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Icelands West Side Story Tour

Nature, History, Wildlife and Off-The-Beaten Path Trave

11 Days / 14 locations in Iceland

The Icelandic Viking and explorer Leifur Eiriksson is regarded as the first European to discover North America about 500 years yet before Christopher Columbus. Today, you are invited to explore Iceland, the land of the Sagas. Come and discover an island with glittering, snow-capped peaks and enormous glaciers, deep fjords, active volcanoes, bubbling hot springs, wild rivers, tumbling waterfalls, highland deserts, massive lava flows and unusual wild life. We take you on a bird watching cruise between uncountable islands and search for seals in a fjord. Our adventures include a monster truck excursion on top of Iceland's second largest glacier.

Come and visit one of the last "undiscovered" countries in Europe. Visit the home of Leifur Eiriksson and the many important sites of the Icelandic history where its heritage is told in a treasury of riveting sagas of real-life heroes and all manner of supernatural beings. Join us on a journey along an amazing coastline with fjords, beaches, bird cliffs and small fishing villages. Encounter tales of monks and Vikings, outlaws and adventurers, trolls and witches. The Icelandic West Side Story takes you to places off-the-beaten paths in West and Northwest Iceland where most of the tours in Iceland do not go. You cross the central highlands and travel to locations where you might believe to be the first person ever to visit these places. While touring in a comfortable bus and photographing ever changing landscape, you can discover the myths and legends of Iceland's stirring history and explore this unique and beautiful land.

HIGHLIGHTS and EXPERIENCES:

Bird & seal watching cruise, weather permitting

Visit two National Parks

Monster truck glacier excursion

Plenty off-the-beaten path travel to enjoy the unspoiled nature

Visit places that most of the other tours do not go to

Cross the interior highlands

Soak in the famous Blue Lagoon

Many visits to local natural history and folk museums

Meet locals with unique professions

Visit turf farms and turf churches

Horse show featuring special gaits of the Icelandic horse

1-2 hours of walking on average a day

Airport transfers and pre-& post nights in Reykjavík included

VIP seating: Supplement for guaranteed window seat on our fully escorted coach tours which includes a window seat and next seat remaining empty (passenger gets actually two seats) as well as a pillow and blanket for upgraded comfort. Seats will be reserved in the front rows of the bus, first comes, first get. Additional fee - please inquire.

Itinerary

 
Day 1     Keflavik
Accommodation: Borgartun Guesthouse

The Flybus shuttle brings travelers from Keflavík International airport to Reykjavík where you spend the first night in Iceland. We provide you with ideas how to explore Iceland's capital on your own.

 
Day 2     Reykjavik - Borgarnes - Thingvellir
Accommodation: Borgarnes Hotel
Meals: Breakfast / Dinner

We start our journey with Þingvellir National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, an area of exceptional geological and historical interest. We visit the law-rock where the ancient Viking parliament or Althingi met to make laws and settle disputes. We continue over the highland track Kaldidalur, meaning cold valley, to the woodlands of Húsafell and up to the desert highlands by Langjökull glacier. At the foot of the glacier we board the Ice Explorer 8x8 truck which takes us up to Europe‘s second largest glacier Langjökull. It’s a unique experience to travel atop of thick solid ice where we get to spend two and a half to three hours exploring the glacier. We learn about its movements and see how the melting water forms rivers and lagoons. We are able to see how the glacier is melting because of global warming. The Ice Explorer 8x8 takes us from an altitude of 500 meters to the top of the glacier, about 1.400 meters above sea level. In clear weather the view over the glacier and the interior highlands is breathtaking. At some places, the ice is between 500-700 meters thick - here we are able to walk on the glacier and spy into the crevasses. Nearby we see Hraunfossar which is a series of waterfalls pouring from beneath a long row of lava fields into the Hvítá River. Barnafoss, “the Children’s falls”, is nearby with it‘s own tragic tale. Learn about Icelandic history at the cultural site of Reykholt. Then you get warmed at Deildartunguhver, the Europe's most powerful hot spring, which produces 180 liters per second of water which at 97°Celsius (206 F) is nearly boiling. Overnight in Borgarnes, West Iceland.

