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Team SeeThis.Place
Complete travel guide to Iceland. Handpicked places including waterfalls, mountain roads, thermal springs, UNESCO sites, scenic drives and hidden gems. All with GPS coordinates.
Steam rises from the pool like a slow breath. 25 metres of concrete built into the mountainside in 1923, filled by hot spring water seeping up from below. You float with Eyjafjallajökull above you and nothing but wind for sound. Halfway between Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss — yet almost empty.
GPS: 63.5656, -19.6076
You lie in a river. The water is 38 degrees. Steam rises from the banks, the hills are green, and the sky over Reykjadalur in South Iceland is enormous. A 3.5 km hike from Hveragerði — then you just lie down in the current. No buildings. No walls. Just hot water flowing over you.
GPS: 64.0336, -21.2292
Milky white water. Black lava. Steam rising into Icelandic air. Blue Lagoon on the Reykjanes peninsula is 38 degrees, silica mud and a swim-up bar in the middle of a lava desert. Kitsch and magic in one mouthful. Halfway between Keflavík Airport and Reykjavík — Iceland's most famous postcard, and it knows it.
GPS: 63.8802, -22.4506
Steam drifts across the surface and dissolves the view of the pseudocraters behind Mývatn. 38 degrees. Turquoise water. North Iceland's geothermal baths sit in the middle of the volcanic landscape at Lake Mývatn — the same milky silica water as Blue Lagoon, but with craters and lava formations as backdrop instead of tourists.
GPS: 65.6308, -16.8485
Steam hangs over the water like fog. A small geyser spits every 5 minutes at the edge of the pool. Secret Lagoon — Gamla Laugin — in Flúðir has existed since 1891 and is Iceland's oldest natural bath. 38 degrees, green moss banks, steaming springs all around. Everything Blue Lagoon dreams of being.
GPS: 64.1374, -20.3094
The mountains are orange. And purple. And green. And it is not a filter — it is rhyolite, volcanic rock in colours that should not exist. In the middle of it all: a warm stream where you lie naked at 40 degrees staring up at the Icelandic highlands. Landmannalaugar is Iceland's wildest thermal bath — and you need to drive two hours on an F-road to reach it.
GPS: 63.9903, -19.0605
180 litres of boiling water per second. Deildartunguhver is Europe's most powerful hot spring, and Krauma is the spa built right next to it. Five outdoor pools, one ice bath, a steam room — and the water starts at 100 °C and is mixed down to the perfect temperature. Reykholtsdalen in West Iceland stretches green before you.
GPS: 64.6636, -21.4106
Black sand. White glaciers. And a straight road vanishing into the horizon. The stretch from Vík to Höfn is 280 km of Iceland's rawest nature — Skeiðarársandur sand desert, Vatnajökull glacier ice caps, Jökulsárlón iceberg lagoon and Diamond Beach. You drive and drive, and the landscape just keeps going.
GPS: 63.9500, -17.0000
You walk behind the waterfall. Not beside it — behind it. 60 metres of water crashes past you like a curtain, and light breaks through like a cathedral. Seljalandsfoss in South Iceland is Iceland's most photographed waterfall, and the path behind the water wall is the reason. In the evening, when the midnight sun hangs low, the water turns gold.
GPS: 63.6156, -19.9886
The ground shakes under your feet. 193 cubic metres of water per second. Dettifoss in North Iceland is Europe's most powerful waterfall — 44 metres of free fall into Jökulsárgljúfur canyon, and the spray hangs 100 metres in the air. You feel the waterfall in your chest before you see it. Ridley Scott filmed it as an alien planet in Prometheus. Not far from the truth.
GPS: 65.8147, -16.3846
Two cascades. 32 metres. And then the river vanishes into a canyon you cannot see the bottom of. Gullfoss — the golden waterfall — on the Golden Circle in South Iceland thunders with a force that makes the viewing platform vibrate. Rainbows hang in the spray like permanent installations. Sigríður Tómasdóttir threatened to throw herself into the waterfall to save it from a dam project in the 1920s. It worked.
