Two things on my Icelandic bucket list were to walk on a glacier and to visit an ice cave. Ice caves can be really stunning with amazing shades of blue and sweeping arcs of ice, and well, who doesn’t want to walk on a glacier? After asking Katherina, my friend who works as a tourist guide and has been basically everywhere in Iceland, I settled on the caves at Jökulsárlón and booked a trip with Extreme Iceland, as this is not the […]
The Winter Lights festival, or Vetrarhátíð, brightens up a dreary and cold February in Iceland. Celebrating the lengthening days, the festival is a combination of cultural events, light installations and many museums are free which is a great bonus. Many museums put on special guided tours or events, there’s art everywhere, language classes, storytelling, there was a cycle race up Skólavörðustígur, last year a huge erupting volcano was projected onto Hallgrímskirkja and the town is full of people, especially families walking around with a really nice […]
It´s that time of the year, come January it’s all new diaries, resolutions and of course travel plans. Looking back over my Travel Goals for 2017 I got thinking. I saw Arctic foxes in the Westfjords which was amazing, I did a road trip through the Highlands and I got to see more of the Northern Lights – all pretty cool right? But then of course, being me, I felt depressed that I didn’t get to go skiing, or visit Vatnajökull […]
Despite appearances, I do like Christmas. Just not when the hype starts in September. But now that’s it’s December I can get into the Christmas spirit and there’s a few differences here in Iceland that I’m enjoying learning about. Here Christmas is called Jól, which we know as Yule, an ancient pre-Christian feast. Icelanders go for decoration in a big way and Christmas lights have been up on every possible structure for weeks. All thirteen days of Christmas from 24 December […]
Sometimes people joke that I travel just so I can read in peace and quiet. In fact, when we set off on the Northwest Passage I packed over thirty books. It’s not completely true but I can’t set off without books to read and I especially love reading something set in the country I’m visiting. It’s also the middle of Jólabókaflóðið, or the Icelandic book flood, where most of the books are published before Christmas. With all that in mind, here is part […]
It’s been over nine years since I last visited Bláa Lónið or the Blue Lagoon. Easily the most Instagrammed place in Iceland, it’s on everyone’s to-do list. However for ages, I’ve been telling people not to bother because it’s really expensive and you have to book weeks in advance, so is it actually worth it? I decided to go back and find out. The Blue Lagoon basics Planning your trip The Blue Lagoon is currently undergoing a huge expansion, and consequently, […]
Usually, before a trip I do a bit of preparation, like this map here, marking the places I’d like to go with a photograph for reference. Then when I get there that all goes out the window, I travel around according to my whims and the weather. But, wouldn’t it be handy if someone had done all this work for you? Well, that’s exactly what Michael Levey of International Photographer has done. I saw this in the campsite in Reykjavík last […]
Get out of that puffin shop! There’s so much more to Icelandic souvenirs than plastic horned helmets and stuffed animals (I’m not knocking the stuffed animals – if there was a collective noun for polar bears then that’s what I’d have), you just have to look past the “Ég tala ekki íslensku” tshirts. The traditional Icelandic lopapeysa Loppi is unspun wool, peysa is a jumper. The singular is lopapeysa, and plural lopapeysur and Leifur Eiriksson was definitely not wearing one of these on his Vinland voyages […]
There’s no such thing as the low season in Iceland anymore, but there are lots of reasons to visit Iceland in the winter, and not just because there are fewer tourists (though with visitor numbers expected to reach 3 million in the next few years it’s a good place to start!). 1. You can see the Aurora Borealis Ok the skies are not on fire every single night but one of the things you need to see the aurora (one of the main […]
(This was written in July but between one thing and another I’m only posting it now. Just in case you think Iceland looks this sunny and warm in October. It doesn’t!) One of the things that you just can’t escape when you’re living abroad is, no matter how much you love the country, or how great a group of friends you have – you will miss your family. And that’s why it was so nice to meet up with aunts and […]