Iceland travel guide

If you have ever suffered from an irresistible urge to watch mud boil or walk through sulphur-scented steam, Hverir is the place for you. Located right off the Ring Road, you could probably take in a number of the sights here without even getting out of your car. But you really should. You can also take a stroll up the nearby Namafjall for an overview of the area. But the colourful mineral deposits, steaming vents and fissures, belching mud cauldrons and the bizarrely ochre-coloured ground are all best views from up close. As at nearby Krafla, sticking to the marked paths is a good idea if you don’t want to end up getting cooked. The stench of sulphur can be a bit overwhelming at first, but don’t let it deter you from exploring this wonderland of geothermal splutters and splashes.

If you are hiking a glacier and you want to challenge yourself, ice climbing is an excellent opportunity. As with glacier hiking, it is important that the equipment is in order, so it requires both a guide, crampons, ice axes, helmets, harnesses and ropes - and fear of heights is probably not the best thing to suffer from .... The guide typically finds a suitable vertical wall of ice, where he fastens the hook and rope on top. Then, you will be strapped to one end of the rope, and the guide keeps a hold of the other end, all while you climb up the wall by hammering 2 ice axes, and your crampons into the ice and rappel back down. It can easily be done, even if you have not tried it before, and it requires more technique than strength, but it is pretty crazy!

Travelling in the South East of Iceland on the ring road, you pass by Jökulsárlón. Where a branch of the Vatnajökull glacier almost reaches the ocean, a lagoon is filled with icebergs floating towards the sea. Less than a century ago, the glacier still reached the ocean but the lagoon has been growing rapidly in the last decennia.
You can hike along or take a boat trip on the lagoon to admire the different shapes and colours of the ice and also to see seals swimming in-between them.
The black-sanded beach contrasts well with the icebergs that made it all the way out to the sea while waves are crashing into them.

If there is any country that justifies a clear distinction between delicacies and specialties, Iceland is it. Iceland has some incredible food – particularly fish (salmon, cod, Atlantic charr), seafood (it doesn’t get much better than langustines cooked in butter, garlic and parsley) and lamb. There are a few dishes that, while not exactly exotic, are not as common elsewhere: horse, for example. Reindeer is both healthy and very tasty. Then it gets a bit odder. How about a taste of puffin, seal or whale? Still, these are actually quite tasty, and for the most part they look and smell like normal food. And there is skyr, of course – a delicious yoghurt-like dairy product best eaten with fresh berries or in a skyrcake (similar to a cheesecake): you might struggle to find a single Icelandic dessert that does not contain skyr. Enter the true specialties – and be warned: these are not for the faint hearted, or those with an acute sense of smell. How about slátur (think Iceland’s answer to haggis), svið (singed sheep’s head, including the eyes, sawn in two), súrsaðir hrútspungar (pickled rams’ testicles in sour milk) or, for something really special, kæstur hákarl: Greenland shark, left to rot underground for six months. Better drink plenty of brennivín with that – with luck you won’t remember any of it tomorrow!

You’ve seen the photos and read the hype. But for once it is all true. Jökulsárlón really is a spectacular, must-see place. Growing in size every year as a result of the retreating Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, this glacial lagoon is full of pieces of ice ranging from pick-one-up-to-pose-for-a-photograph to bigger-than-a-two-story-house. Some of it is blue (if it has only recently been exposed to air), some of it transparent and some black with ash, sand and gravel. More is added all the time, and if you are close enough you may hear the loud cracks of a piece of the glacier breaking off and falling into the water. If the tide is right, walk across the road to the black sand beach and watch little icebergs wash up onto the shore, creating beautiful patterns of blue, white and black. While climbing up on one of the nearby hills provides great views of Jökulsárlón, you really need to get into a boat to appreciate the scale of it, and weaving between pieces of glacier certainly isn’t something most people get to experience very often. The downside? During summer, Jökulsárlón is starting to feel a bit like Disneyland; scores of buses and hundreds upon hundreds of visitors do not exactly convey a sense of serenity. But never mind – it is still one of the coolest places you will ever visit, in Iceland or anywhere else.

This volcanic crater is "just" about 3000 years old and made out of red volcanic rock (rather then black). It measures 270 m across and is about 55 m deep. It possible to walk all the way around the rim, as well as descend to the vivid blue lake at the bottom. The Kerið Volcanic Crater is an obvious stop on the Golden Circle.

Krafla is a caldera, 10km across, north-east of Lake Mývatn. There are several things of interest here, all to do with past volcanic eruptions and the current underground sea of magma that you will be standing upon. In fact, the ground is so hot in places that walking outside of the marked paths might lead to the soles of your shoes melting, so it’s best not to try it. There are two sites of main interest: the various craters, fissures, steaming vents, mud pools and lava fields to the west of the Krafla road and the Viti explosion crater at the end of it. Unlike Hverir, you’ll need to do a fair bit of walking to take in the sites. But it’s really, really worth it. Although there isn’t as much bubbling mud here as at Hverir – which is not to say that the area is devoid of it – the otherworldly landscape of misshapen black lava is something to behold, and it is made even more bizarre by the occasional sheep strolling across the spluttering ground.

A basic knowledge of Scandinavian might lead you to think that the name of this lake means 'a lot of water'. Unfortunately, the 'my' in 'Mývatn' is Icelandic for 'midges', and anyone attempting to get out of the car near the lake in summer will soon be made aware of why it was so named. That is no reason to stay away though; Lake Mývatn has justifiably become one of Iceland’s top attractions, and the area holds a lot of interest to travellers. Like so much else on Iceland, it is the result of relatively recent volcanic activity, and the shore is lined with lava pillars and rootless vents. The eastern side of the lake is particularly rich in geothermal activity, with plenty of steaming vents easily accessible from the side roads – great for photographs if you want to give your friends at home the impression that you have just visited another planet. The area around the lake can also provide oddities like geothermally baked bread, and together with nearby Mývatn Nature Baths, Krafla and Hverir, you’ll need at least a full day to take in everything on display here. If you can put up with the midges.

Mýrdalsjökull is one of Iceland’s biggest glaciers, although much smaller than Vatnajökull, and its relative proximity to Reykjavik makes it a popular destination for adventure tours. This is particularly true for the Sólheimajökull glacier tongue, which is where most of the glacier hiking, ice climbing, snowmobiling and other activities take place. Beneath Mýrdalsjökull lurks Katla, an active volcano that usually erupts every 40 to 80 years and is now very overdue – the last eruption was in 1918. Parts of the glacier are visible from the Ring Road, although you won’t get a chance to appreciate the scale of it unless you get up close and personal.

The Mývatn Nature Baths are sometimes called the Blue Lagoon of the north, but this is hardly a fair comparison. Mývatn has less to offer in terms of extras (beauty treatments and the like), but on the other hand you will not need to cue up for an hour just to get inside. Much of its appeal is about location: a backdrop of steaming vents, black lava formations, Lake Mývatn and surrounding mountains make for a very dramatic setting. There are steam rooms, ample space in the pools as well as a restaurant, and these baths make for a perfect end to a day of running around belching mud pools and gushing steam vents – the baths are open late every day of the year. Whatever you do, don’t forget to wash vigorously and fastidiously before entering the water.