GPS: 64.3271, -20.1199
60 metres. 25 metres wide. Perfectly rectangular, as if cut with a ruler. Skógafoss on Iceland's south coast is the waterfall that always has a rainbow — and sometimes two. You park, walk 50 metres, and stand with your face in the spray.
GPS: 63.5321, -19.5113
In the year 1000, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði threw his pagan god statues into this waterfall. Iceland became Christian. The waterfall is still called Goðafoss — waterfall of the gods. 30 metres wide, 12 metres tall, a perfect horseshoe of turquoise water in North Iceland. In winter the edges freeze into ice sculptures, and the northern lights dance above the cascade.
GPS: 65.6828, -17.5502
Water falls like a veil of white silk. 100 metres down the cliff face it spreads step by step — widest at the bottom, narrowest at the top — like a wedding cake of pure glacial meltwater. Dynjandi is not just the crown jewel of the Westfjords. It is one of the most beautiful waterfalls in all of Europe.
GPS: 65.7328, -23.1998
Water plunges between columns of black basalt hanging from the cliff edge like organ pipes. Each column is hexagonal, shaped by slowly cooling lava thousands of years ago. This was the sight that inspired the architect of Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik. Nature drew the church first.
GPS: 64.0277, -16.9753
You crawl on all fours into the darkness. The torch hits a wall of ice — sculptures shaped by dripping water over 3,500 years. Stalactites of ice, frozen cascades, figures resembling faces and animals. Lofthellir is not a tourist cave. It is another world, preserved in permafrost beneath the lava field at Mývatn.
GPS: 65.5551, -16.7221
You walk into a space so large the sound disappears. 1,585 metres of lava tunnel, up to 16 metres below the ceiling, walls in orange, black and blue-green. Vikings used it as a refuge over a thousand years ago. Today Víðgelmir is a cathedral of stone — Iceland's largest and most colourful underground chamber.
GPS: 64.7503, -20.8017
193 metres of concrete rise from the valley floor like a vertical wall. Behind it: a turquoise reservoir covering a former wilderness. In front: a canyon so deep you can barely see the bottom. Kárahnjúkar is Iceland's most controversial structure — and whatever your opinion, standing before it is overwhelming.
GPS: 64.9333, -15.8000
The sand is jet black. Waves explode white against the cliffs. Behind you, basalt columns rise like a gothic organ, and out in the surf stand the Reynisdrangar — three rock pillars said to be petrified trolls. Reynisfjara is not a beach you swim at. It is a beach you feel in your entire body.
GPS: 63.4035, -19.0474
Ice blocks stranded on jet-black sand. Some are crystal clear, others milky white, others deep blue. The sun breaks through them like gemstones. Waves wash in, topple the blocks, drag them back out. Diamond Beach is not a place you visit. It is a place that changes every minute you are there.
GPS: 64.0447, -16.1778
Icebergs drift slowly toward the sea. Blue, white, black-striped — each one unique, calved from Breiðamerkurjökull glacier and heading for the Atlantic. Seals lounge on ice floes. The light shifts every minute. Jökulsárlón is Iceland's most photographed site — and the only one where the silence is as overwhelming as the view.
GPS: 64.0703, -16.2117
You float between two continents. To your left: North America. To your right: Eurasia. Below: crystal-clear meltwater with over 100 metres of visibility. The temperature is 2 °C, but the dry suit keeps you warm. The Silfra fissure in Þingvellir is the only place on Earth where you can swim between two tectonic plates.
GPS: 64.2543, -21.1180
The canyon winds like a green serpent through the landscape. Moss-covered walls rise 100 metres on both sides, a stream glitters at the bottom, and every bend reveals a new angle. Fjaðrárgljúfur is 2 km long and 9,000 years old — carved by meltwater from a glacier that no longer exists.
GPS: 63.7714, -18.1728
Black sand, black sea, black dunes — and behind it all Vestrahorn rises 454 metres like a wall of gabbro rock. When the tide retreats, the mountain mirrors itself in the wet sand flats. It is a landscape from another planet. Or the most beautiful photo backdrop you have ever seen.
