The Rough Guide to Iceland (Travel Guide eBook)

Description

Now is the time to explore Iceland - tourism is booming and your króona will go further than you think. The Rough Guide to Iceland shows you the very best this exceptional country has to offer: from the party capital, Reykjavík, with its white nights and northern lights, to the newest volcanic hotspots at Holuhraun and Eyjafjallajökull. Come eye to eye with the giants of the deep on a whale watching tour, take a dip in the geothermal waters of the Blue Lagoon, or hike to the isolated highland valley of Þórsmörk.

This sixth edition of The Rough Guide to Iceland includes stunning full-colour photos to inspire your travels through this vivid country of lavafields and bubbling mudpools, detailed maps to help you on your way and expert background on everything from smoked salmon to sagas. With the budget-conscious Rough Guide in your hand, you'll soon realise that Iceland - from its transport to accommodation and food - isn't as expensive as you might have thought.

Make the most of your trip with The Rough Guide to Iceland.

Informations

• Publié par: Apa Publications
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 3
• EAN13: 9780241276488
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 35 Mo

Extrait

CONTENTS HOW TO USE INTRODUCTION Where to go When to go Things not to miss Itineraries BASICS Getting there Getting around Accommodation Food and drink The media Festivals Sports and outdoor activities Travel essentials THE GUIDE 1. Reykjavík 2. Southwestern Iceland 3. The west coast 4. The West Fjords 5. Northwest Iceland 6. Mývatn and the northeast 7. Eastern and southeast Iceland 8. The Interior CONTEXTS History Landscape and geology Wildlife and the environment Books and sagas Icelandic Glossary MAPS AND SMALL PRINT How to Use How to Use Cover Table of Contents


HOW TO USE THIS ROUGH GUIDE EBOOK

This Rough Guide to Iceland is one of a new generation of informative andeasy-to-use travel-guide ebooks that guarantees you make the most of yourtrip. An essential tool for pre-trip planning, it also makes a great travelcompanion when you’re on the road.
From the table ofcontents , you can click straight to the main sections of the ebook.Start with the Introduction , whichgives you a flavour of Iceland, with details of what to see, what not tomiss, itineraries and more – everything you need to get started. This isfollowed by Basics , with pre-departuretips and practical information, such as flight details and outdoor activities. The guide chapters offer comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the whole of Iceland, including area highlights and full-colour maps featuring sights and listings. Finally, Contexts fills you in on history, geology, wildlife, books and sagas and also includes a handy Language section.
Detailed area maps feature in the guide chaptersand are also listed in the dedicated mapsection , accessible from the table of contents. Depending on yourhardware, you can double-tap on the maps to see larger-scale versions, orselect different scales. There are also thumbnails below more detailed maps– in these cases, you can opt to “zoom left/top” or “zoom right/bottom” orview the full map. The screen-lock function on your device is recommendedwhen viewing enlarged maps. Make sure you have the latest software updates,too.
Throughout the guide, we’ve flagged up ourfavourite places - a perfectly sited hotel, an atmospheric café, a specialrestaurant - with the “author pick” icon . You can selectyour own favourites and create a personalized itinerary by bookmarking thesights, venues and activities that are of interest, giving you the quickestpossible access to everything you’ll need for your time away.

INTRODUCTION TO ICELAND
Resting on the edge of the Arctic Circle and sitting atop one of theworld’s most volcanically active hot spots, Iceland is an inspiring mix ofmagisterial glaciers, bubbling hot springs and rugged fjords, where activities suchas hiking under the Midnight Sun are complemented by healthy doses of history andliterature.
Iceland is a place where nature reigns supreme. Aside from the modern andcosmopolitan capital, Reykjavík , population centresare small, with diminutive towns, fishing villages, farms and minute hamletsclustered along the coastal fringes. The Interior ,meanwhile, remains totally uninhabited and unmarked by humanity: a starkly beautifulwilderness of ice fields, windswept upland plateaux, infertile lava and ash desertsand the frigid vastness of Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier. Iceland’s locationon the Mid-Atlantic ridge also gives it one of the most volcanically activelandscapes on Earth, peppered with everything from naturally occurring hot springs,scaldingly hot bubbling mud pools and noisy steam vents to a string of unpredictablyviolent volcanoes , which have regularly devastated hugeparts of the country. The latest events came in 2010, when Eyjafjallajökull eruptedand caused havoc across Europe; and in 2015, when the eruption at Holuhraun createda huge new lavafield.
  Historically, the Icelanders have a mix of Nordicand Celtic blood, a heritage often held responsible for their characteristicallylaidback approach to life. The battle for survival against the elements over thecenturies has also made them a highly self-reliant nation, whose former dependenceon the sea and fishing for their economy was virtually total. Having spent yearsbeing dismissed as an insignificant outpost in the North Atlantic (Icelanders gaveup counting how many times their country was left off maps of Europe), the eruptionunder Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 saw the tourist industry, at least, wake up toIceland’s potential. Now close on a million foreigners visit annually – three timesthe national population – and Iceland is on a steep learning curve as it strugglesto cope with tourist-driven inflation and sagging infrastructure at popularsights.

