Iceland - what2see...where2go???

Many of you have approached us with questions related to your limited time in Iceland and recommendations of places to visit and things to do.

Well, as a starter, I encourage you to read a bit about 'going around Iceland' that will tune you well for the topic.

And here is a main dish that should help you make up your minds much easier when working on your Icelandic itinerary.

SEASONS:
Peak season for visiting Iceland is summer time - that´s when most tourists are here. The numbers of tourists have been increasing really fast in the past years and one can say that JUNE, JULY and AUGUST are the months with highest density of tourists on the island. Based on the recent statistics from the Icelandic Tourist Board, 90.000 tourists have passed Keflavik int. airport in June 2013 (bear in mind, though, that there´re around 320.000 people living in Iceland).

In the past years, there have been efforts to stretch the season to May and September, but it´s been going slowly and in case you prefer avoiding tourists crowds and some overpriced services, you might want to consider these months too.
There´s a nice timeline available that will give you an idea of some pros and cons of choosing certain months for your travel to Iceland - just bear in mind that the temperature is average and that we get to have beautiful sunny days with up to 24 degrees Celcius. This year, it even lasted for two weeks in a row in June, here in the North Iceland  - most likely to compensate for our hard winter :).

PLACES TO SEE

Apparently,  everyone seems to know that Iceland is a cool weekend for U.S. East Coasters: 

Reykjavik, the Blue Lagoon Spa and the Golden Circle are the popular stops on that quick trip. BUT! We, at Go local Iceland, love thinking beyond those spots and motivate you choose certain bit of Iceland and give your self enough time to discover that particular area with all its unique places and people it has. One option is to take a 45-min. flight north to Akureyri (Iceland's second-largest town with population 17,000) and  check out North Iceland,  or Arctic North, as they call it. You can easily be here for a week and be left with the feeling that it was not enough to discover all what you´d originally planned.

It might be of immense help to study the official website of a marketing office of North Iceland that lists all the tourism providers registered in the area. Not only are you getting the overview of what is there to see, but also some objectivity level.  It is an agency responsible for advertising everybody in the  concerned area, the only thing to bear in mind is that all providers can buy themselves a membership at this agency and then they´re listed with the picture also. Other than that, you´re getting an overview of all providers who have obtained licenses to operate their services and it´s rather objective or at least aims to be.

I´ll leave you thinking and while you carry on with your planning, this is a desert for today:
Myvatn Nature Spa offers a mini version of the Blue Lagoon -- without the tourists.

Our advice on MUST SEES to be continued in the next article.