GPS: 64.2564, -14.9764
A 15-metre basalt stack that looks like a dinosaur drinking from the sea. Or a dragon. Or an elephant. Hvítserkur changes shape with the tide — at high water it stands in the sea, at low tide on bare ground. Legend says it is a troll caught by the sunrise and turned to stone. Northwest Iceland's most iconic sight.
GPS: 65.6056, -20.6317
The world's only penis museum. And it is serious. Over 300 specimens from 93 species — from the 170 cm blue whale penis to a microscopic hamster specimen. Sigurður Hjartarson started the collection in 1974 as a joke between colleagues. Today the museum draws 11,000 visitors a year. Reykjavik's most surprising attraction.
GPS: 64.1470, -21.9408
This is where the Vikings met in 930 AD and founded the world's oldest parliament. Today Alþingi has moved to Reykjavik, but the rift is still here — literally where North America and Eurasia slide apart. You stand on the edge of a tectonic plate and look down into the fissure. Geology and democracy at the same coordinates.
GPS: 64.2558, -21.1299
On 14 November 1963 the sea caught fire. An undersea volcano pushed up from the Atlantic and created a new island from nothing. Surtsey was born in fire and ash and grew to 2.7 km² in four years. Today the island is a closed laboratory — only researchers have access. Nature colonises it at its own pace, without human interference.
GPS: 63.3031, -20.6053
A glass dome resting on six enormous hot water tanks. Perlan was once Reykjavik's water supply — today it is a museum that compresses all of Iceland's nature under one roof. Indoor ice cave, planetarium, northern lights show and an exhibition explaining volcanoes, glaciers and tectonic plates as if you were eight again. And the view from the terrace covers all of Reykjavik.
GPS: 64.1286, -21.9174
Europe's largest glacier covers seven active volcanoes. Beneath the ice, Grímsvötn and Bárðarbunga simmer — ready to erupt at any time. Above the ice stretches a white nothingness larger than all of Denmark's municipalities combined. Vatnajökull National Park is 14,141 km² — 14% of all Iceland — and contains everything from ice caves to waterfalls to green valleys.
GPS: 64.4000, -16.8000
The ground still glows. Cracks of orange lava, steam rising from fresh black earth, and the smell of sulphur and new basalt. Fagradalsfjall on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula erupted in March 2021 after 800 years of silence — and has erupted repeatedly since. The lava fields are still warm underfoot.
GPS: 63.9000, -22.2660
Black desert in every direction, and then the earth opens up. The Askja caldera in Iceland's central highlands is a 50 km² collapse crater holding the deep-blue Öskjuvatn lake. Next to it lies Víti — an explosion crater filled with milky-blue, 25 °C water you can actually bathe in.
GPS: 65.0470, -16.7500
The sulphur steam stings your nose before you see the crater. Krafla is an active volcanic system in North Iceland with nine eruptions between 1975 and 1984 — the so-called Krafla Fires. The Víti crater (a different one from Askja!) holds emerald-green water, and the Leirhnjúkur lava field beside it still steams.
GPS: 65.7150, -16.7780
Snow-capped, symmetrical and deadly. In medieval times, Europeans called Hekla the 'Gateway to Hell' — monks believed damned souls vanished into its crater. The volcano in South Iceland has had over 20 major eruptions since 874, the latest in 2000. The next eruption is overdue.
GPS: 63.9830, -19.6660
The name no news anchor could pronounce. In April 2010, Eyjafjallajökull in South Iceland sent a 9 km ash column up beneath the glacier and shut down European airspace for six days. 100,000 flights cancelled, 10 million passengers stranded. The volcano looks quiet now — but the glacier still covers the crater.
GPS: 63.6310, -19.6130
At 2 AM on January 23, 1973, a 1,600-metre fissure ripped through Heimaey in the Westman Islands. All 5,300 inhabitants were evacuated within hours. Lava buried 400 houses. The Eldfell crater is still warm beneath the surface — dig 10 cm down and the sand burns.
GPS: 63.4310, -20.2420
The white cone on the horizon. Jules Verne sent his professor down into the centre of the Earth through this crater in 1864. Snæfellsjökull on Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula is a 700,000-year-old stratovolcano capped by a glacier — visible from Reykjavik on a clear day, 120 km away. Mystical, powerful and entirely real.