 
Day 3     Borgarnes - Snaefellsnes Peninsula
Accommodation: Hellnar Hotel
Meals: Breakfast / Dinner

This morning we are introduced to the Icelandic sagas in the settlement center in Borgarnes and climb a volcano crater within an old lava field in West Iceland. The Snæfellsnes Peninsula “the peninsula of the snowy mountain“, juts out from Iceland’s west coast, like a long arm with a clenched fist at its tip, and is in many ways a microcosm of the whole island. A rugged mountain chain runs its length, capped by the 1,446 meter Snæfellsjökull, a mystical cone-shaped strato volcano that Jules Verne’s pictured as the entrance to the centre of the earth. We travel around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula through lava fields and along the ocean with many classic Icelandic photo opportunities. We visit the most popular sites at the national park where volcanic craters, lava flows, an ice cap, glaciated peaks, fjords, sandy beaches, and high cliffs shape its landscapes. The south side of the peninsula is a farming country but also has extensive marshlands which are an important habitat for birds during the summer season. Fringed by golden sand beaches, the wild and windswept coast is pounded by surf as it faces the full onslaught of an unforgiving Atlantic. The north side of Snæfellsnes is more sheltered and has fjords, which make a good anchorage for fishing vessels. Overnight in Hellnar, one of Iceland's most scenic hotel locations.

 
Day 4     Stykkisholmur - Snaefellsnes Peninsula - Vogur
Accommodation: Vogur Country Lodge
Meals: Breakfast / Dinner

We travel to the charming fishing town of Stykkishólmur for a bird watching tour in the Breiðafjörður fjord where we cruise between uncountable islands. Afterwards we get to stroll around the sheltered harbor which provides a good place for fishing vessels to anchor, and to explore this charming town with its many old wooden houses. A uniquely Icelandic “treat" awaits us at Bjarnarhöfn where they make fermented shark. In the late afternoon we travel along the north coast of Snæfellsnes to reach the remote Vogur Country Lodge in West Iceland where we stay for the next 2 nights. This is a truly peaceful and beautiful place close to Breiðafjörður Bay which gives you the feeling of being all alone in Iceland.

 
Day 5     Vogur - Laugar
Accommodation: Vogur Country Lodge
Meals: Breakfast / Lunch / Dinner

Only a few parts of Iceland are as rich in history as Dalir where records go virtually unbroken back to the settlement of the 9th and 10th century. Here we find beautiful nature, rounded mountains, lush valleys, lakes and rivers along with great hiking and bird watching. Close by is the Breiðafjörður Bay with spectacular sea shores and an amazing view over the mountain panorama of Snæfellsnes Peninsula.

Today we travel mostly off-the-beaten path, experience some short walks here and there with stops to photograph farms, beautiful little country churches and of course the Icelandic horse. At Haukadalur, there's a rather authentic replica of the homestead of Eirik the Red, the famous explorer, who founded the Icelandic colony in Greenland. He might have invented the modern way of marketing when he gave the rock-and-ice island the name of "Greenland" to actually entice his fellow Icelanders to follow him there – which they did!! His son Leif-the-Lucky, born in Haukadalur, Iceland, went on to become the first European to set foot in North America. Now the excavated and reconstructed farm in Haukadalur is a living Viking museum which is a fun, informative and rather photogenic place. The landscape is dominated by mountains, valleys, the sea and wide open spaces. A light lunch is included today. In the afternoon there's a visit to the village of Laugar in Sælingsdalur. The geothermal area at Laugar is the source for the naturally-heated swimming pool built in 1932 and which also provides the buildings with heating. Just outside Laugar you may find the rocky hill which is known to be the home of elves. Nearby is Guðrún's pool, a reconstructed geothermal pool in Sælingsdalur. According to the Icelandic saga Laxdaela, Guðrún Ósvífursdóttir, one of the greatest women in the Sagas, used to dwell by a geothermal pool at Laugar in Sælingsdalur. The original pool was destroyed in a landslide 140 years ago but was rebuilt in 2009 along with a "house of modesty" – dressing rooms. The pool and dressing rooms are built from natural materials, dry stone without any mortar, turf roof and driftwood walls on the dressing rooms, to resemble a Viking age pool. Today the pool is one of the biggest tourist attractions in the remote municipality of Dalir and you are invited to become a real Viking, and soak off your adventures in this unique pool.

