Reykjavik, Iceland – the country’s capital – used to be primarily a gateway for outdoor adventure seekers strapped into hiking boots and laden with provisions. Recently, that’s changed. To many urban-loving travellers, Reykjavik is a cosmopolitan city nurturing its own art, music, clothing design and café scene, all within view of a remarkable landscape defined by looming glaciers, snowcovered mountains and miles of moonscape-like lava fields.
But don’t worry: Hiking, golfing, snowmobiling and mountain climbing are definitely options, particularly during the tourism ‘off season’ which is basically any month other than July and August. Individual and group tours around Ring Road that circles the island are possible year round, but the rugged interior with few roads is best left to those with a survivalist instinct.
A popular attraction for both locals and visitors, the Blue Lagoon’s hot, mineral waters boast healing properties.

Tourism is the number one growing industry in Iceland, still second to fishing. Yet, many picture Iceland a snow-covered, remote island loved by extreme sports enthusiasts, inspired to visit after watching the ice climbing contest on television’s Amazing Race. Sure you can do adventurous things in this country, ranging from extreme to soft rankings depending on your tolerance for the elements and physical challenges. But despite it’s northern latitude (still south of the Arctic Circle), Iceland is a Scandinavian country with one of the highest standards of living in the world, and therefore all the creature comforts of chic urban living, especially in Reykjavik.
This city, with a population of about 120,000 (one-third the entire country), hosts upscale hotels, two live theatres, an opera, an orchestra symphony and several art galleries.
Thanks to Icelandair’s direct flights to Reykjavik from Toronto and Halifax, Canadians are starting to explore the uniqueness of this contemporary city once settled, then abandoned, by Vikings. There’s still a sketch of evidence of Iceland’s Hagar past on view too: When developers expanded roads west in the capital city, they found remains of an oval-shaped Viking farmhouse just below the current street level. They called in archaeologists who dated the find to about 871 AD, and government officials built a museum around it called The Settlement Exhibition. A piece of the site can also be seen from Aoalstraeti Street under a plastic dome in front of Fiala Kotfurinn, one of the best seafood restaurants in Old Town.
Steps away from Reykjavik’s ‘Old Town’ area, popular with tourista, is the city’s active harbour where fishing trawlers share dock space with whale watching tour boats. Fish is the dinner of choice at any restaurant here – Arctic Char almost leaps from the freezing ocean onto your plate so nothing, anywhere, tastes fresher.
Reykjavik is the ideal blend of Scandinavian sophistication and maritime roots. Locals joke there’s little crime here because whatever you do, everyone will know you did it. And on Friday and Saturday summer nights, the youthful sect spill into the downtown streets when the bars close at 4 a.m. and keep the party going under the strange hue of morning sunrise.
A rationed friendliness defines this part of the world that experiences 20 hours of sunlight during the summer and four hours during the winter. Iceland is also fiercely protective of its cultural identity – from literature to language, notorious work ethic to European aversion to small talk.
There’s no GAP, McDonald’s or Starbucks on Laugavegur Street, downtown’s main shopping strip. There are however numerous independent designers with street-front studios stitching up chic minimalist looks. You can tell a local from a visitor with one glance at the feet: sexy footwear and they’re Icelandic; practical walking shoes and they’re here temporarily. Laugavegur is also the place to find international designer brands such as Hugo Boss along side outdoor outfitters, boutique hotels, book stores and four dollar cups of coffee.
Like most of Scandinavia, this is not an inexpensive place to travel. But with higher price tags come better quality food, sophisticated shops and stylish accommodations. There’s a 25 per cent sales tax here that makes the GST look like pocket change, but visitors are entitled to a 15 per cent refund on any purchase above about $60. Icelanders work hard and pay high prices, but in exchange this small nation offers its people enviable benefits like public education, universal health care and even earthquake and natural disaster insurance, because this is after all, a volcanically active island.
And that’s another thing about Iceland: 80 per cent of the country’s energy is geothermal – heat generated by the activity below the earth’s surface. There’s no air pollution, and one might say Icelanders are a bit smug about their lack of smog. This is the land of volcanoes, glaciers, geysers, hardened lava fields and tectonic plate crevices, all that is within easy access of Reykjavik via any number of the tour services including Greyline Tours that provides door-to-door service with every excursion.
Yet, Iceland is not a typical ‘tourist destination.’ No one hawks tickets in the streets, or lobbies for your travel dollar at every turn. Icelanders fiercely understand the necessity of keeping natural wonders pristine – there are no souvenir shops built up around the geysers, and no observation platforms or stairs marring the beauty of Gullfoss, a 32-metre-high rumbling waterfall that tumbles into a 2.5 km ravine. It’s a national treasure and the highlight on the popular Golden Circle Tour through the southwest region. (Wear good walking shoes and climb carefully). There are boardwalks winding through the Pingvellir National Park (also on the tour). It’s the former site of an early form of democratic government called the National Assembly, established in 930 AD and maintained for three centuries. The walkway is there to keep parading feet from trampling the natural brush surrounding the nearby giant fissure created by the slow separation of the European and American tectonic plates that collide through the centre of Iceland.
Equestrian lovers will prefer experiencing the countryside via Icelandic Pony, a charming sturdy breed that is to Iceland what donkeys are to Mexico. All ponies on Iceland are descendants of the first stock brought to the country by Norwegian settlers in the ninth century, and the country has not imported a horse for 800 years. Unlike other horses, Icelandic ponies have a fourth gait, a combination trot/walk that has the stout puppy-like creatures kicking their hooves slightly sideways. Plenty of tour companies run horse excursions, all year long, by the hour, day and even week through the vast landscape that kind of resembles Canada’s Badlands (where the expansive prairies kiss the base of the Rockies).
And finally don’t forget the Blue Lagoon outdoor spa. In a land known for natural wonders, the most visited attraction, by both tourists and locals, is not a result of the universe’s divine intervention but an accident of modern technology. For decades, the Svartsengi power plant has pumped extremely hot water from beneath the earth’s surface, using it to generate electricity and heat fresh water. The cooler run-off water, laden with silica, salt and minerals, collects in an area now called the Blue Lagoon. At first, no one was allowed near the bubbling pools, until it was discovered the healing waters helped psoriasis and eczema. Renovated in 1999, it’s now a popular health spa surrounded by a wooden deck with indoor change rooms, lockers, café, restaurant and gift store that carries natural mud products.
Like almost everything in Iceland, the experience is an exercise in extremes: Plunging into the lagoon is the opposite of a polar bear dip. Bathers dodge from the change rooms, clutching towels around their bathing suit-clad bodies, then drop the towels on the deck, race through the cold air and sink into the waist-deep hot tub temperature water feeling the sand-like minerals squishing through their toes. The steam wafts over everyone’s heads, and on most days lifeguards keep watch, head-to-toe in yellow fisherman’s slickers, sometimes bracing against the wind. It’s a surreal experience on a trip to a seemingly far away land, only a five-hour flight from home.
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