Iceland holidays

Iceland is the dramatic-landscape capital of the North Atlantic — a country of 376,000 people in an area the size of Tennessee, with the world's highest concentration of waterfalls, geysers, glaciers and volcanoes per square mile. The headline experiences: the Golden Circle (Þingvellir National Park — UNESCO, the rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, plus the original parliament site; the Geysir geothermal field with Strokkur erupting every 8 minutes; Gullfoss double waterfall); the South Coast (Seljalandsfoss waterfall you can walk behind, the dramatic Skógafoss, the black-sand Reynisfjara beach with basalt columns, the Vatnajökull glacier outlet at Skaftafell, the floating Jökulsárlón iceberg lagoon and the Diamond Beach where icebergs wash up on black sand); the Snæfellsnes Peninsula (often called "Iceland in Miniature" — glacier, beach, volcano, fishing village, Kirkjufell the most-photographed mountain in Iceland); the East Fjords; the geothermal North at Lake Mývatn and Akureyri; and Reykjavik (the world's northernmost capital, with the Hallgrímskirkja church, the harbour-side Harpa concert hall, the Reykjavik Art Museum, and a famously alive bar-and-music scene for a city of 130,000).

A 7-10 day Iceland trip: Reykjavik (2 nights — Hallgrímskirkja, Harpa Concert Hall, the Old Harbour, the Reykjavik Art Museum, dinner at Dill or Matur og Drykkur, the Friday-Saturday nightlife) → Golden Circle (1 night at a Selfoss or Reykholt base — Þingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss, the Secret Lagoon thermal spa) → South Coast self-drive (3-4 nights — Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss waterfalls, Reynisfjara black-sand beach, Vík village, Skaftafell glacier hike, Jökulsárlón iceberg lagoon, the Diamond Beach) → optional Snæfellsnes Peninsula (2 nights) or northern circuit including Akureyri and Mývatn (3 nights) for the full Ring Road around the island. Winter trips swap the Snæfellsnes/north for Northern Lights chasing (October-March) and ice-cave tours under Vatnajökull glacier (November-March).