 
Day 6     Vogur - Skagafjordur
Accommodation: Mikligardur Hotel
Meals: Breakfast

We head to the north and go on a seal-watching cruise with the opportunity to see seals in their natural environment. We visit the local seal museum. We travel off-the-beaten path and explore the Vatnsnes Peninsula, a nature reserve and visit a monster-like sea-stack called Hvitserkur. The turf church of Víðimýri has been extensively restored to its original form and is widely considered one of the purest and most beautiful examples of traditional architecture. The timbers of the church were selected from the driftwood coming ashore along the Skagafjörður Peninsula. The churchyard gate with its bells is situated exactly where it was originally built – which is said to have been since Christianity was adopted in Iceland, around the year 1000. We visit the folk museum and turf farm at Glaumbær. The buildings of the farm date from slightly different periods in the 18th- & 19th-centuries. This style of the turf construction was universal in rural areas of Iceland until about 1900, when it was gradually replaced mainly by reinforced concrete, which is typical in most contemporary Icelandic construction today. Extensive turf construction evolved in Iceland owing to the acute shortage of large trees. A turf building, in districts of moderate rainfall, can last up to a century. Overnight at Hotel Mikligardur in Sauðárkrókur for the next 3 nights. Our group stays at the top floor rooms guaranteeing a superb view either over the fjord or the surrounding mountains. This hotel location offers one of the best midnight sun shows if weather conditions are right.

 
Day 7     Skagafjordur
Accommodation: Mikligardur Hotel
Meals: Breakfast

Today we explore Tröllaskagi Peninsula named after the giant trolls who according to the Icelandic folktales each spring ran into the peninsula's towering glaciers, deep valleys and alpine mountains to hide from the ever present arctic sun. These spectacular fjord landscapes take you past several small and friendly fishing villages. Along the way, we stop at a deserted fjord valley which even most of the Icelanders have not seen yet. Our goal for today is Siglufjörður, Iceland’s northernmost town, known as the herring capital of the North Atlantic. In Siglufjörður we visit the herring museum that is the largest seafaring and industrial museum in the country. The museum is in three buildings and tells the tale of hunting and processing herrings. At the boathouse, ships and boats lie by the pier, the same way as they did in the 1950s. In the museum the story of herring meal processing is told – known as the first heavy industry in Iceland. We also visit the small village of Hofsós that is with its natural harbour one of the oldest trading ports in Iceland, while nearby Hólar was an early episcopal seat, boasting the oldest stone church in Iceland.

 
Day 8     Skagafjordur
Accommodation: Mikligardur Hotel
Meals: Breakfast

After breakfast you experience leather and tanning in Sauðárkrókur, in the only tannery in Europe which makes fish leather. Enjoy a guided tour of the actual tannery where fish-skin is expertly processed to make high-quality leather and where the tannery’s products by outstanding designers and craftspeople are offered for sale. Fish leather from Atlantic Leather has caught the imagination of internationally-known fashion houses and brands such as Prada, Dior and Nike. Later on we travel to the small settlement of Skagaströnd which in the time of the trading monopoly was one of Iceland's main trading centers but today only about 530 people live there. "Spákonufell" - the Prophetess Mountain is one of the most impressive and peculiar mountains in this area and is 646 meter high. The name of the mountain derives from Þórdís the prophetess who lived on a farm of the same name as the mountain, situated by its roots in the 10th century. She was the first person to settle in Skagaströnd. She crops up throughout the Icelandic sagas and her reputation was ambivalent as she was skilled in witchcraft. The sagas tell that Þórdís walked up to Spákonufell every day and combed her hair with a golden comb. It is said that she had hidden her gold in the mountain and put a spell on it so that no one could use it except women who were not baptized and who hadn't learnt any of Gods words.

