, because nowhere else in the world does pizza as spicy as Iceland does.
Other than that, most of your time will probably go on walking along the unique, alien landscape of Iceland. From waterfalls to geysers to volcanoes, with glaciers, warm lakes and freezing lagoons as well, there is a wide variety of extreme landscapes to take in and enjoy.
These are all great places to start. The land of ice and fire revels in contrast, and there’s so much to explore – it’s number one on my list of places to revisit before I die.
Do you have any suggestions for places I could visit my second time round? Want to know more about Iceland? Ask me a question in the comments section!
Gavin Harvey writes blog posts for JBI Insurance, who can broker a range of niche insurance products. In his free time he likes to travel and keep fit.