Iceland Excursions

Articles in Destinations:


8.12.2009

Welcome to Fairytale Land!

Visiting the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon is like stepping into a fairytale.
31.7.2009

Seljalandsfoss

Seljalandsfoss. That waterfall. As far as natural phenomena go, it’s pretty great, and it is definitely deserving of its status as one of Iceland’s premier tourist attractions.
27.7.2009

Thank God For Hot Water

One of this country’s best redeeming qualities are the pools of hot water found sprinkled all over it.
21.7.2009

Fun Times in and Around Egilsstaðir

Welcome to Egilsstaðir, the sunny town in the east of Iceland that just happened to be cloudy and rainy when my colleague and I touched down for five fun-filled days of WWOOFing and exploration.
14.7.2009

Sundhöll Reykjavíkur

Stunning and unforgettable – the primary way to describe Sundhöll Reykjavíkur on Barónsstígur, Reykjavík’s longest running (and only) indoor swimming pool.
7.7.2009

Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool

Take a long, hard look at the accompanying photo. You'll want to be there.
6.7.2009

No More Blues

Opened in 1990, Fjölskyldu- og húsdýragarðurinn is a family escape open year round, giving kids (and city folk) the chance to get up close and personal with a variety of animals native to Iceland.
23.6.2009

Go to Nuuk, Do Things

Nuuk is, admittedly, not the most aesthetically pleasing of towns.
22.6.2009

Nuuk by Sea

The sun shone, and the water was calm and shimmering. Of the handful of days I spent in Nuuk, this was by far the most pristine.
25.5.2009

Watch Your Back

In Vík, the little white-and-red church stands alone, overlooking the sleepy village. Birds nest in the vertical Reynisfjall cliffs and waves crash against sea carved stone columns by the black beach.
Vík (Icelandic for ‘bay’) or Vík í Mýrdal (in full: ‘bay in the marshlands’) is the southernmost village in Iceland, the wettest place in the country and, with an impressive 300 inhabitants, one of the largest settlements in the area. I have several reasons to believe that Vík is also the epitome of all things creepy.

8.5.2009

Phileas Fogg Would Weep

Four star country resort Hotel Rangá has been a favoured local city escape destination for years. Only an hour out of Reykjavík, right off the ring road in the Southern low lands between Hella and Hvolsvöllur, Rangá offers views of Mt. Hekla, river Rangá and the Northern lights (“subject to availability”) accompanied by all the luxuries of the civilized world, including a fine dining restaurant and a bar menu featuring a different martini for each day of the week.
3.4.2009

Ice-O-lation

Hrísey is Iceland's second largest island. It is located in Eyjafjörður, around 30 kilometres from the north’s capital, Akureyri.
6.3.2009

Never Let me Down: Aldrei Fór Ég Suður

For a free two-day event that involves airlifting the better part (in every sense of the word) of Iceland’s musicians to a remote part of the country and keeping them stocked on beer, food and blankets for two days, during the economically ravaged 2009 shouldn’t bode too well.
6.3.2009

Top 5 Ski Areas In Iceland

The top 5 ski areas to go see in Iceland
6.3.2009

An Oasis in the Snow

The second Northern Wave Film Festival was launched flamboyantly last Friday with champagne, caviar and speeches; the whole nine yards. Or so I’ve heard.
6.2.2009

Almost Snowboarding In Akureyri

My iPod is pink and ancient. Within it resides, among others, Steve Von Till.  He is gently crooning at my eardrums as turbulence hits like a linebacker, sending the Fokker into violent spasms affecting a change in altitude and piercing shrieks of terror from a few rows back.
10.10.2008

Sundholl Reykjavikur

Grapevine makes a splash
10.10.2008

South Shore Adventure

Grapevine chases waterfalls
10.10.2008

A Flying Visit to Akureyri

A day trip to Iceland's second city
12.9.2008

Witch Museum

 Bring the kids.
12.9.2008

On the Puffin Trail in Vestmannaeyjar

Vestmannaeyjar (also known as the Westmann Islands to English-folk) is the ideal remote milieu for an exotic off-the-mainland excursion.
12.9.2008

Waking Up in Wonderland

The Grapevine visits Electric Picnic Music Festival
4.9.2008

Reykjavik Zoo & Family Park

The kids will love it.
18.8.2008

Silver Rush in Siglufjörður

Those who lived it still claim it was the best time of their lives. The Great Herring Adventure of the ‘50s and ‘60s was the Icelandic equivalent of Klondike.
18.8.2008

Pioneering Sculptures

You’ll find Ásmundarsafn, the Ásmundur Sveinsson Sculpture Museum, in a unique building near Laugardalslaug swimming pool, just outside of the city centre.
1.8.2008

Sky's the Limit

Iceland’s rivers aren’t only perfect for fishing or picturesque to watch. Many times a month, a small group of adventurous whitewater kayakers paddle down the most ruthless ones and crisscross the country with the goal set to find new creeks and waterfalls to run down.