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FACT FILE
Though geographically as big as England, Iceland’s population is tiny – at barely 323,000, it’s no biggerthan many towns in other countries. Two out of three Icelanders live inand around the capital, Reykjavík. Iceland sits atop the Mid-AtlanticRidge , the fault line where two of the Earth’s tectonicplates are slowly drifting apart; as a result, Iceland is getting widerat a rate of roughly 1cm per year. Either side of this ridge, from thenortheast to the southwest, earthquakes and volcanic activity are commonplace. There are no motorways or railways in Iceland. The country’s only mainroad, the Ringroad which circumnavigatesthe island, was completed in the 1970s following several unsuccessfulattempts to bridge treacherous glacial rivers on the south coast. Iceland is home to the third-biggest glacier in the world, Vatnajökull, covering an area equal to that of the Englishcounty of Yorkshire. One of the country’s greatest sources of geothermal energy , the Grímsvötn caldera, sitsdirectly beneath the ice cap. Thanks to the existence of countless medieval documents, manyIcelanders can trace their ancestors back to the time of the Viking Settlement , around 800 AD. Low immigration over the centuries means thattoday’s Icelanders have one of the purest gene pools in the world,providing an invaluable research opportunity for scientists.

FROM TOP EYJAFJALLAJÖKULLERUPTING; SEALS AT JÖKULSÁRLÓN

Where to go
Inevitably, most people get their first taste of Iceland in Reykjavík , rubbing shoulders with over half thecountry’s population. It may be small, but what Reykjavík lacks in size it morethan makes up for in stylish bars, restaurants and shops, and the nightlife isevery bit as wild as it’s cracked up to be: during the light summer nights, thecity barely sleeps. Reykjavík also makes a good base for visiting Geysir , the original geyser, the ancient parliamentsite of Þingvellir , spectacular waterfalls at Gullfoss and the famous and sublime Blue Lagoon .
  Beyond Reykjavík, Route 1, the Ringroad , runsout to encircle the island, and the wilder side of Iceland soon shows itself –open spaces of vivid green edged by unspoiled coastlines of red and black sands,all set against a backdrop of brooding hills and mountains. The west coast is dominated by the towns of Borgarnes and Reykholt , bothstrongly associated with the sagas, while the SnæfellsnesPeninsula , with views of the monster glacier at its tip, is one ofthe country’s most accessible hiking destinations. Arguably Iceland’s mostdramatic scenery is found in the far northwest of thecountry, the West Fjords , where tiny fishingvillages nestle at the foot of table-top mountains. Ísafjörður is the only settlement of any size here and makes agood base from which to strike out on foot into the wilderness of the Hornstrandir Peninsula . Beautifully located on thenorth coast, Akureyri is rightfully known as thecapital of the north and functions as Iceland’s second city. With a string ofbars and restaurants, it can make a refreshing change from the small villageshereabouts. From Akureyri it’s easy to reach the island of Grímsey , the only part of Icelandic territoryactually within the Arctic Circle ; and thecountry’s biggest tourist attraction outside the capital, Lake Mývatn . The lake is a favourite nesting place for manyspecies of duck and other waterfowl and is surrounded by an electrifyingproliferation of volcanic activity. Nearby Húsavík is one of the best places in the country to organizesummer whale-watching cruises, while just inland, the wilds of Jökulsárgljúfur National Park offer superlativehiking along deep river gorges to the spectacular Dettifoss , Europe’s most powerful waterfall. Then there are theEast Fjords which, despite easy access, remain the least touristed part ofIceland, perhaps because there are no major sights – just plenty of calm, quiet,grand scenery.
  South of here, Höfn is a good base from whichto visit Europe’s biggest glacier, the mighty Vatnajökull, either on a skidootrip or on foot through Skaftafell National Park, while the Jökulsárlón glaciallagoon offers the surreal chance to cruise alongside floating icebergs.
  The south coast is marked by vast stretches of black, volcanic coastal sandspunctuated by charming villages such as Vík, Iceland’s southernmost settlement.Inland are more mighty waterfalls, including Skógarfoss and Seljalandsfoss; thewilderness surrounding Hekla, a highly active volcano which last erupted in2000; at least one thermal outdoor pool to soak in; and a landscape central to Njál’s Saga , one of the nation’s great, visceralViking romances. Iceland’s most rewarding hiking route can also be