GPS: 64.8040, -23.7760
Red, black and turquoise in a single glance. Kerið in South Iceland is a 3,000-year-old volcanic crater — 55 metres deep, 270 metres wide — with a lake at the bottom whose colour shifts with the light. The walls are layered in rust, ochre and jet black. One of the easiest 'wow' stops on the Golden Circle.
GPS: 64.0412, -20.8853
The water vanishes. 122 metres of free fall into a deep gorge of layered basalt, and the sound reaches you like distant thunder. Háifoss in South Iceland is the island's second-tallest waterfall — and the most dramatic. Beside it, its twin Granni falls in a thinner, elegant veil.
GPS: 64.2070, -19.6890
Black and white in pure contrast. Milky-white glacial water from Skjálfandafljót crashes 20 metres down between pitch-black basalt columns standing like organ pipes in the rock. Aldeyjarfoss in North Iceland is one of the island's most photogenic waterfalls — the contrasts so sharp the photos look like black-and-white with colour.
GPS: 65.3670, -17.3370
Red stripes in the cliff face like cuts of blood. Hengifoss in East Iceland is 128 metres tall, and the horizontal layers of red clay between black basalt are traces of prehistoric forest fires — each layer a chapter of Iceland's 15-million-year history. Along the way you pass the elegant Litlanesfoss with perfect basalt columns.
GPS: 65.0930, -14.8890
The waterfall is small. The mountain behind it is enormous. Kirkjufellsfoss on Iceland's Snæfellsnes peninsula is a modest fall — but with the cone-shaped Kirkjufell mountain as backdrop, it becomes the most photographed scene in the entire country. Game of Thrones fans know the mountain as 'the arrowhead'.
GPS: 64.9270, -23.3130
The colour is impossible. Electric turquoise, almost neon — the water at Brúarfoss in South Iceland changes colour the instant it squeezes through a narrow rock channel. Not big, not tall. But the blue is so intense it almost looks Photoshopped. It isn't.
GPS: 64.2640, -20.5150
196 metres of free fall into a gorge so deep you can barely see the bottom. Glymur in West Iceland held the title of Iceland's tallest waterfall for decades — the trail requires crossing a river on a log, crawling through a cave and climbing along a cliff edge. Not for everyone. But the view from the rim is absolutely insane.
GPS: 64.3890, -21.2540
The water comes from nowhere. Hundreds of tiny streams seep out of an ancient lava field and fall straight into the Hvítá river. Hraunfossar in West Iceland has no cliff, no edge — just crystal-clear water emerging from porous basalt across a 900-metre stretch. Quiet, beautiful, surreal.
GPS: 64.7020, -20.9770
The water roars. Blue glacial water forces through a narrow basalt channel like an angry serpent, and spray hangs in the air. Barnafoss in West Iceland is Hraunfossar's wild neighbour — 200 metres upriver. The name means 'Children's Waterfall' after a saga about two children who fell in when a natural stone bridge collapsed.
GPS: 64.7040, -20.9820
The water falls into the crack between two continents. Öxarárfoss at Þingvellir in South Iceland plunges 20 metres into the tectonic rift between the North American and Eurasian plates. Vikings diverted the river here in 930 AD — they needed water for the Althing, the world's oldest parliament.
GPS: 64.2670, -21.1200
Two thin white streams fall 25 metres down a moss-covered cliff like tears on a green face. Systrafoss — 'Sisters' Waterfall' — at Kirkjubæjarklaustur in South Iceland is small and quiet, but perfectly beautiful. Named after two nuns from the Benedictine convent that stood here in medieval times.
GPS: 63.7870, -17.9590
The surface bubbles. A blue dome grows. And then it explodes — 20-30 metres of boiling water straight into the sky. Strokkur at Geysir in South Iceland fires every 6-10 minutes, and you feel the heat on your face from 30 metres away. Geysir itself — the original, which all the world's geysers are named after — sleeps. But Strokkur delivers the show.
GPS: 64.3104, -20.3023
Mars on Earth. The ground is orange, yellow and white, and it boils. Fumaroles hiss like snakes, mud pots plop in slow motion, and the sulphur steam is so thick you taste it on your tongue. Námaskarð at Mývatn in North Iceland is a geothermal field with no railings, no boardwalks, no entrance fee. Just raw, boiling earth.