1.8.2008

Mountains, Fjords and Gods

As a day’s hike reveals, the Hornstrandir nature reserve leaves little to be desired, and a lot to be discovered.
1.8.2008

Icelandic Ponies

Peering out the window on route to the Snorrastaðir farm, I quip that English horses must be photo shopped, as the ones I spot outside all look rather small. “Shh”, my friend whispers. “The Icelanders are sensitive about their horses”.
15.6.2007

Four days in Northern Poland

“You need a special car for Poland – we don’t have any cars for Poland,” repeats the sternlooking woman at the budget car hire counter in Berlin Tegel airport. Some insistence that we had provided details of our Poland trip days earlier is all that is needed – we are eventually told that a car is on its way. The “special” car in question is a shiny new Opel station wagon, and we eagerly load our baggage and excessive food supplies in the car and part with Berlin for four days of excitement in Poland.
13.1.2006

After the Flood

7.10.2005

Forget What You Know: Enjoy London

The new London likes drinkin’ in museums, Ferris wheels and cleavage. The land of Shakespeare wants to export low culture, and they’re doing a pretty good job.
2.9.2005

The Last Place in the World You Can Expect to Rock:

Walking in the relaxed park and café Sofienberg district on a Sunday after the Oya festival, I saw Oslo at its best. On a moderately sunny day, groups of four and five young exceptionally fit professionals sat outside bars sipping beers and being polite.
5.8.2005

Sónar Festival for Advanced Music and Multimedia Art in Barcelona and G! Festival in the Faroe Islands.

Grapevine designer Hörður Kristbjörnsson, one half of the dynamic DJ-duo Skratch n Sniph, loves music festivals. He can’t get enough of them. Or at least of the Sónar and the G! Festival. In this extremely intimate Q & A, he tells all the Grapevine readers what makes a festival hot enough for his liking. And that is hot indeed.
8.7.2005

On Tolkien's Trail in Oxford

OXFORD, England - I had vowed to take Dead Man’s Walk. To sneak into Gothic-trimmed courtyards. To wander beside the shadow of Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy. Alas, I heard the trail was unmarked. Shrouded in rumor and false steps. I would have to find my own path.
6.5.2005

Tips

8.4.2005

BALTIMOREUnited States of America

It was owner of Full Moon Saloon (1710 Aliceanna St.) Ezekiel Phelps reminded me of what’s truly great about Baltimore’s music scene. “A lot of big name bands stop here on their way to New York,” he said. “and they often use Baltimore as a testing ground for new material. They’ll be playing great songs here you won’t hear at venues in other towns, sometimes songs that don’t even make it onto their albums. Baltimore is the town where these lost songs are played. Plus, we got a lotta blues and jazz.” This is certainly true. You can find a blues or jazz show going on somewhere in town just about every night of the week. Flip through the listings in Baltimore’s free weekly, City Paper, and your music choices on any given weekend are mind boggling.
11.3.2005

Stockholm’s Great Highway to Hope

Stockholm is, at first glance, just as you expect it to be. Safe, clean and polite, if not going out of its way to be overtly friendly. This might be a nice place to live and bring up children if you’re so inclined, I thought to myself, but there’s something lacking. Some sense of excitement, of the unknown. And as you walk down the main pedestrian and shopping street, Dronninggatan, it looks safe, clean, polite, and mostly predictable. Or so it seemed, until the street itself started speaking to me.
11.3.2005

STOCKHOLM Picks

11.2.2005

BARCELONA Picks

14.1.2005

HEAVEN IS A PLACE OF NO HOPE

The Slovene philosopher Slavoj Zizek wrote that in the German Democratic Republic, aka. socialism, East-Germans had everything, psychologically speaking: they did not have to worry about food and shelter, access to education or even time, of which they also had plenty as they constantly had to wait for everything (trains, buses, bureaucrats etc.).
14.1.2005

BERLIN Picks

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