Travel and Tourism in Iceland

Thingvellir National Park

Þingvellir, meaning Parliament Plains, is simultaneously one of the most historically significant and one of the most geologically extraordinary places in Iceland. It occupies a rift valley created by the same tectonic pulling-apart that drives all of Iceland's volcanism, the valley floor sinking as the North American and Eurasian plates diverge. Standing in the rift at Þingvellir, you are literally standing in the gap between two continental plates. The plates are moving apart at a rate of roughly two centimeters per year, and the valley floor is subsiding as they do so, dropping several millimeters annually. The geology is visible in the dramatic cliff faces that line the rift, with the American plate wall rising on the west and the Eurasian plate wall on the east.

The Alþing met at Þingvellir from its establishment in 930 CE until 1798, when the assembly was moved to Reykjavík. The site was chosen with practical genius for its time, a natural amphitheater in the rift valley where thousands of people could gather, with the Almannagjá gorge creating natural acoustics that allowed the Lawspeaker to address the assembly. The Lawspeaker was the most important official of the Commonwealth period, responsible for memorizing and reciting the laws from the Law Rock, Lögberg, each year, since the laws were not written down in the early centuries. The location of the original Law Rock is marked today, and standing on it while looking down the valley gives a powerful sense of what those annual gatherings must have been like.

The Öxará River runs through the Þingvellir rift, and the pools formed where it enters the rift were used historically for drowning as a form of execution, primarily of women convicted of infanticide. The site, called Drekkingarhylur, is sobering in its combination of natural beauty and historical horror. Adjacent to it, Almannagjá gorge is one of the most dramatic walks in southwestern Iceland, a narrow ravine through basalt walls that channels the eye toward the distant mountains of the Langjökull glacier.

Þingvellir was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 for both its geological significance, as a visible expression of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, and its historical significance as the site of the world's oldest parliament. The national park also includes Lake Þingvallavatn, the largest lake in Iceland, and the surrounding lava fields and birch scrub that give the area a particular wild beauty.

The most spectacular activity at Þingvellir, increasingly popular in recent years, is snorkeling or scuba diving in the Silfra fissure, a crack in the earth's surface filled with glacial meltwater that has been filtered through the lava for decades before reaching Silfra. The result is water of extraordinary clarity, with visibility of one hundred meters or more, and a temperature that stays at around two degrees Celsius year-round. The fissure runs between two continents, making it technically possible to touch the North American plate wall with one hand and the Eurasian plate wall with the other while hovering in the water. Silfra is consistently rated among the top diving and snorkeling sites in the world, not for its marine life, which is very limited in water this cold and clear, but for the extraordinary quality of the water itself and the surreal experience of floating between two tectonic plates.

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

Reynisfjara, the black sand beach near the village of Vík í Mýrdal, is one of the most dramatic beaches in the world. The beach is formed from volcanic material, basalt and obsidian, that has been ground to fine black sand by centuries of wave action. The sand is jet black, the waves are white, and the sky above the North Atlantic is frequently dramatic, and the combination creates a visual intensity that is unlike any other beach landscape in Europe. The Reynisdrangar, three basalt sea stacks rising from the water offshore, add a theatrical vertical element to the view.

According to Icelandic legend, the Reynisdrangar were trolls caught by daylight while attempting to drag a ship to shore, turned to stone at dawn as trolls invariably are in Norse tradition. The stacks have names: Landdrangar and Langanes and Gardar. Basalt columns climb the cliffs at the east end of the beach, including a remarkable cave called Hálsanefshellir where the columns form a ceiling of extraordinary geometric precision, hexagonal pillars packed together as tightly as the cells of a honeycomb.

Reynisfjara is also one of Iceland's best places to see Atlantic puffins, which nest in burrows in the grassy tops of the headland above the beach during the summer months. Dozens of puffins can typically be seen from the top of the headland in June and July, standing at the entrances to their burrows, flying in with fish, and performing the somewhat comical landings that their large, bright beaks and small wings make inevitably undignified.

The beach is genuinely dangerous. The waves at Reynisfjara are unpredictable and powerful, and sneaker waves, waves that arrive unexpectedly and with great force, have swept numerous visitors from the beach to their deaths. Warning signs are prominent, but each year visitors who ignore them are caught by the surf. The rule is to watch the ocean constantly and never turn your back to it, and to stay well back from the water line even when the sea appears calm.

Vatnajokull National Park

Vatnajökull National Park, established in 2008 and expanded subsequently, is the largest national park in Europe at approximately 14,100 square kilometers, encompassing the Vatnajökull ice cap and the diverse landscapes surrounding it. Its inscription as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019 recognized both its geological significance, as an outstanding example of ongoing volcanic and glacial processes, and its natural beauty. The park combines ice, fire, and water in proportions and with an intensity found nowhere else on earth.

The ice caves that form inside Vatnajökull each winter are among the most spectacular natural attractions in Iceland and among the most extraordinary ice formations on earth. As temperatures drop in late autumn, the meltwater that flows through tunnels within the glacier freezes, and the refreezing of the water creates formations of crystal-clear blue ice unlike anything produced by normal glacier ice formation. The color of the ice in these caves, a deep, saturated blue that intensifies with depth, is produced by the compression of the ice under the weight of the glacier above, which has driven out all the air bubbles that give normal ice its white appearance. The result is ice of such clarity and color that it looks more like glass than frozen water, and the caves formed from it are among the most otherworldly spaces accessible to visitors anywhere in Europe.

