Iceland has been the hot new tourist destination for the past several years. I’m not sure who is in charge of their marketing and promotions department, but whoever it is, they need a raise. It seems as though every travel blogger I follow has been posting their own photos of Iceland.
I barely remember hearing anything about the tiny Nordic island nation five years ago. Now, it seems everyone is rushing to experience the country for themselves. And for good reason — the country is stunning.
Looking for a guide for the best things to do in Iceland? Click here!
Some facts about Iceland-
- The country is tiny — I mean seriously small. The entire island is just over 100,000 square km or 40,000 square miles. To put that into perspective — my home country of the United States is NINETY FIVE times larger than Iceland. Here’s a map I found comparing Iceland to the size of California:
- The entire country has a population of less than 350,000 people, and more than two-thirds of locals live in Reykjavik.
- Because they have such a small population, the number one dating app in Iceland is called Íslendinga-App, and the app has actually been designed to make sure your potential romantic interest isn’t somehow related to you!
- Iceland is consistently named one of the, if not the, most peaceful nations on Earth.
- More than half the population of Iceland believes in elves, or “the hidden people” they call them.
- Until March 1, 1989 beer was illegal in Iceland! Now the country celebrates Beer Day every March 1st to commemorate its legalization.
- Iceland is the only country in the world where every citizen has access to the internet.
- There are (thankfully) no McDonald’s anywhere in Iceland.
- Iceland is one of the few countries that has no snakes, and in fact owning a snake as a pet is illegal.
- Until 1987, in an effort to encourage people to get out and socialize, nothing was aired on TV on Thursdays. And until 1983, no TV was aired during the month of July, because it was considered a vacation month.
- One out of every ten Icelanders will publish a book during their lifetime
Looking for a guide for the best things to do in Iceland? Click here!
If these facts alone aren’t enough to make you want to book a trip, here are my favorite photos of Iceland from my recent visit:
Waterfalls
If there is a country with more waterfalls than Iceland, I would love to visit. As we drove along the highway, a new, huge waterfall would appear every time we turned a corner. Some of the larger ones were set back off of the highway, while others flowed directly beside it.
Wide Open Spaces
Even though we visited during summer, which is peak season, we often drove with the roads all to ourselves. It was almost surreal to have this long stretch of highway surrounded by rolling green hills and frequent waterfalls laid out before us without anyone around to disturb the scene.
Midnight Sun
With such long summer days in Iceland, you’ll experience a phenomenon known as midnight sun. Although the sun has set and will rise again only a few hours later, it’s still bright outside. Even at midnight, there’s still plenty of sunlight. The opposite phenomenon occurs in winter, when Iceland only receives sunlight a few hours a day.
Idyllic towns
We completed the famous “Ring Road” on our journey, which is essentially a road trip that takes you around the entire country. As you drive along, keep in mind that only one-third of the population lives in these more rural areas. You’ll pass the most gorgeous postcard-worthy towns.
Wildlife
In Iceland, you’ll have plenty of chances to get seriously close to the wildlife. Much of the wildlife roams free. In fact our car rental company warned us about suicidal sheep! They don’t pay attention to motorists before they run across the highway. Fortunately, we didn’t encounter any sheep with death wishes on our trip.
If you approach them very quietly, you can also capture photos of Iceland’s famous puffins. This photo took more than thirty minutes to capture, but it was completely worth it. One popular place to find puffins in Iceland is on your dinner plate, as locals often dine on them. Raw puffin heart is considered a local delicacy.
To read about the best meals I found during my time in Iceland click here.
Geyser Hot Springs
A popular stop on the Ring Road is the Geyser Hot Springs. These geysers are highly active and erupt every few minutes, spouting water up to 30 meters (100 feet) into the air.
Nearby the geysers, boiling mud pits and steam vents can be found. The temperatures of the boiling mud pits can reach up to 200 degrees Celsius or nearly 400 degrees Fahrenheit!
Some of the purest water on the planet
The water in Iceland is so clean that even the government’s tourism website encourages you to drink straight from the source. One of the best ways to cut costs in this notoriously expensive country is to refill your water bottles every time you see a river or stream.
Glacier Lagoon
I’ve saved the best for last — the world-famous Glacier Lagoon. The lagoon is filled with large chunks of ice that were once part of larger glaciers. The deep blue lagoon waters, known as Jökulsárlón, are one of the country’s most popular tourist spots.
Contrary to what you might think from the photos, the lagoon’s waters aren’t still. The large ice pieces are constantly moving, slowly drifting past.
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Totally loving this photo essay of Iceland. I went there several years ago and couldn’t believe my camera batteries were dying all the time because of the amazing scenery I was seeing!
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Thank you! Yes, it’s really one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever been to. And I agree about the camera battery. The only thing draining faster than my camera battery was my wallet. Beautiful country but I may need to sell a kidney if I ever want to go back!
I want to go just to experience some of these incredible waterfalls. Each one more majestic than the last.
The waterfalls are amazing! So many to see. There are the famous ones of course but the entire country is full of smaller but gorgeous falls.
Epic photos! We LOVED Iceland – so much incredible scenery, we had 7 days to explore the ring road and can’t wait to return. Actually laughed out loud when I read about the Íslendinga-App – that really does put it into perspective how small the community is haha! I can’t really talk being from Tasmania though where the joke is that we’re inbred on our small island State!
