Hi, I'm Gary Bembridge and this is another of my tips for travellers. In this episode
I'm going to talk about the ten unmissable sights in Iceland, and why
going on a cruise may be the best way of seeing these sights. But first of all
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alerted when there's a brand new video to help you make the most of your
precious travel time and money. The sights in Iceland tend to be grouped
together and have names, so you've got the "Golden Circle", "Jewels of the North",
"Pompeii of the North". Well the first set of sites are what is known as the "Golden
Circle" and these are accessed out of Reykjavik. The most magnificent sights of
all in the Golden Circle, and one of my absolute favorites, is the Gullfoss
Waterfall. This is a spectacular waterfall. It is over 32 meters high,
there's an 11 meter drop, there's a 21 meter drop. It cascades a hundred and
forty cubic meters a second. It's the biggest flow in Europe of any waterfall.
There's an interesting story because of the power of it at one
time some people wanted to turn it into a hydroelectric plant and the farmers who
owned it leased it to a foreign company to do it, and one of the farmer's
daughters relentlessly tried to stop them.
Luckily eventually she was able to stop them because they missed a payment and
it's now a protected. Another magnificent sight is the Geysir geothermal area and
very specifically the fantastic Strokkur geyser. The Strokkur erupts every
couple of minutes. Now what's interesting about geysers is the original geyser was
called geyser and that's what gave these phenomena its name.
Now the Strokkur is the only one that's still really spouting away because the
original geyser is now dormant. Iceland is a very interesting country. It's
basically sitting on top of enormous volcanic activities so there's a lot of
big volcanic eruptions, there's earthquakes and also importantly the
island is being ripped apart. Two tectonic plates come together in Iceland
the Eurasian and the North American plates and it's the only place in the world
where the North Atlantic Plate is above sea level. So you can travel to the Pingvellir
National Park and a thing called the Reykjanes rridge. From here you get
not only beautiful views into a wasteland, because you can't see
the Eurasian Plate which is much further away, but you can see the North American
plate rising way above the ground and you can walk right along it. Now the next set
of must-see sights are out of the gateway city of a Akureyri and these are
the "Jewels of the North". And one of them is an absolute, for me,
total and utter beauty and is the Godafoss. Godafoss means waterfall of the
gods and the Godafoss name comes because of a myth at the time that
Iceland was converted to Christianity around about 1000 AD and the law maker of
the time Porgeir threw his statutes or the Norse gids over the
waterfalls and converted into Christianity and Iceland became a
Christian state. One things I would recommend you do is to climb right down
from just underneath the main viewing platform, and you get right down to the
base of the falls and you get magnificent views. Now quite close by to
that is Namaskard. Namaskard is best known for more geothermal activity but
this time the bubbling mud pools. Depending on the weather and the way the
winds blowing it can also smell pretty rough here - with the sulfur. There is
steam coming out of ground and there's these mud pools just bubbling away. It's
a very bizarre unworldly like scene, and it almost feels like you're stepping
into either a science fiction movie or some sort of really bizarre planet. One
of the things around this area is, during the summer, there are little midges and
they're really annoying. You'll often see people wearing netting to keep them
away from you, but there are a very important part of the whole ecological
balance - but they are quite annoying! Thenext incredible site is near Lake
Myvatn. Lake Myvatn is a massive lake and it's packed full of tens of thousands of
birds, but just nearby is these incredible pseudo craters. These are
not actual craters although they do look like they've been created by volcanic eruptions,
but they're not. They are just created by the lava as it flowed over some
wetlands and the gas is underneath it exploded into a bubble and created these
craters. The scenery here is absolutely beautiful. You get great views across
lake Myvatn and it's a very popular place
for going to look at birds. The next attraction, which is seen by many as a
must-see, but wasn't one of my big favorites and it's what's known as the
Dimmuborgir lava fields. In Iceland there's a big mythology around trolls,
and what apparently is supposed to have happened in Dimmuborgir is the trolls
in the area had partied all night and the Sun came up and they were turned into
stone. In reality the lava flowed over water
and started to harden but this pressure of steam built up and eventually burst
its way through the lava pulling the partly solidified lava up through,
creating these very jagged spaces above the ground. Another of my real
highlights and favorite destinations was in Heimaey and the chance to go hiking up
one of the big volcanoes. Heimaey is known as the Pompeii of the north. In 1973
there was a massive volcanic eruption. It began in January and lasted for five
months. Humongous amounts of lava erupted from the volcano and
it destroyed one-third of all the homes. Over 400 homes are covered by anything
up to 10 meters of lava. The volcano that erupted is called Eldfell (which
appropriately means fire mountain). The other volcano is called Hellfell.
You can now climb up the volcano. It's quite a big hike, it's about two hundred
metres high but it the views from the top are magnificent.
Another area that I would recommend you go and see is up in the north of
Iceland and it is a Isafjordur. It is very beautiful part of the world
where you've got these magnificent fjords which were originally, of course,
carved out by glaciers passing through. You can take a boat trip across to
an island known as Hesteyri, and the reason
for going to the island is there are quite a lot of arctic fox living there.
The arctic fox is the only indigenous animal on Iceland - every single other
animal is imported. It used to have people living here until about 1952 -
originally it was a whaling station then in the early 1900s when whaling was
banned for a period of time, and the whalers moved away, it became a fish
factory until the fish moved away. Now it's a nature reserve and you can go for
incredible hikes and a strong possibility that on Hesteyri
you will get to see an arctic fox. Now one thing that all tourists want to
do when they go to Iceland is go to the Blue Lagoon which is a big outdoor
geothermal heated pool which is rich in minerals, so I've included it as a
must-see sites just because it's one of those things that if you go to Iceland
you're going to want to do and it's in Reykjavik. I believe the best way of
seeing these sites is going on a cruise and there are three key reasons and one watch
out. First of all all of the key sites are around the coastal areas of Iceland.
A cruise can take you to the gateway ports of Reykjavik, Heimaey, Isafjordur and
Akureyri. The key thing though is you need to go on a cruise line that uses
small ships, because small ships can only get into these ports so places like
Heimaey for example big ships can't get in there. So when you're looking at an
itinerary make sure you're going on a cruise line that has a small ship. So for
example I visited Iceland with Voyages to Antiquity and the Aegean Odyssey is a
small ship (only taking around about 350 passengers) and it could get into all
these places. Now the downside of going on a cruise is the weather in Iceland is
very unpredictable, so there is a chance that there could be storms or winds and
the ships can't get into the smaller ports. So there's a risk that you lose
some of the ports but overall it is a phenomenal way and is the best way I
believe of seeing these places because actually traveling around Iceland is
relatively difficult between these places. Iceland is really becoming a real
hot spot for people to go, and I can see why and I wish I'd been to Iceland
sooner because the richness of the things to see is magnificent. Consider
going on a cruise and take a look at cruise lines with small cruise ships, for
example like Voyages to Antiquity. Hopefully you found that helpful and it inspired
you. If you found this video helpful, I'd love it if you watch many more of my
Tips For Travellers videos because you'll get more inspiration, advice and tips on
how to make the most of your precious travel time and money.