The ice caves are accessible only in winter, when the ice is cold enough to be stable, and only with licensed guides. The cave entrances are located by the guides each season, as the glacier moves and the cave systems change from year to year. Some winters produce particularly spectacular cave formations, and the demand for ice cave tours typically outstrips the capacity of available guided places. Booking months in advance is essential for anyone who wants to experience the caves.

Glacier hiking on Vatnajökull and its outlet glaciers is one of the most popular outdoor activities in Iceland. Guided walks on the ice are available year-round from several locations, including Skaftafell in the southwest of the park, where the relatively accessible Svínafellsjökull and Falljökull outlet glaciers offer glacier walking for everyone from complete beginners to experienced mountaineers. The experience of walking on a glacier, hearing the creak and pop of the ice underfoot and around you, crossing crevasses on snow bridges, and looking out from the ice surface across the black sandur plains to the Atlantic is one that stays with visitors long after they return home.

Skaftafell, the former national park that was incorporated into Vatnajökull National Park on its establishment, contains the famous Svartifoss waterfall, whose name means Black Falls. The waterfall drops over a cliff of perfectly formed hexagonal basalt columns, the black columns surrounding the white water on three sides in a natural arrangement of geometric precision that inspired the architect Guðjón Samúelsson's design for Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík. The walk to Svartifoss from the Skaftafell visitor center passes through birch scrub and along ridges with views of the glacier, and is one of the most satisfying short hikes in Iceland.

Öræfajökull, the highest peak in Iceland at 2,110 meters above sea level, is an active stratovolcano that erupted catastrophically in 1362 in one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in Icelandic history, destroying the entire settled area of Öræfi and killing virtually all inhabitants. The subsequent eruption in 1727 was less catastrophic but still caused significant damage. The peak rises from the Vatnajökull ice cap and is a challenging but accessible mountaineering objective, requiring crampons and ice axes and normally completed over two days with a night in the hut near the summit.

Grímsvötn, located beneath the central ice cap of Vatnajökull, is Iceland's most frequently active volcano, having erupted in 1983, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2011, and additional times with less intensity. The 2011 eruption sent an ash column twenty kilometers into the atmosphere and disrupted air travel across northern Europe. Between eruptions, Grímsvötn quietly melts the ice above it, creating a subglacial lake that periodically releases catastrophically through jökulhlaup floods, which rush across the sandur plains to the south and have historically destroyed roads, bridges, and everything else in their path.

The Vestmannaeyjar: Islands of Fire and Puffins

The Vestmannaeyjar, the Westman Islands, are a small archipelago of volcanic islands lying roughly eight kilometers off the southern coast of Iceland. There are roughly fifteen islands in the group, but only the largest, Heimaey, is inhabited, with a population of approximately four thousand people. The islands are among the youngest land on earth by geological standards, with the newest island, Surtsey, having risen from the sea in a volcanic eruption between 1963 and 1967, since which time it has been monitored as a natural laboratory for the study of the colonization of new land by life.

The most dramatic event in the history of the Vestmannaeyjar was the eruption of Eldfell on January 23, 1973. Shortly before two in the morning, a volcanic fissure opened without warning across the northeastern end of Heimaey island, sending lava fountains into the night sky immediately adjacent to the island's houses, fishing fleet, and harbor. In an extraordinary feat of emergency organization, the entire population, roughly five thousand people, was evacuated by boat to the mainland within hours. Every inhabitant of the island made it off safely.

The eruption continued for more than five months, pouring lava across a third of the island's surface and burying over four hundred houses. But the most remarkable aspect of the Eldfell eruption was the human response. Rather than watching the lava advance toward the island's crucial harbor, volunteers pumped millions of tons of cold seawater onto the advancing lava flow, cooling it and causing it to slow and eventually stop at the edge of the harbor entrance. The volcanic harbor wall that resulted from this effort actually improved the harbor's shelter from North Atlantic storms. The town was rebuilt, many residents returned, and life on Heimaey continued. The Eldheimar museum, opened on the site of one of the buried houses, preserves the excavated remains of a house buried under lava, creating a vivid monument to the eruption and the human story of survival.

The Vestmannaeyjar are home to the largest Atlantic puffin colony in the world, with roughly sixty percent of Iceland's total puffin population breeding on the islands during summer months. The sight of puffins wheeling above the sea cliffs and the ability to walk among nesting burrows at close range is one of the great wildlife spectacles of the North Atlantic. Icelandic children have a tradition of collecting puffin chicks that tumble from the cliffs in August, confused by the lights of the town, and carrying them to the sea for release, a charming practice of environmental stewardship embedded in island life from childhood.

Surtsey itself is closed to all but scientists, who have been documenting the colonization of the new island by life since its emergence from the sea. Mosses, lichens, seabirds, earthworms, and plants have colonized the island in a sequence that has been observed and recorded in extraordinary detail, creating one of the most complete scientific records of ecological succession ever achieved. Surtsey was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2008.