Iceland: Regions, Cities & Travel Guide

What is Iceland known for?

Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the rift where two tectonic plates pull apart, and the country is known for geysers, frequent volcanic eruptions, ice-capped peaks and the geothermal hot springs that draw travellers north. The capital gathers most of the life. Reykjavík holds the bulk of the people, the harbours and the flights, while Akureyri anchors the north and the long ring road threads the rest of the island past lava fields, glacial rivers and the open Atlantic shore.

Where is Iceland?

Iceland is an island set alone in the North Atlantic, just south of the Arctic Circle, where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge breaks the surface of the sea. The land sits astride a rift between tectonic plates, and that split runs the whole length of the country, feeding the geysers, lava fields and volcanoes that build and reshape the island. The interior is barren.

A high volcanic plateau of sand, lava and ice fills the middle of Iceland, its mountains and glaciers shedding glacial rivers that run down to the sea through the lowlands where almost everyone lives. The coast does the living. Reykjavík and the capital towns of Kópavogur and Hafnarfjörður gather on a southwestern bay, Keflavík guards the airport on the Reykjanes tip, and Selfoss spreads across the southern lowland below the highland ice.

The north keeps its own world. Akureyri sits deep on a long northern fjord cut inland from the Atlantic, far from the capital, a reminder that the inhabited edge of Iceland is a thin ring of coast wrapped around an empty volcanic heart.

What is the history of Iceland?

Iceland grew from a settled farming society on a hard volcanic edge. Its people are culturally and politically tied to Europe, the westernmost of the Nordic lands and the most thinly peopled, and the country long stood as a remote dependency before stepping toward statehood. Sovereignty came in stages.

Iceland became a sovereign state in 1918, joined in union with the Danish crown, and the modern country traces its independent footing to those early twentieth-century years. The land set the terms of every settlement. Reykjavík grew on its sheltered southwestern bay into the capital and the seat of power, drawing the bulk of the people off the farms and into one harbour city.

The provinces kept their own lives. Akureyri held the north around its long fjord, the southern lowland filled out around Selfoss, and the fishing and farming coast stayed the thread on which the whole history of Iceland was strung, a young nation built on an old and unforgiving island.

What is Iceland like?

Iceland keeps a tight, distinctive national culture. The Icelandic language binds the country together, a Nordic tongue held close on an isolated island, and the people read as one cultural community despite the empty distances between their towns. Life centres on the capital.

Reykjavík holds most of the population, the cultural institutions and the social life of the country, giving Iceland an unusually concentrated character for a nation spread across so wide a coast. The land itself shapes the culture. Geothermal hot springs are a daily part of life rather than a curiosity, the volcanic landscape feeds a deep attachment to the outdoors, and the long swings of polar dark and summer light set the rhythm of the year.

The provinces hold their own. Akureyri carries the cultural weight of the north around its fjord, the southern lowland gathers around Selfoss, and across the island the Icelandic identity stays rooted in language, sea and the raw volcanic country that made it.

What is the climate of Iceland?

Iceland is milder than its northern position suggests. The Gulf Stream warms the coast and gives the lowlands of Reykjavík and the south a temperate, changeable climate rather than a frozen one, with cool summers, grey damp winters and weather that turns fast off the Atlantic. Inland is a harsher world.

The high volcanic plateau and its glaciers stay cold and snowbound, the outer islands tip toward a polar climate, and even the warmest summers stay chilly under the marine air, leaving Iceland sharply split between its temperate coastal ring and its frozen heart.

How do you get to Iceland?

For nearly every traveller, the visit to Iceland begins on a plane. Iceland's main international gateway sits at Keflavík on the volcanic Reykjanes tip southwest of the capital, a short road hop from Reykjavík, and nearly all visitors to the island arrive through it. The road takes over from there.

A single ring road circles the whole coast, threading south past Selfoss and the lowland waterfalls and running north to Akureyri on its fjord, while ferries and small flights reach the outer corners of Iceland that the road leaves out.