We’ll start the day with an Icelandic breakfast buffet. Across from our hotel rests an 18th century Danish warehouse, now a museum and coffee bar.

Some of our group will take a side tour to visit a charming, remote Victorian harbor town set on a spectacular fjord where Iceland’s first telephone was installed and near which its oldest lighthouse still stands. The historic town is almost entirely intact like a time capsule with an elegant hotel, restaurants and small shops and cottages. In poetic contrast, the tiny village also contains many cutting-edge art galleries and is the location of an art foundation founded by renowned Swiss-German artist Dieter Roth, who also made the town his personal residence.

Adrian L., Australia

Nearby is one of Iceland’s oldest wooden churches, set in a peaceful deep-grassed graveyard, with a sky-blue ceiling and a 16th century pulpit.

Next we’ll take the only paved stretch of highway that goes into the interior and pass through black sand dunes of a high-elevation arctic desert, often punctuated by sandstorms and spectacular weather displays. Parallel to the road we’ll notice large, ancient stone cairn markers, which were the only guides early Icelanders had to follow- especially during blinding sand storms and blizzards before roads were built.

“The lands of northern Iceland are the most desolate through which I have ever walked... In some places, there were barely even any signs of vegetation apart from moss and a few tiny determined wildflowers. It was like walking on the moon.

Black soil would crunch beneath our feet, dust rising slowly from our footsteps. The dark ground would stretch out to the distant volcanic mountains. The pale and dusky sky spread out above us, the dim northern sun a constant companion in the sky.

There is a primitive wilderness here that somehow seems to nurture and uplift with its vast expanse of eternity.”

Lydia M., Belgium

“One of the most surreal locations was a desert, Iceland style.  While driving at a high altitude we came upon the black sand dunes of arctic desert.  With large snow-capped mountains in the distance, we stopped to enjoy the surreality of the moment.  The silence was calming, and the endless black sand was cut only by the occasional small purple wildflowers.  Fantastic.”

John T., USA

“Our drive across the interior of Iceland was simply astounding, showing us whole new aspects to Iceland. For hours we drove across the featureless high-elevation arctic desert, barren black rock with a scattering of moss (sprinkled with purple flowers). After the bland monotonous drive for hours we turned a corner and the stunning ice plateau of Herdubreid rose out of the desert. A perfect cylinder, it climbed up sheer cliffs into snow-topped heights before creating a level surface.”

Adrian L., Australia

We’ll end up in the active geothermal fields of Iceland’s northeast, where we can wander freely among giant steam plumes that punctuate the golden sulfur landscape. 

Around the bend is Europe’s largest spring- Iceland’s third largest lake. Here thousands of gallons-per-second of fresh, pure water course year-round from deep below the earth's surface, never fully freezing and hosting some of the world's best fish stock, enticing normally migratory birds to stay year-round, even through Iceland's arctic winters.

The lake's backdrop is equally as impressive- set in one of Iceland's most active seismic zones, at the foot of a colossal volcanic cone that looks like it just erupted. All around exotic lava floes and wind-swept birch trees create a dreamy landscape of bonsai and basalt spires, much like a giant Japanese rock garden. Formations are so unusual and spectacular that they've inspired a mystical folklore of elves and trolls to help explain the improbable natural phenomena.

 Paved roads circle the entire lake and many gravel paths take you directly to mystical shores. We can enjoy the whole region in an afternoon of hiking, biking, picnic-ing, bathing in natural hot springs and exploring natural saunas set inside stone fissures. In places the earth is so hot, residents actually bake bread in ovens set in the ground. You'll likely have some for breakfast the next day, served with smoked trout hand-caught in the lake beside our hotel! Why not dine on more lake-caught trout and Icelandic beer in an elegant local pub?

After dinner we can unwind in Iceland’s newest spa set up around natural hot springs and open until midnight. Some of our group will trek into the wild to enjoy a natural geothermal sauna set inside a series of natural stone fissures.

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