Now that I’ve been in the summer I really want to go during the winter and see the ice caves. Do you follow Chris Bukard’s photography pages? He does cold water surfing in Iceland in the winters and gets some truly epic shots.
Yes, I remember when I was in Iceland I posted something on my FB page about things people in Iceland like: geothermal baths, lamb hot dogs. Things they don’t like: bumping into one night stands at family reunions lol.
Loved the pics…hard to choose a favorite because they are all so good with vivid colors. We are heading to Iceland for a short visit at the end of May. Can’t wait!
I hope you have a great trip- it really is such a beautiful country!
Amazing photos of a stunning country. I can’t believe only 350,000 people live in Iceland! Lucky people. I’m definitely moving Iceland up my bucket list.
I hope you get to go soon! It is a gorgeous country. Maybe the best nature I’ve ever seen.
Only the best nature you’ve seen so far because you haven’t been to Canada yet 🙂
this is true! Some of the pics from Canada you’ve shown me look amazing!
The puffin picture is most likely to make me book my own trip – I’ve never seen a puffin! The midnight sun would also be very cool I’d really love to go to Iceland. Loved your facts – 1 in 10 people will publish a book?! Wow!
I loved the puffin shot! Yes, it’s so cool that so much of the population will publish a book. Did you also see the facts about the Icelandic nat’l football team? One of the managers is a dentist! http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36649759
It’s a dream of ours to go to Iceland! The mountains with amazing views in Iceland are just amazing – we don’t mind spending months in Iceland even if it means missing our sunny beach days in the Philippines. The trivias you mentioned made Iceland even more interesting. I think what sparked my interest more to go to Iceland is when I saw The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.
I’ve actually never seen that movie! I hear it’s good wanderlust inspiration. Maybe I should sit down and watch it sometime. It’s so cool when you watch a movie and see places you’ve been before.
This has just made me want to book my flight to Iceland right now! Its been on my bucket list for so many years & these pictures have just made my wanderlust even bigger! I’m so jealous! I WILL get to Iceland!
I’ll be following along- I can’t wait to see when you do make it there! I’m sure you’ll love it.
Iceland has been on my list but all these photos are making me want to go there badly even more!
I hope you get to go soon! It is such an a great country for anyone that loves outdoors/nature.
Iceland is one of our favorite places–it’s such a beautiful country! This makes me want to go back for a return visit. I love seeing all the waterfalls, cute towns and the puffins!
I loved all of the same things! It’s interesting when so much of the population lives in one area how densely populated the rest of the country is. It makes for some gorgeous scenery!
Oh YES! I want to be on the list of bloggers to go to Iceland next. That dramatic scenery would have my camera frothing!
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Yeah, my camera was working overtime for sure! Now that I’ve been in the summer I want to go in the winter and see how different it is. I hear the ice caves are amazing.
Loved your pictures! Great facts too about the dating app (no relatives!!) and no TV on Thursday. How great is that?! I hope to get there one day.
Yes, I love learning quirky facts about a country when I visit and Iceland certainly had a lot of interesting facts. On top of that, it’s one of the most gorgeous countries I’ve ever seen!
I think your waterfall pictures would tempt me to book a flight to Iceland! And any volcano picture because I love volcanoes. Interesting facts about the country, Icelanders look very funny!
I hope you get to go soon! It’s such an amazing country, especially if you love waterfalls. They were everywhere.
I have got to go Iceland!! I love the photos of the sunset, and of course the puffin.
You must go! It really is an amazing country. So beautiful and so much to see and do.
What are flight prices like to get there from the States? Looks amazing!
Sorry, I’m not sure– I actually flew from Europe! I used Wow Air– sometimes they have really good prices.
We did a two week road trip of Iceland last year and it was an incredible experience! Even though the island seems small, it actually takes a lot longer than you think to drive around it! That could also be because we were stopping every 5 seconds to take pictures 😉
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That was the same for us! We could have done the trip a lot quicker if we didn’t keep stopping for photos. The country is so gorgeous.
Fabulous photography! I loved all, but the Glacier Lagoon looks amazing. I wish at least one of these should be my next vacation place. I hope I will get to go 🙂 Thanks for sharing such a great places.
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I loved the glacier lagoon also! It was somehow really peaceful and very beautiful. I hope you are able to go soon also!
Oh, we have been wanting to go to Iceland for ages now. Hope someday we will. I liked the way you introduced the country with little know tidbits about the country. The midnight sun feeling would be quite eerie I think.
The midnight sun definitely took some getting used to! We would show up to our hotels at nearly midnight asking for somewhere to eat for dinner not realizing everything had closed hours ago! It felt like if they sun were out everything should be open.
You had me at geyser, but the glacier lagoons look amazing as well. It;s definitely a place I’d love to visit, but probably in the summer, we have enough snow in Canada 😉
Fair enough! Now that I’ve experienced Iceland in the summer I think the winter would make for an interesting comparison!
Wow these photos are amazing! We didn’t really need any more to tempt us to visit Iceland but after looking at these it is right at the top of our bucket list!
I hope you get to make it soon! I loved Iceland. Now that I’ve been in the summer I want to return in the winter and see how different it is then.