GPS: 65.6410, -16.8170
In the middle of nothing: warm water. Hveravellir is a geothermal oasis in the Icelandic highlands — hot springs, fumaroles and a natural hot pot, surrounded by absolutely nothing for hundreds of kilometres. You soak in 38 °C water staring out across Europe's largest desert. Only accessible via F-road in summer.
GPS: 64.8640, -19.5560
180 litres of boiling water per second. The steam rises like a wall from the ground, and the air smells of iron and minerals. Deildartunguhver in West Iceland is Europe's most powerful hot spring — 97 °C water that has travelled from deep beneath the Langjökull glacier. The energy heats the towns of Borgarnes and Akranes 65 km away.
GPS: 64.6620, -21.4080
The earth is painted. Yellow sulphur, rust-orange clay, chalk-white deposits and steaming fissures — Seltún on Iceland's Reykjanes peninsula is a geothermal field 25 minutes from Reykjavik. Boardwalks guide you safely through mud pots and fumaroles. A mini-Námaskarð without the long drive.
GPS: 63.8920, -22.0560
Thousands of hexagonal basalt columns rise like an organ of stone. Turquoise glacial water flows slowly between them, and the silence is absolute. Stuðlagil in East Iceland was hidden under water until 2017, when a power plant lowered the water level — and revealed Iceland's most geometric wonder.
GPS: 65.1610, -15.3240
A horseshoe carved into the rock by the gods. Ásbyrgi in North Iceland is 3.5 km long, 1 km wide and 100 metres deep — a perfect arc-shaped canyon with sheer walls and a dense birch forest on the floor. The sagas say Odin's eight-legged horse Sleipnir placed his hoof here. Geologists say it was a catastrophic glacial flood from Vatnajökull.
GPS: 66.0170, -16.5060
The mountain opens like a mouth. A vertical crack in the cliff face, barely wide enough for a person, leads into a dark, dripping chamber where a stream trickles down moss-covered walls. Rauðfeldsgjá on Snæfellsnes is named after the saga figure Rauðfeldur, who according to Bárðar saga Snæfellsáss was pushed into the fissure by the half-troll Bárður.
GPS: 64.8350, -23.6640
The walls almost touch. You wade through an ice-blue stream in a canyon so narrow you can reach both sides with outstretched arms — and so deep the sky is a crack of light a hundred metres up. At the end: a hidden waterfall dropping into a dark pool. Stakkholtsgjá in Þórsmörk in South Iceland is one of the country's most surreal hikes.
GPS: 63.6810, -19.5190
Black and white ice, side by side. Sólheimajökull in South Iceland is a glacier tongue where volcanic ash from Katla is baked into the ice — black stripes, deep blue crevasses and ice caves you can crawl into. You can walk right up to the ice edge without a guide. With crampons and a guide you climb onto the glacier itself.
GPS: 63.5290, -19.3670
A green oasis in a black desert. Skaftafell in South Iceland sits at the foot of Vatnajökull — Europe's largest glacier — with birch trees, waterfalls, glacier tongues and Iceland's best hiking trails all in one place. Svartifoss with its basalt columns is here. Icelandic architects used them as inspiration for Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik.
GPS: 64.0730, -16.9670
Icebergs drift slowly past, and the glacier wall rises like a frozen wave behind the lagoon. Fjallsárlón in South Iceland is Jökulsárlón's little sister — same drama, no crowds. You stand alone on the shore of a glacier lagoon with turquoise icebergs and the crack of ice calving. 10 minutes' drive from Jökulsárlón, but a world away from the tour buses.
GPS: 64.0160, -16.3700
596 square kilometres of ice on top of a volcano that could erupt at any time. Mýrdalsjökull in South Iceland covers Katla — one of Iceland's most active and feared volcanoes. The ice is up to 740 metres thick, and beneath it magma simmers. Glacier tongues like Sólheimajökull and Kötlujökull stretch toward the coast like white fingers.
