General: Iceland > Reviews > Iceland ... the Great Outdoors

Author's product rating:   

Advantages:	Pure clean air; breathtaking scenery; English widely used
Disadvantages:	Can be expensive; travel effectively limited to summer months

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

If you love the great outdoors and fancy something different, try Iceland! The whole place pulsates with the Earth's energy: there are waterfalls, geysers, bubbling mud pools, glaciers and active volcanoes as well as the snow-capped peaks and fjords associated with Scandinavia.
Although Iceland is very expensive compared to most places, it's quite easy to arrange your own holiday and avoid the expense of a package. It's become much cheaper to fly to Reykjavik recently, (the airline Go does a very good deal from Stansted, if you don't mind flying in the middle of the night), and the bus service is comprehensive making it easy to travel around once there. The best accommodation bargains are the guesthouses, which are everywhere, where you pay for a bed but provide your own sleeping bag. These places usually have a kitchen where you can cook your own food (restaurant prices are outrageous). Most people speak English, and I found the Icelanders friendly and welcoming.
You can get a pretty good overview of the country by going for 10 days - 2 weeks, but could spend a lot longer exploring all the hiking paths ... the walking possibilities are endless. Take your camera; the pure air and sheer natural beauty of the place make it a photographer's dream!
The best time to go is the summer, not just because the weather is better but also there is considerably more daylight to make the most of your time.
If you are planning to do a lot of hiking, take plenty of high-energy foods from home as they are very expensive in Iceland.
My recommendations for walking areas are: the Westman Islands; the area around Gullfoss waterfall; and Skaftafell national park. In Skaftafell, try to spend a half day visiting Jokullsarlon (a lake full of icebergs, surreal and beautiful). It's easy to hitch there and back from Skaftafell.