Friday 6 August 2010

Touring in Iceland

Outside of Reykjavik, without a car it’s a bit of a trek to get to places in Iceland, public buses outside of the city run about once or twice a day. It’s a lot easier to book on to a tour, the whole week we were there we did at least one tour a day.

The Golden Circle Tour – A very popular all day tour to a few of the major sites around Reykjavik, Gullfloss – a massive two tiered waterfall, the geysier site with the original geysier - the one all others are named after and the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in Pingvellir national park. They also a trip to a local geothermal power station.

Whale and Puffin Watching – The pictures in the brochure lead you to believe that you’ll see a humpback whale jump out of the ocean. We didn’t see a tail or a whole whale jump out of the water. We saw the back of a couple of minke whales as they came to the surface to breath.

Glacial Walking – One very outdoorsy guide, who for fun, abseils down the holes in a glacier and hikes around underneath. Different experience to trample around on a glacier. With the crampons on it's like stomping around like a stroppy two year old. Met a couple of guys taking a week long viking tour, who work for TerraCycle, a really interesting company who recycle packaging into usable products.

Iceland Pony Trek – Ponies were all cute, tough little things and the ride though the lava fields was fun. They needed some serious operational improvements, tour started about an hour late.

Blue Lagoon - There's no guide, it's bus transfer and entrance, which is  cheaper to take than get the bus and entrance separately. An Icelandic onsen experience, you need to shower naked in the changing room then put on a swimming costume to go out into the large communal pool.

Glacial Lagoon Boat Tour – One of the most stunning places I’ve been to in a really long time, the boat tour out in the lagoon is worth taking to see the lagoon from a different angle. I like that this place is constantly changing, pieces of ice breaking off, moving around. So, everyone's photos of the lagoon wouldn't be the same from day to day.

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