Introduction

We decided to go to Iceland for our 1997 holiday as it was high on our hit-list of destinations. It had added appeal to us as an unusual destination, reportedly very beautiful, with unique countryside and some unusual geographical features which no other location near the UK could match. Also, we are not particularly keen on lazing around on beaches and generally prefer active, less sun-oriented holidays with a touring, nature or outdoor theme. We are, however, very keen on our home comforts, and we are not die-hard camping or hiking types. We're quite fussy about our accommodation and food, very critical of poor standards and can generally be relied upon to applaud good service and be critical where necessary.

As our 10,000-word review unfolds, you will see that Iceland as a destination impressed and delighted us, though inevitably there are some things we would change, given the choice.

Why this review?

We hope that this information is useful to people who may be interested in visiting Iceland, and will help them form an opinion of the country as seen through unbiased eyes.

Our experiences are entirely our own views, and everything we did was done as a paying member of the public: none of the establishments or locations we visited had any idea that we would be writing a review in which they may be mentioned, and this review and all the photography is entirely our own work. It is not funded by any organisation with a vested interest.

While looking for information on Iceland on the internet, I failed to find very much which wasn't tourist-board generated and all I could find was factual information (this was useful, however). Similarly, a well-stocked bookshop in central London only yielded one book suitable for tourists going to Iceland. This is a shame, and is partly why we decided to write up our experiences there.

There is an apparent shortage of eye-witness accounts of Icelandic holidays, and while this continues, we hope that this exhaustive catalogue of our holiday (including our opinions, discoveries and experiences along the way) provides interesting reading as well as an informative background to what we found to be a fascinating and richly varied destination.

We hope you enjoy reading our Iceland Travel Review.

Click for first day report

© Richard Harrison

All photographs are © Richard Harrison and Samantha Coe 1997