Iceland in Every Season: Which One Is Actually Right for You

Iceland in Every Season: Which One Is Actually Right for You Iceland is geologically young and geologically active — volcanoes, geysers, hot springs, lava fields, glaciers — in a way that makes it feel like a planet that is still being made. Winter Iceland (November through March) This is the Iceland of northern lights, of ice caves inside glaciers that exist only when the ice is stable enough to walk through. The northern lights are one of the most-requested natural experiences in travel. Clear skies are required. We always tell clients to plan for three or four nights of aurora-hunting rather than one — clients who approach it this way come home delighted. What winter Iceland delivers reliably: extraordinary ice caves. Thermal pools — Myvatn Nature Baths, the Blue Lagoon — are at their most atmospheric when steam rises into cold air and the sky is dark with stars. Summer Iceland (June through August) The midnight sun is disorienting in the best way. The landscape turns green and wildflowered. Puffins nest on the coastal cliffs. The roads that are impassable in winter open up and reveal the Highlands — black sand deserts, geothermal fields, total absence of other humans. The midnight sun sounds like a novelty but is something stranger and more affecting than that. Eating dinner outdoors at 11pm in full daylight. The light never quite changing to night. It is one of those experiences that sounds odd in description and lands completely differently in person. The Environmental Note Iceland has implemented visitor fees in natural areas and restricted off-road driving more stringently as visitor pressure has grown. The tour operators we work with operate within these frameworks. We don't cut corners on this. Iceland's volcanic activity is ongoing. Eruptions near Reykjavik have occurred in recent years. Watching lava flow into the sea from a safe viewing distance is one of those things that recalibrates your sense of time in a way very little else does.