Nature And Outdoors in Iceland

Iceland's outdoors is laid out along circular routes, and the Golden Circle is usually taken first: the Thingvellir rift where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart, the Haukadalur geyser field and Gullfoss waterfall. The audio-guided version runs seven and a half hours at 96 dollars — the cheapest door into the Icelandic landscape.

The north has a circle of its own. The Diamond route around Húsavík takes eight hours at 327 dollars, while a shorter day at Lake Mývatn with Godafoss waterfall runs seven hours for 200. The same coast sends boats out to the whales: sailings from Húsavík and Árskógssandur last two and a half to three and a half hours from 109 dollars. The south coast with its black beaches is covered in ten and a half hours, 123 dollars.

Helicopters form a category apart. A forty-minute lift over the capital costs 310 dollars; an hour-long geothermal route with a landing beside the steaming fields, 463. GetExperience lists 75 outdoor programmes in Iceland, from 96 to 2397 dollars and 35 minutes to fourteen hours long. Weather changes plans here more often than timetables do: pages state what happens if a departure is cancelled.