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HOLIDAYS TO ICELAND
A GRAND TOUR OF ICELAND
13 days from £2075 pp
Circumnavigate the whole of the island for an extravaganza of hot springs, steaming fumaroles, curtain waterfalls, melt water streams, moss clad lava fields, black sand deserts, outwash plains, glaciers and lakes. Unearth Iceland’s ancient Norse culture, learn of their Sagas, enjoy a trip on a glacial lagoon and fly home with a treasure trove of memories to last a lifetime.
DAY 1 UK-REYKJAVÍK Scheduled Icelandair flight to Reykjavík. Transfer on arrival and overnight at Grand Hotel Reykjavik.
DAYS 2 REYKJAVÍK -BORGARFJÖRÐUR Collection from your hotel, meet your guide and fellow travellers before heading east for a day seeing the trio of sights collectively known as the Golden Circle: Geysir with its hot springs and steaming fumaroles, Gullfoss (literally Golden Fall) whose waters cascade down a 3 step staircase before torrenting down a gorge and Þingvellir, a lake filled valley of awesome beauty. Overnight in the Borgarfjörður area for 2 nights.
DAY 3 SNÆFELLSNES Drive around the Snæfellesnes peninsula whose kaleidoscopally coloured mountain spine is dominated by a glacier dubbed by an English explorer the eternal pyramid of snow; visit Arnarstapi with its basalt rocks, rock arches and bird cliffs and take a boat trip out into Breiðafjörður to spot for puffins and white tailed eagles.
DAY 4 EYJAFJÖRÐUR/ÞINGEYJARSÝSLA Visit Hraufossar where the water trickles into the river from the edge of a lava field and Reykholt, legendary home to 13th century top trouble maker and man of letters, Snorri Sturluson, before heading for Skagafjörður and an equestrian show introducing the Icelandic horse with its unique fifth gait the ‘tolt’. Overnight in the Eyjafjörður/Þingeyjarsýsla area for 3 nights.
DAY 5 EYJARFJÖRÐUR Visit Akureyri (Iceland’s second metropolis with fully 17,000 people calling it home) before a boat trip to Hrisey, a flat teardrop island with more ptarmigan than people, lying in Eyjafjörður and a visit to the fishing village of Dalvík whose most notable son Heiðar currently plays for Bolton.
DAY 6 GOÐAFOSS - MÝVATN Stop at Goðafoss en route to the jewel in Iceland’s crown: Lake Mývatn with its shoreline surreally fringed with cones, craters and tortuously shaped volcanic detritus all circumscribing its vast placid sheet of water dotted with islets in the manner of water lilies. Ornithologists will need to keep an eye out for the prolific birdlife here including a number of rare breeds of duck.
DAY 7 DETTIFOSS – FLJÓTSDALSHÉRAÐ Travel around the Tjörnes peninsula past Ásbýrgi a huge horseshoe shaped cliff before stopping at Dettifoss, a plunge waterfall just a notch behind Gullfoss on the waterfall Richter scale and continue across a vast seemingly endless glacial rock desert across to Egilsstaðir. Overnight for 3 nights.
DAY 8 FLJÓTSDALUR - SEYÐISFJÖRÐUR Follow the forested fringes of Lake Logurinn and the farmhouse at Skriduklaustur with its monastic remains along to Hengifoss for a walk up to the towering fall framed by basaltic strata interwoven with thin layers of red clay and fossilized conifers. Visit Seyðisfjörður with its unique collection of clapboard wooden buildings originally brought to the country in kit form by Norwegian settlers.
DAY 9 BORGAFJÖRÐUR EYSTRI Down to the fishing village Bakkagerði nestled at the head of the fjord whose rhyolite environs contain extinct volcanoes at either end divided by glacial incursion and whose dark basalt coloured mountains change their hue with the weather.
DAY 10 FLJÓTSDALSHÉRAÐ -SKAFTAFELL Travel along the coast under the shadow of Vatnajökull one of whose glacier tongues leads down to the Jökulsárlon lagoon, unquestionably one of Iceland’s ‘wow factors’ where small bergs having calved away from the glacier’s edge drift slowly towards the sea taking in some cases years to do so. Get up close and personal with them on a boat trip before continuing to Skaftafell. Overnight for 2 nights.
DAY 11 SKAFTAFELL A Day spent walking in Skaftafell Natural Park with its contrasting landscapes of dwarf birch woodland, glacial tongues and melt water rivers, moorland and sand plains. There is a walk to Svartifoss (literally the black waterfall) flanked by basalt columns and from there to Sjónarsker returning via Skaftafell turf roofed farm. Alternative less demanding and more arduous routes respectively, are across Skaftafell moor and up to the glacial tongue Skaftafelsjökull.
DAY 12 SKAFTAFELL - REYKJAVÍK The penultimate day of your tour takes you over the outwash plain Skeiðararsandur , Elhraun lava fields and the black sand beaches of Mýrdalssandur to Skógar with its carefully and authentically preserved wooden houses. Continue to Skogarfoss and onto Seljandafoss, the south coast´s curtain waterfalls both dropping down some 50 to 60 metres creating clouds of mist at their base, before returning to Reykjavík.
DAY 13 REYKJAVÍK – UK Morning at leisure with time for last minute shopping before transfer to airport and return flight to the UK.
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Map of tour
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