The famous Eyjafjallajökull vulcan during eruption earlier this year in Iceland

Just returned from my 6th wisit to Iceland. I was happy to realise that even at the end of August and the beginning of September the evenings are quite light – on arrival it wasn’t before 10 o’clock in the evening it was dark in Reykjavik.

The capital of Iceland Reykjavik in clear weather seen from the east over the city and sea.

But as ususal the weather is very changeable in Iceland. Normally I would therefore recommend you to stay in Iceland for several days. In fact a full week will make it possible to drive around along the coast of the whole island with a few exceptions. During a week you should be safe with good weather for some days if not for all days.

Anyway a few days of a stop-over for example if you are going from US or Canada to Europe would make much sense as the route over Greenland and Iceland is the shortest for many European destinations – depending on your departure airport in North America.

Please add your Icelandic experience below, thanks:

To visit Iceland is a beautiful island vacation experience. I love the landscape of Iceland with its huge areas of natural beauty without much influence of human activities.

On a visit to Iceland you have to accept that the Icelandic weather is very changeable as a precondition for your travel conditions. The weather conditions of Iceland in the different regions might be very diverse on the same day, too.

You find the weather forecast for Reykjavik here at http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Reykjavik/forecasts/latest – including a five day prognosis for the weather in Reykjavik.

You find the weather forecast for Iceland here with an interactive map that shows you the expected weather in each of the Icelandic regions for the next 5 days and even longer weather forecasts http://en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/areas/.

These weather maps are extremely useful when you plan your travel in Iceland, e.g. if you hire a car and chose different regions to explore for each day with a permanent stay in Reykjavik or elsewhere in Iceland.

See 10-Day Forecast for Iceland weather here in Reykjavik.

At our trip we didn’t see and experience everything shown in this video, but this is what you can manage to see in iceland in a two weeks trip with travel around on Iceland, and dwelling in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. Hope you can make a trip to Iceland this summer as Iceland is a cheap travel destination at the moment due to the financial crisis in Iceland.

Read more about Iceland (in Nordic languages ‘Island’) here.

Birdwatchers come from far away countries to enjoy the special birds of Iceland and the impressive landscape. You don’t need to leave the capital of Iceland Reykjavik to experience some interesting birds. The lake in the city, Tjörnin, is a good starting point for birding. In Tjörnin you will find a number of bird species you might not be used to observe in your own country.

For me, I have always enjoyed observing the yellow billed swan the Whooper Swan (Cygnus Cygnus) very close at this city lake. The lake holds plenty of whooper swans and you can easily observe their courtship behaviour and other aspects of their behaviour at the springtime.

When I visited Iceland last time in early spring (3.-7. April) the Tjörnin lake was full of wildfowls: swans, ducks, cormorants and gulls, all to be seen easily. I have during earlier visits enjoyed seeing the Icelandic speciality (a speciality from an European perspective) the diving duck Barro’s Goldeneye (Bucephala islandica) but I wasn’t lucky to see it this time.

You are well helped to go to different birding localities if you buy the ‘Birdwatchers’s Map’, ‘Fuglakort’. This Birdwatchers’s Map’ is an overview of the birds of Iceland and includes some oversight maps of the best bird localities. The price of this birding in Island map was 1.290 Icelandic kroner.

I also bought the very detailed topographic map of Iceland ‘Naturturufarskort’, called ‘Gródurkort 1:500.000 that is also a vegetation map and therefore very useful for bird tours, too. The price of this Island map was 1.290 Icelandic kroner, too.

Birding in Iceland is really rewarding and I will post more about where to go bird watching near Reykjavik in future posts at IslandVacationTips.com .

You can buy these Icelandic maps at the rather large bookshop in the centre of Reykjavik.

Here, I also bought:

Icelandic Birds Guide of J´0hann Óli Hilmarsson with color photos of the Icelandic birds. Price 3.990 Icelandic kroner.
And
Birdwatching, in the series of books Iceland Nature Guides. By Helgi Gudmundsson and Jón Baldur Hlidberg. A fine little book, called a concise guide to the areas of Iceland of interest to the birdwatchers with brief descriptions of all Icelandic breeding birds. Price just 460 Icelandic kroner.

PS

Remember the Icelandic currency is very cheap at the moment – take advantage of it going to Iceland this spring and summer.

In Icelandic language the name of Iceland is ‘Island’ and it is the same in Danish language. When I was a boy in Denmark in the late 50ties and early 60ties I liked to collect stamps like many other boys were doing.

As Denmark had a long connection to Iceland the stamps from Iceland were of cause much in my mind. From older collectors of stamps I was told that especially stamps from Iceland were valuable, like stamps from Greenland and the Faeroe Islands. These all came from countries and territories with very small populations.

On the stamps from Iceland the name of the nation was named ISLAND – of cause in their own Icelandic language. So for me ‘Island’ became the signal word for me when I was browsing through piles of used stamps from different sources.

It took me some time to learn and be acquainted with the reality that I found many other stamps from different parts of the world with ‘Island’ printed on the stamp – simply from some of the many other countries and territories that were ‘islands’. – And funny enough I still have these associations in my mind with ISLAND.

The meaning of Iceland and Island is exactly the same, the land of ice – even this isn’t any good description of Iceland, as the winter climate of Iceland is rather mild due to the passage of the Gulf current bringing warmer water up to the Northern Atlantic Ocean.

