Iceland Travel Guides: Places to Visit and Things to Do

Iceland feels like someone took volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, black beaches, geothermal vents and approximately six different kinds of weather, crammed them onto one island and then forgot to install trees.

The result is fucking spectacular.

Drive almost anywhere and Iceland looks like Earth is still under construction. Waterfalls explode off cliffs. Lava fields stretch toward the horizon. Steam rises randomly from the ground. Glaciers sit beside volcanoes because apparently combining fire and ice seemed reasonable.

And then there’s the northern lights.

Those beautiful green ribbons you’ve seen floating above Iceland in approximately nine billion photographs?

Yeah.

The weather has opinions.

I’ve traveled to Iceland repeatedly trying to photograph them and learned that aurora forecasting is essentially advanced gambling involving clouds, solar activity and standing outside freezing your ass off at 2:00 AM while staring hopefully at darkness.

Iceland’s weather doesn’t stop there.

I’ve dealt with blizzards, brutal winds, a flat tire and road conditions that turned simple sightseeing into an unexpected survival subplot. February in particular taught me that Iceland didn’t get its name because of an aggressive tourism campaign.

But that’s why the country works.

Iceland doesn’t need to manufacture adventure.

Even failed plans can lead to volcanic craters, abandoned airplane wrecks, steaming geothermal fields or some completely ridiculous landscape you didn’t know existed.

It’s expensive. The weather is unstable. Your itinerary will eventually lose an argument with nature.

Go anyway.

Because Iceland is one of those rare places where even when everything goes completely fucking wrong, you somehow still come home with incredible photographs and an even better story.

Map of Iceland

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