Skagi is a part of the country which is not frequently travelled, although the gravel road around the peninsula usually is in relatively good condition and makes it easy to explore the unspoiled region. We visit a little inlet in the north of Skagi, where there is a lighthouse and alongside the peninsula are sea cliffs of beautiful formations of basalt columns formed about two million years ago. They are a peculiar natural formation. We continue along the coastline and see a glittering waterfall tumbling down the cliff-face into the sea. We pass many deserted farms before reaching the sweeping bay which offers some truly magnificent ocean vistas. We walk along the shores that are covered with driftwood and beautiful rocks and we might spot some seals and for sure also plenty of birds. We continue past the remote farm of Hraun, at Hraunsvík on the northeastern extremity of the peninsula. The road finally veers south following the coastline of Skagafjörður fjord for the rugged sheer sea cliff and the remains of an old extinct volcano. We find there a rock pillar "Kerling" just off the shore to the northeast. There is a rich bird life in the cliffs. Tales tell of trolls who lived in the cliffs and because of them the road to the cliffs was sometimes impassable.

 
Day 9     Gullfoss Waterfall - Geysir - Hveragerdi
Accommodation: Ork Hotel
Meals: Breakfast / Dinner

Today we travel south across the highland desert on the Kjölur trail. There are wonderful views of the distant ice-caps and we stop at the hot springs of Hveravellir. This region is shrouded in mystery, with folktales of ghosts, giants and outlaws. You experience one of Europe's last wildernesses! We end the day with a visit at Gullfoss, a double waterfall that tumbles 34 meters into the Hvítá river, and attracts tourists and travelers in summer and winter. You see steam from the Geysir geothermal fields as you arrive. Here are a variety of hot springs and bubbling pools. The original geyser, is now dormant but has been replaced by Strokkur "the Churn", erupting in 5-10 minutes intervals. Overnight at Hotel Örk in Hveragerði, South Iceland.

 
Day 10     Hveragerdi - Reykjanes Peninsula - Blue Lagoon - Grindavik - Reykjavik
Accommodation: Borgartun Guesthouse
Meals: Breakfast

In the morning learn about the Icelandic horse and its history and special qualities during a horse show. Then we take a less travelled route around Reykjanes Peninsula. Diverse geological features, the hot springs of Krýsuvík, mountains, lava fields, amazing bird cliffs, moon landscapes and fishing villages are on today’s itinerary. We visit the famous Blue Lagoon where we’re soaking in the geothermal water. Iceland's West Side Story ends after a Reykjavík city tour. Overnight in the capital.

 
Day 11     Reykjavik - Keflavik
Meals: Breakfast

The Flybus airport shuttle picks you up at your hotel and takes you to Keflavik airport.

 

Notes

* This tour has an average of 1-2 hours of walking each day, meaning several short walks of 10-30 minutes to see and explore the different nature and history sites. It is an easy tour for nearly everyone to participate in.

* Total mileage in 9 days is about 2.020 km (1.254 miles) which is an average of 225 km (140 miles) per day, about 3 hours per day will be spent on the bus. On some days the driving might be longer than on some other days.

* Most hotels and guesthouses used on this tour are simple but clean, and have room with private facilities. Most hotels offer a unique and beautiful location in the Icelandic nature or are situated in coastal villages.

*maximum 28 Passengers
*nature Fees

There is a possibility that some of the nature attractions around Iceland might charge an entrance fee during the trip. These entrance fees are not included in the tour price and need to be paid by all tour members additionally on the spot, when entering any of these nature sites. Locations, amount of entrance fee, form of payment and other details are not known at the present time and are subject to change.

Price Includes
Meals As Per Itinerary
Sightseeing and Entrances Per Itinerary
Tour Escort
Arrival and Departure Transfers Keflavik by Bus
Meals Per Itinerary
Hotel Accommodations 4 Nights
GJT-1269
1.28.15.WP26