GPS: 63.6580, -19.0830
Red sand. In Iceland. 10 kilometres of crushed seashells that shift colour with water and light — from deep rust red to golden honey to pale pink. Rauðisandur in the Westfjords is the polar opposite of Iceland's black beaches, and the road there is as dramatic as the beach itself: steep switchbacks down a cliff with Atlantic views.
GPS: 65.4680, -24.1060
Round black lava pebbles polished by the Atlantic for a thousand years. Djúpalónssandur on Snæfellsnes sits at the foot of Snæfellsjökull glacier — a beach of black stone, dramatic rock formations and four lifting stones that fishermen used to test their strength. Rusty wreckage from the British trawler Epine, which sank here in 1948, still lies scattered among the rocks.
GPS: 64.7380, -23.8990
A white church on a green hill above a coal-black beach. 300 people live here — Iceland's southernmost village, in the shadow of Mýrdalsjökull and the Katla volcano beneath it. The Reynisdrangar sea stacks rise from the Atlantic surf like petrified trolls. Vík í Mýrdal in South Iceland is the postcard image of everything Iceland is.
GPS: 63.4186, -19.0060
Europe's westernmost point is a sheer cliff wall teeming with life. 14 km of bird cliff, 441 metres high, inhabited by millions of puffins, razorbills, guillemots and fulmars. Látrabjarg in the Westfjords is the only bird cliff in the world where puffins sit at arm's length — they're so used to humans they practically pose. You lie on your stomach at the cliff edge and look them in the eye.
GPS: 65.5010, -24.5320
One night in January 1973 the earth split beneath a sleeping town. Eldfell volcano erupted in the middle of Vestmannaeyjar, and 5,300 people were evacuated by fishing boats within hours. Half the town was buried under lava. Today 4,500 people still live on Heimaey — surrounded by two volcanoes, millions of puffins and the Atlantic on all sides.
GPS: 63.4420, -20.2690
They sit so close you can count their feathers. 10,000 puffin pairs breed on the Hafnarhólmi cliff at Borgarfjörður Eystri in East Iceland, and they could not care less about your presence. A wooden observation deck puts you a metre and a half from the nests. Eye contact guaranteed.
GPS: 65.4490, -13.8080
Iceland in miniature. The Snæfellsnes peninsula packs everything Icelandic into 100 kilometres: the glacier volcano Snæfellsjökull rises 1,446 metres above the black beach at Djúpalónssandur, bird cliffs scream at Arnarstapi, and the fishing village of Stykkishólmur smells of sea and dried fish. A day's drive from Reykjavik with an entire country inside.
GPS: 64.7990, -23.7750
Black sand as far as the eye can see. F208 Sprengisandur cuts 200 km straight through Iceland's central highlands — from Þjórsárdalur in the south to Goðafoss in the north. No towns, no mobile signal, no mercy. River crossings where the water hits your door panels. Open July-August only, 4x4 only, for those who mean it.
GPS: 64.7500, -18.3500
Gravel under the tyres, fog above the bonnet. The Öxi pass in East Iceland climbs 530 metres over the mountains between Berufjörður and Reyðarfjörður — a gravel road with a ten percent gradient, sharp bends, and views that disappear into the clouds. Saves an hour on the Ring Road. Costs ten years in grey hairs.
GPS: 64.8330, -14.6830
Goðafoss appears like a scene change. 100 km of Ring Road from Akureyri to Mývatn in North Iceland — the most beautiful stretch of route 1. Green valleys give way to steaming lava fields, and halfway there the waterfall of the gods thunders 12 metres into a horseshoe gorge. The sheep on the road are in no hurry. Neither should you be.
GPS: 65.6826, -17.5502
Steam rises from the earth like a sea of breath. Hellisheiðarvirkjun on the Hellisheiði pass is the world's third-largest geothermal power plant — 303 megawatts of electricity pulled straight from Iceland's interior. You drive through the steam plumes heading south from Reykjavik. Here the earth quite literally keeps the lights on.
GPS: 64.0380, -21.4010
Steam curls into the morning air. Hrunalaug is a natural hot pot at a farm near Flúðir in South Iceland — so small it fits just four or five people. Stone-lined edges, 38-40 degrees, and absolutely no facade. Just you, the water, and Iceland's oldest form of wellness.