The old stamps from Iceland were quite boring to look at, but they are expensive now. The modern stamps from Iceland are of the kind of modern stamps we know from most other countries of the world, they are in a commercial marketplace for attractive stamps with specific motives to attract stamp collectors like the dog stamp here.

Their value for collectors is low, but the information value of such stamps can be rather high. Even I stopped collecting stamps long, long time ago; I still have to control myself when I find attractive and informative stamps when I visit islands and other countries of the world today.

More Icelandic dog stamps here at http://www.dogstamps.dk/iceland.htm

Read more about Island / Iceland here.

Gullfoss is a most spectacular waterfall, not that far from the capital Reykjavik of Iceland. The river Hvítá sends during some periods 200-300 cubic metres per second of water over the rocks and down at this must see tourist destination of Iceland. The height is 34 metres, not a fall competing with some of the highest water falls of the world, but high enough to be really worthwhile seeing.

For good reasons tourists are coming to Gullfoss not only in the light summer season, but also during winter when ice makes Gullfoss to a very special view. Gullfoss is also known as the Golden Waterfall and many tourist agencies offer coaches to visit Gullfoss waterfall all through the year.

The tour packages are often including a number of sights from daytrips from Reykjavik, as the following tourist destinations can be on the way when tourists visit Gullfoss: Geysir, Þingvellir National Park, tectonic rifting at Thingvellir and other interesting tourist attractions.

My wife and I visited Gullfoss waterfall in a hired car from the airport of Reykjavik without any problems.

But the history of Iceland and Icelanders is as fascinating and unique as anything else. Did you know that Iceland hosted the first parliament of the world, Althing, that was established in year 930 in a beautiful area not far from the modern capital of Iceland Reykjavik with the name Þingvellir and now saved for the future as Þingvellir National Park – a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Remark the special Icelandic letter Þ, expressed ‘th’. Icelandic language is a very original version of the Nordic language family that has been preserved on Iceland as a rather isolated island far out in the Atlantic Ocean. The Althing was an annual functioning judiciary and legislative parliament, founded as the political hub of the Icelandic Commonwealth.

During our short travel to Iceland in April my wife and I visited the Þingvellir National Park in a hired car.  The Þingvellir National Parkthat has many interesting attractions for the tourist. Besides the historical sites nature is showing some impressive signs of the moving geology as Iceland is situated on the moveable zone between the two huge continental tectonic plates of the North Atlantic Ocean. See the location of the Þingvellir National Park at the map below:

More information about Iceland – a cheap travel destination at the moment because of the drop of the icelandic economy linked to the international recession in the economy.

Our common choice went to what in the menu card was called the exotic menu. And in came a stream of small delicious dishes as starters, later several rounds of sophisticated main courses and finally a round of outstanding deserts.

Together they formed an extravagant dinner and the delicious dishes and their arrangement became an unforgettable tasting experience for all of us.

With the present days currency of the Icelandic kroner this was also a very good value for money taking into account the outstanding level of the cooking and the extravaganza of the many courses.

The chef Pétur Örn Pétursson deserves the highest recommandations for his outstanding professional skills and results.
You will find the restaurant website here: http://www.sjavarkjallarinn.is/index_en.html

An added charm is that the restaurant is situated in the oldest cellar of Reykjavik with a very nice atmosphere.
(I was without my camera during the dinner, but I will get some pictures for later inclusion here from my wife’s little camera that she is always carrying with her).

But here are just a few notes from our short holiday trip to Iceland. I can expand later on many of the issues and bring more island vacation tips for your consideration. Please give the post a comment, and I shall do my best to answer it.

As earlier mentioned the people at Iceland suffer from their own downturn of their economy together with the bad world economy. So they have a lot of trouble.

For the tourist to Iceland this is in our favour, as the currency – Icelandic kronor – is much cheaper to buy and your credit card will perform much better  in this situation.

Earlier, Iceland was by many regarded as a rather expensive travel destination but that isn’t the case any longer.

Hotel in Reykjavik in Iceland

We stayed the 4 nights (3.-7. April) in Iceland at the Radisson SAS Saga Hotel in Reykjavik.

This isn’t a cheap hotel but the rooms are nice, they serve a very fine breakfast, and the hotel is situated conveniently for many things.

Especially if you hire a car you will enjoy the easy connection to the old city centre, and to the many interesting places of Reykjavik. You find a map of the location of Radisson SAS Saga Hotel in Reykjavik here

You can come to the Radisson SAS Saga Hotel after a 45-minute drive from the international airport. From the domestic airport Saga Hotel is only a 5-minute drive away.

Car parking is easy and bus connections are available directly to the hotel from the airport.

Nearby you find attractions like:
•    The National Museum.
•    The National Library.
•    The Nordic House.
•    Open-air, geothermally-heated swimming pool.
•    The University of Iceland.
•    The University Cinema.

The weather in early spring in Iceland

The weather in early spring in Iceland is like all seasons in one day. I experienced very nice sunshine, especially one unforgettable morning with the eider ducks courting each other in a shallow bay and allowing me to approach them quite close for photos. This area is called Seltjarnarnes and is the north western narrow peninsular of Reykjavik. Part of Seltjarnarnes is a nature reserve, part of it a golf course.
Find more information about Iceland for travel here.

I will return with more travel tips about what to see in Iceland and where to go.

A few more fresh pictures from Reykjavik in mixed weather: