Iceland Favorites

  My son's photo of Oxarárfoss
by MikeBird
 
  • My son's photo of Oxarárfoss
      My son's photo of Oxarárfoss
    by MikeBird
  •   Favorites
    by Regina1965
  •   Favorites
    by Regina1965
  •   Favorites
    by Regina1965
  •   Favorites
    by Regina1965
 

Most Viewed Favorites in Iceland

1.

City views   Reykjavík Region

City views, Reykjavík Region

 17 Reviews  Reykjavik doesn't really have a skyline, but there are a number of nice places to get a sense of the cityscape. The mountains are never too far away - and the winter snow makes them appear even... 

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2.

Tjornin   Reykjavík Region

Tjornin, Reykjavík Region

 11 Reviews  Like most cities Reykjavik has a central area where you find the oldest part of the town. Reykjavíkurtjörn is the town's pond and here our Mayor is located. This can often be a beautiful spot, if the... 

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3.

Glaciers/ Geysers/ Waterfalls   Reykjavík Region

Glaciers/ Geysers/ Waterfalls, Reykjavík Region

 5 Reviews  Take a trip outside the city to see Gullfoss, the 'Golden Waterfall'. Even if you're just visiting the city for a couple days on a layover, make an effort to get outside the city to see the... 

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4.

Hallgrimskirkja   Reykjavík Region

Hallgrimskirkja, Reykjavík Region

 8 Reviews  If you like art or would like to see some local handcraft be sure to visit Skólavörðustígur. It is a street that goes down from Hallgrímskirkja church to Laugavegur main shopping street. It hosts... 

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5.

Nature/ Wildlife   Reykjavík Region

Nature/ Wildlife, Reykjavík Region

 7 Reviews  If you want to experience something totally different take a guided day tour to Greenland. There are tours everyday from Reykjavik airport, you leave at around ten in the morning and come back at six... 

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6.

Blue Lagoon   Reykjavík Region

Blue Lagoon, Reykjavík Region

 3 Reviews  It's a lunar landscape on the peninsula where the Blue Lagoon and Keflavik airport are located. Volcanic eruptions have left behind a thick blacket of black lava, making this part of Iceland oddly... 

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7.

Perlan   Reykjavík Region

Perlan, Reykjavík Region

 7 Reviews  Perlan is a upper-class restaurant built on top of water storage tanks at Öskjuhlíð hill near downtown Reykjavík. Controversial while being built but now generally viewed as a beautiful building and... 

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8.

Swimming   Reykjavík Region

Swimming, Reykjavík Region

 1 Review  Go swimming. There are alot of swimmingpools around the city and on a good day it is a fabioulus thing to do. You need to go to see the Pearl aswell. It is a restaurant and an outlook point built... 

 See All 112 Favorites in Reykjavík Region

Reviews from VirtualTourist Members

Snow and hot geothermal water.

by Regina1965

There is something so fascinating about geothermal activity in winter time. Everything is covered in snow and then all of a sudden warm water and steam come from the ground. You will see this in several areas, but the photos I add here are from south Iceland relatively close to Reykjavík by ring-road 1.But take care while visiting these areas in the snow (or at any other time) as even though the hot geothermal water melts the snow away then one never know what lies beneath. Way too many people have burnt themselves badly in these areas.This is one of the reasons why Iceland is called the land of fire and ice. There is so much volcanic activity here and volcanos are just all over the place, innocent looking mountains might be dormant volcanos in disguise.

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A few statistics about Iceland.

by Regina1965

Our main export is not fish but aluminium.6,8% of the population in Iceland were foreign citizens (January 1st, 2010).Most foreign citizens travelling through our international airport are British citizens.95% of all 16 year olds are in college.Two out of three graduates from University are women.79% of all our electric power usage goes to the heavy industry.7 Icelandic movies premiered in 2008.91% of the nation uses the Internet daily.5% of the Icelandic nation support UNICEF, which is the highest percent of supporters per capita in the world.0,01% of the nation is deaf - ca 300 people.8,2% of the nation are immigrants (2010) or 26.171, most of them Polish immigrants (10.058). The second largest group of immigrants are Lithuanians.Iceland is in the second place for the countries with the best democracy, right after Norway.83% of Icelanders are on Facebook.In Iceland is the lowest infant...

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The best time to visit Iceland.

by Regina1965

The best time to visit Iceland is end of June when daylight lasts for 24 hours, so mid June-mid July I would recommend you to come for a visit so you can make the most of your stay and enjoy this magical time when the sun almost doesn't set. Spending time in nature in the middle of the night in daylight is the best thing about Iceland and makes up for the months of darkness during the winter time.The normal temperature in June-July is 12-15 degrees, but with the global warming we have been getting periods of "heat-waves" here, in the summer of 2008 there was a day here in Reykjavík with 26 degrees C! And for about half a month it was around 20 degrees C. One summer a couple of years ago it was 8 degrees C and raining for the whole summer in Reykjavík. So one never knows what to expect, but a "safe" bet would be 12-15 degrees C. In the summer of 2010 we had many days of 20 degrees C - I...

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The nature

by Kbgrace

We used Nordic Visitor to arrange for car rental and hotel accomadations. They were very helpful and gave us the freedom we wanted with enough support and advice. It was so nice to not have to worry about a lot of the details. We had 10 days to travel the ring road but really could have used 4 more. If you go in the summer, bring and eye patch since most hotels do NOT have room darkening shades. Skip the doggsledding, but do go whale watching, glacier walking, and horse back riding. Jokulsarlon was pretty. The boat ride might have been nice but we didn't have time.