GPS: 64.1350, -20.2590
Green water bubbling up from the earth. Lýsuhóll is a naturally mineral-rich spring on the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland — not hot enough to sweat in, but warm enough to sink into. The minerals turn the water greenish and give it a soft, almost oily texture. Simple and real.
GPS: 64.8260, -23.4880
Saga hero Grettir the Strong swam 7 km from the island Drangey through ice-cold sea — and warmed himself in this spring when he reached shore. That was in the 11th century. Today you sit in the same two stone-lined pools at Skagafjörður in North Iceland and look out at the same island. 39 degrees. A thousand years of saga in your body.
GPS: 65.9310, -19.5390
Heart-shaped red traffic lights all over town. Akureyri is North Iceland's capital with 19,000 residents — the country's second city, wedged at the bottom of Eyjafjörður, 60 km from the Arctic Circle. Colourful houses climb the hillside, and the botanical garden proves that even flowers thrive at latitude 66.
GPS: 65.6835, -18.0878
Ninety-eight percent chance. Húsavík in North Iceland is Europe's whale-watching capital — humpbacks, minkes, and occasionally blue whales surface in Skjálfandi Bay from April to October. Boats leave the small colourful harbour, and within an hour you are surrounded by ocean giants. This is not an aquarium. This is the Arctic.
GPS: 66.0449, -17.3383
2,600 people on a sand spit. Ísafjörður in Iceland's Westfjords is surrounded by 700-metre mountains that block the sun in winter and hold the silence year-round. Colourful 18th-century timber houses cluster along the harbour, restaurants serve the day's catch, and the drive here is half the experience.
GPS: 66.0750, -23.1350
A rainbow painted on the asphalt leads up to the blue church. Seyðisfjörður in East Iceland is an artist town at the end of a deep fjord — 700 residents, Norwegian timber houses from the 1800s, and the Smyril Line ferry connecting Iceland to Europe. The drive down from Fjarðarheiði pass is as dramatic as the arrival.
GPS: 65.2640, -14.0060
Once Iceland's richest town. In the 1940s, 10,000 seasonal workers crammed into this small fjord town in North Iceland to salt herring. Money flowed like fish oil. Then the herring vanished in 1969, and the town shrank to 1,200 souls. Today Síldarminjasafn — Iceland's finest museum — tells the whole story.
GPS: 66.1510, -18.9110
74.5 metres of concrete poetry shaped like basalt columns. Hallgrímskirkja towers over Reykjavík like a rocket that was never launched — Iceland's largest church and the city's unmistakable landmark. The tower took 15 years to build, from 1945 to 1960. The lift to the top takes 30 seconds. The view covers the entire city, the fjord, and Snæfellsjökull on the horizon.
GPS: 64.1417, -21.9267
Iceland's most powerful place for 700 years. From 1056 to 1785, Skálholt in South Iceland was the bishop's seat — centre of religion, education and politics. In the Middle Ages 200 people lived here, Iceland's largest settlement. Today a white church on a hill and history seeping from the ground like geothermal steam.
GPS: 64.1290, -20.5230
Five permanent residents in winter. Flatey is a tiny island in Breiðafjörður in West Iceland — 2 km long, 37 colourful houses, Iceland's oldest library, and thousands of nesting birds. The ferry from Stykkishólmur takes ninety minutes. Time does not exist here. No cars, no shops, no hurry.
GPS: 65.0760, -22.9130
The mountain rises like a clenched fist from the Atlantic — 463 metres of grey basalt sculpted by ice ages into an almost symmetrical cone. In front, Kirkjufellsfoss cascades in three tiers over the moss. Game of Thrones filmed here. But stand by the falls at sunrise, and you understand why.
GPS: 64.9426, -23.3061
Thor's valley opens between three glaciers like a green chapel in the desert. Birch trees, moss, river crossings and volcanic ridges — accessible only by modified bus or 4x4 across ice-cold rivers. The Fimmvörðuháls trail starts here. Iceland's secret, hidden behind the rivers.
