Iceland – A Country for All Seasons
Tourists are drawn to Iceland because of its stunning natural beauty. Iceland is known the world over as the land of ice and fire. Due to the northerly location of the country, there is a good deal of interaction between volcanic activity and ice or water. In the Kverkfjöll area, hot springs rising beneath the glacier have created impressive ice caves. At times volcanic eruptions occur under glaciers, causing massive melting of the ice, often dramatically fast. The scenery promises an endless series of snow-covered volcanoes, mountains and ice fields. With a rugged, “other-worldly” terrain, the Nordic icy views are like nothing you'll see in the rest of the world. The Earth’s crust is much thinner. As a result, the molten rock is closer to the surface and heats up the groundwater deep in the earth, giving rise to numerous hot springs. In many places the natural hot water is used for space heating and to fill swimming pools, and of course the boiling, bubbling hot springs are an extraordinary sight. Ten per cent of Iceland is covered with glaciers, vast, magnificent worlds of ice. Every year they move and change a little. Great rivers have formed, containing countless waterfalls, of all shapes and sizes. The rivers are a great source of environmentally friendly energy, of which the Icelanders gratefully avail themselves. The environment is important to the Icelanders and they are continually searching for newer and better solutions. The use of hydrogen and other new sources of energy, in some countries considered a dream for the future, is already becoming a reality in Iceland.
Some coolest destinations to visit in Iceland.
The Blue Lagoon is one of Iceland’s most popular tourist destinations. It is a geothermal spa located in the Grindavík lava field in the Reykjanes Peninsula. The warm waters of the Blue Lagoon has a significant concentration of sulphur and silica, and bathing in these waters is believed to have curing effects on people with certain skin ailments like psoriasis. The underground geological layers contribute to the rich mineral content of the lagoon.
The Mývatn is a shallow eutrophic lake found in an area of active volcanism near the Krafla volcano in northern Iceland. The lake is famous for its exceptionally rich avifauna, especially waterbirds. Since the lake is fed by nutrient-rich spring water, it has a large population of aquatic insects which serves to attract many waterbirds to the lake like the tufted duck, the red-breasted merganser, mallard, common scoter, Barrow's goldeneye, etc.
Akureyri, a small city and the second most populous urban area in Iceland, is a tourist hotspot. Tourist attractions here include various museums, churches, and a botanical garden.
It is Iceland's largest urban settlement and serves as the gateway to most of the major attractions of Iceland and hence is the most visited destination in Iceland. The city has all the modern amenities of an urban life. It is famous for its weekend nightlife, bars, clubs, cafés, restaurants, shopping malls, etc.
Skaftafell is a preservation area that is part of the Vatnajökull National Park in southeast Iceland. The Svartifoss (Black Fall) is a famous waterfall here. The scenery of the region is full of stark contrasts and features jagged mountains, glacier tongues, rivers, valleys, forests and several species of birds like the redwing, golden plover, meadow pipit etc.
-
Jökulsárlón (Glacier Lagoon)
Jökulsárlón is a massive glacial lake on the edge of the Vatnajökull National Park in southeast Iceland. The lake was part of the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier before it started receding. The lake is currently 1.5 km away from the Atlantic Ocean and occupies an area of 18 square km. Scenes from several Hollywood blockbusters like Die Another Day, A View to a Kill, Batman Begins, and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider have been filmed at the Jökulsárlón. The lake is rich in fish that drift in from the sea during high tides. Seals and a large number of seabirds can be observed here. Commercial boat tours on the Jökulsárlón are extremely popular among tourists visiting the site.
A small Icelandic village with a population of only around 25, Skógar is one of the most visited places in Iceland.. The village is most famous for the spectacular Skógafoss waterfall on the Skógá river falling from a height of 60 meters from the top of an eroded cliff. The village also hosts a folk museum that is open daily all year round, and a museum on transport in Iceland. Another beautiful waterfall, the Kvernufoss fall, is also located near the Icelandic village.
The village of Vik is Iceland’s southernmost village located about 180 km by road to the southeast of Reykjavík. The beach at Vik has been regarded as one of the world’s ten most beautiful beaches by the US journal "Islands Magazine". The cliffs located to the west of beach serves as a home for many species of seabirds including puffins. Since the sea here is wild and stormy, the place has monuments dedicated to the memory of drowned seamen on the beach.
Þingvellir is a major tourist attraction in Iceland since it is an important historical, geological, and cultural site. The park is part of a rift valley that marks the boundary between the Eurasian and the North American tectonic plates. Þingvellir was dedicated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004. Tourists to Þingvellir can enjoy scuba diving at the Silfra Lake or hike and camp at designated sites in the national park.
The Geysir and Gullfoss are two of the most visited natural attractions in Iceland. The Geysir is a geyser in the Haukadalur valley in southwestern Iceland. The eruptions from the geyser are able to hurl boiling water as high as 70 meters in the air. The Gullfoss waterfall in located in the Hvítá river’s canyon. The wide Hvítá river makes a right turn just about 1 km before the falls and flows into a curved three-step “staircase" and then suddenly plunges down in two stages into a 32 meters deep crevice. The crevice is 20 meters wide and 2.5 km long. Thus, when one approaches the waterfall, the edge is obscured from view. To the observer, it appears as if the river has vanished into the earth.
“North-east Iceland offers whale-watching trips on beautifully restored fishing vessels. Minke whales and white-beaked dolphins are regularly seen and occasionally humpback and blue whales. Also worth a visit is Husavik’s fascinating Whale Museum, located by the port.
Established in 1970, the Reykjavík Arts Festival is Iceland’s premier cultural festival, bringing together the best in local and international theatre, dance, music and visual art and so on. Reykjavik Arts Festival runs in the late spring and carries on for almost 20 days. Every year it usually starts around mid-May or the beginning of June.
For more details visit their official website:
https://visiticeland.com/