Island 2010 - Nebe, peklo, ráj...

by qquest111

Island byl už nějakou dobu mým snem. A jelikož sny se mají plnit, i já jsem se musel vydat tímto směrem. Říká se, že komu se líbí Nový Zéland, ten bude nadšený i z Islandu. A musím říct, že mě nezklamal. V létě chládek, hory i nížiny, zeleň i pouště, moře a oceány i suché planiny, příroda a člověk v naprosté symbióze. To vše na jednom místě. Pro mě nepředstavitelná země plná energie a krásy. Málo lidí, hodně prostoru a přírody - prostě krása.Plán na tento týden byl následující: po příletu na Island prohlédnout 2 dny Reykjavík a poté půjčit auto a vydat se na okružní jízdu přes celý Island.Je trošku zvláštní pro našince přiletět o půlnoci a spatřit sluníčko, ale to už další dny nebylo ani nic neobvyklého. Polární den je parádní, polární noc musí být...

The Northern Lights .. did they appear

by Bonkers11

Any one reading this can feel free to email me and I will add their sightings and dates based from the Northern Lights InnFriday 25th the lights appeared as green, but only a cloud across the skySaturday 26th no lightsSunday 27th no lights. Sitting up a hill in the snow with Rachael drinking Vodka.

Northern Lights

by johnjm99

The scenery is incredible - from city, to rural, and then vast stretches of other-worldly views. Spending a long weekend in the fall. The colors had changed, the air was a bit cooler and the weather behaved (for the most part) so that we could get around without getting soaked.

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More statistics about Iceland.

by Regina1965

The biggest island is: Heimaey 13,4 km2.The deepest lake is: Jökulsárlón (see my tip) 260 m deep.The longest river is: Þjórsá river 230 km.The tallest waterfall is: Glymur in Botnsá river 190 m high, yes, but now they have discovered another waterfall near Skaftafell, which is 228 m high (on the 20th of June 2011 it still hasn´t got a name, but the Icelandic Place Names Committee is going to come up with a name soon).The biggest glacier is: Vatnajökull 8.300 km2 - making it the biggest glacier in all of Europe.The highest mountain: Mt. Hvannadalshnjúkur 2.110 m high.The square measure of Iceland is 103.000 sq.km. There of is grassy land 23.805 sq.km, lakes 2.757 sq.km, glaciers 11.922 sq.km and wilderness 64.358 sq.km.There are 77 municipalities in Iceland.From Iceland to Greenland there are 287 km.Our fishing fleet contains of: 768 fishing vessels and 58 trawlers.

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Organising your trip around Iceland

by MikeBird

I had 6 nights and 7 days to explore at least some of Iceland with my 20 year old, student son. I knew he would be happy taking photos whilst I could do some birdwatching. We both enjoy the outdoors and have a healthy interest in history. It was the need to do something active without too much hassle or even too much risk that I chose to book a 3 day self drive car and hotel package. I booked through an Icelandic online travel company who I must say were very efficient and convenient for me. I don't know if I got good value for money but if you can put value on the convenience then it was well worth it. For the remaining days I then booked single trips glacier walking (9hours) and whale watching (4hours). Again I don't know if it ended up being more expensive paying up front but it was good to know that everything was paid for.Other people we met said that it had been easy for them to...

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The saviour and the destroyer of Iceland.

by Regina1965

In Iceland the sheep has proven to be the saviour of the nation, as we eat the meat and use the warm wool for sweaters, mittens, socks, scarves and caps. But on the other hand the Vikings let the sheep roam free in Iceland and eat the vegetation. The Vikings said that there was great vegetation here when they arrived, but after centuries of letting the sheep roam free here the ground is barren. Which then causes sandstorms, and as the Icelanders put it - our land is being blown out to sea.When the Vikings came to Iceland they talked about the island being green and covered in forests (which is certainly not the case nowadays). So they cut a lot of the forests and overused it.In the mid nineteen century there were 400.000 sheep here in Iceland. By then the British nation was buying a lot of sheep from us and the number of sheep doubled to 800.000 sheep. The nature couldn't take this...

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Top 3 Hotels in Iceland

Castle House Luxury Apartments  Reykjavík Region

 2 Reviews and 195 Opinions  We have just returned from a long weekend break in Reyjavik and thoroughly enjoyed our stay at the... 

 Hotels in Reykjavík Region

Hilton Reykjavik Nordica  Reykjavík

 4 Reviews and 600 Opinions  I am now staying in this Hilton hotel which was part of the package tour that I booked with... 

 Hotels in Reykjavík

Hotel Reynihlid  Mÿvatn

 2 Reviews and 74 Opinions  We stayed in Reynihilo after doing a lot of research on the net as nothing else was available. In... 

 Hotels in Mÿvatn

The Place

Reviews and photos of Iceland attractions posted by real travelers and locals. The best tips for Iceland sightseeing.

Experience Iceland
 

Questions and Answers

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Q:  Two Questions: We'll be in Iceland driving in late March/mid-April. We are staying on main roads. 1) SADcars has good prices... 

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A: I love Subarus (the Forester especially), but you'll notice from the SADcars website that the Legacy is the largest vehicle that is not for highlands or F-roads. The... 

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