GPS: 63.6800, -19.4800
No roads. No residents. No facilities. Hornstrandir on Iceland's far northwest tip is Europe's most remote nature reserve — accessible only by boat from Ísafjörður. Arctic foxes walk right up to you. Bird cliffs plunge 534 metres vertically into the sea. Out here you are alone with the wind.
GPS: 66.4230, -22.6310
Midge Lake — Iceland's volcanic playground. Pseudo-craters rise like miniature volcanoes, lava formations create Dimmuborgir, and steaming mud pools bubble at Hverir. A 37 km2 lake surrounded by a geological sandbox you can explore by car in a day.
GPS: 65.6030, -16.9970
One man decided Iceland's farming culture must not vanish. In 1949, Þórður Tómasson began collecting artefacts from farms in South Iceland — 18,000 objects and 6 turf houses later, Skógasafn is an open-air museum at the foot of Skógafoss telling the full story of life in turf and fog.
GPS: 63.5310, -19.5110
The Blue Church — a cave of compressed glacier ice inside Vatnajökull that reshapes every single year. Light breaks through the ice in every shade of blue, from cobalt to sapphire. Only accessible November to March with a guide. Every winter the cave is different. Next year this one won't exist.
GPS: 64.0550, -16.3500
An almost perfectly circular volcanic crater rising from a flat lava field like nature's amphitheatre. 60 metres deep, 200 metres across, 5,000-8,000 years old. A 45-minute walk over moss and lava from the car park. Stand on the rim and look down, and you understand why Icelanders called it the Fire Fortress.
GPS: 64.7890, -21.6340
The sand plain between Jökulsárlón and the Atlantic — where hundreds of seals rest on sandbanks at the river mouth. They lie on their backs with flippers in the air as if sunbathing on a Malibu beach. Keep 50 metres distance, bring binoculars, and let them be. Free year-round.
GPS: 64.0450, -16.1800
Turf houses that have stood in Skagafjörður since the Viking age. Walls of earth and grass, roofs growing into the landscape, and inside it's warm and dark like a cave. Iceland's oldest way of living — and a museum showing how it felt.
GPS: 65.6728, -19.6008
Transparent bubbles on a lava field in Iceland. No walls, no ceiling — just you and the starry sky. Between September and March the northern lights dance above while you lie in bed. 5 million stars included.
GPS: 64.1783, -20.4461
Iceland's southernmost point — a 120-metre cliff with a natural stone arch carved by the sea. The 1927 lighthouse looks over black sand beaches and Atlantic waves. Puffins breed in the cliffs May to August. Vík is 15 minutes away.
GPS: 63.4023, -19.1305
A sheep farm from the 1800s on the Troll Peninsula, converted to a lodge with geothermally heated pool. Mountains rise from the fjord, horses graze outside, northern lights dance above. The end of the world with hot water.
GPS: 65.9442, -18.9404
The only volcano in the world where you can take a lift down into the magma chamber. 120 metres down in an open cable lift for 8 people. The floor down there is 50 by 65 metres — the Statue of Liberty could stand upright inside. The walls glow red, yellow, blue and green from frozen mineral deposits. Last eruption: 4,500 years ago.
GPS: 63.9984, -21.6989
A 1,360-metre lava tunnel from an eruption 5,200 years ago. Up to 30 metres wide and 10 metres tall — Iceland's fourth longest lava tube. In winter, ice stalagmites form under skylights in the ceiling. Filming location for Anthony Hopkins' scene as Methuselah in Noah (2014). 30 minutes from Reykjavik.
GPS: 63.9598, -21.3128
A white plane wreck from 1973 in the middle of a completely flat black sand desert. A US Navy C-117D transport that crash-landed on 21 November 1973 after engine icing. All 7 crew survived. Locals took the engine, tail and everything useful — only the pale fuselage remains. 3.5 km walk each way across black volcanic sand.
GPS: 63.4591, -19.3646
An 8,000-year-old lava cave beneath Snæfellsjökull — Jules Verne's volcano from Journey to the Centre of the Earth. 200 metres long, 35 metres down via two spiral staircases to total darkness. The upper chamber is called Bárðarstofa. Mineral colours glow in the walls: red from iron, yellow from sulphur, green from copper.
GPS: 64.7477, -23.8179