The biggest of these islands, Heimaey, has a population of approximately 4,100 and will be the only inhabited island of the whole archipelago.
Even though these pristine islands are one of the most secure and most tranquil regions of the North Atlantic, their heritage is overshadowed with a dreadful catastrophe.
On the afternoon of January 23 at 1973, the Westman Islands were subject into a few of the most well-known volcanic eruptions of contemporary days when, after being dormant for 5000 decades, the volcano Eldfell (Mountain of Fire) burst to existence on Heimaey, forcing the island’s whole population to flee into the mainland.
Within a span of five months, both fire and brimstone ruined well over 300 houses, while countless more were buried in ash. In July of 1973, once the displaced islanders could eventually return home, they had been put with the huge and daunting task of clearing their island of ashes, and pruning or rebuilding hundreds of homes.
Even though the events claimed but just one human existence, the eruption of 1973 stays among Iceland’s most catastrophic all-natural disasters. The Westman Islands is a contemporary Pompeii at the northwest, with lots of the houses staying intact beneath heaps of ash ash.
On a guided Westman Islands Volcano Tour, you’ll be pushed from Reykjavík and throughout Iceland’s southern beaches where you may see sea-side villages prior to putting off by ferry to Heimaey. There you may venture in the Eldfell volcanic crater and take in the glorious scenery before seeing Eldheimar, a museum that’s developed on top of an excavated home that has been buried in the ashes of 1973.
Later in the afternoon, a boat will take you out to sea, where you may explore several of the Westman Islands glorious littoral caves and see the cliffs which are the habitat of the largest puffin colony on earth, round which whales are generally seen in summertime.
In the event you need to pay a visit to the Westman Islands on your own, you now have the choices of using a domestic trip or taking the ferry Herjólfur which sails in the town of Þorlákshöfn and by the harbour of Landeyjahöfn on Iceland’s south coast.
Snaefellsnes Peninsula
The Snæfellsnes peninsula you need to see when you travel to Iceland, it is frequently known as”Iceland in mini” because of the wonderful range of geological marvels it contains–in actuality, a day excursion of this peninsula will let you view and encounter most of Iceland’s most sought out natural wonders.
Shrouded in mystery, this imperial all-natural book is crowned by the fantastic Snæfellsjökull, an active stratovolcano glacier having an altitude of 1446 meters.
Those sensitive to the power globe have claimed the glacier to be a center of pure and great energetic electricity, with a few going up to claiming it to be among those seven very important cosmic energy centers on Earth.
Back in Snæfellsjökull is where Jules Verne famously put the entry to the earth’s heart in his Journey to the Middle of the Earth along with the glacier plays a very notable part in Beneath the Glacier, an undercover masterpiece from the Icelandic Nobel laureate Halldór Kiljan Laxness.
A guided Snæfellsnes National Park Day Tour suitably starts at the origins of Snæfellsjökull, in which you take from the potent scene prior to going into Ytri Tunga where you can see one of Iceland’s biggest seal colonies.
Once accosting the lazing seals around the black pebble shore, the excursion takes one to Arnarstapi and Hellnar, two historical fishing outposts which are located in a coastal region of glorious beauty.
Gatklettur rock, among those magnificent rock formations located near Hellnar and Arnarstapi.
Hellnar is famous for its magnificent rock formations, specifically, that the Baðstofa sea cave, among Iceland’s most bizarre cavesfamous for its wealthy bird life, odd light exposure, along with a bright inside.
Stapafell Mountain overlooks that the Cliffs near Arnarstapi village around the southern portion of this Snæfellsnes peninsula.
Arnarstapi is located by the origins of Stapafell, a palagonite pyramid whose summit is crowned with a powerful Fellskross (Mountain Cross), an early Viking emblem of godly powers.
Through the 17th and 18th centuries, when Iceland was under Danish mandate, Arnarstapi turned into a lively harbour community that served the whole west coast, and a number of the homes from this period can nevertheless be located there, each having a background of its own.
The harbour is still being used, but now it functions not Danish colonialists but local fishing boats and recreational boats.
The final stop of this tour actually captures the spirit and beauty of Snæfellsnes, where surrounded by trickling streams and whispering rivers, Kirkjufell mountain climbs from the lush green areas of this peninsula’s west shore.
A travel into Snæfellsnes is a journey into a world of diversity which can fulfil the expectations of anybody seeking the absolute best Iceland has to offer you. Snæfellsnes Tours leave every day from Reykjavík, however if you need to learn more about the peninsula on your own, I suggest that you rent an automobile and make careful plans to make sure you get the maximum from your travels.
Offering the spectacular sights along with also a glimpse into Iceland’s culture and history, the Golden Circle is undoubtedly the hottest tourist route from Iceland.
The cheap and fantastic worth gold circle tour, nevertheless, begins with a trip to Kerið, a reddish stone volcanic crater which adopts a sky blue lake at its underside, showing a gorgeous contrast of colors and a captivating scenery.
Haukadalur also comprises numerous fumaroles, mud pots, and hot springs; although the early Geysir is largely inactive, the vigorous Strokkur spectacularly spouts enormous amounts of warm water 15-20 meters to the atmosphere every 10 minutes, at a stunning display of these components which will prepare one for an experience with the magnificent force of character that’s Gullfoss.
Gullfoss, Iceland’s hottest waterfall, is frequently rated among the best 10 waterfalls in the world . Wild and broad, Gullfoss roars about the Hvítá River in 2 tiers plummeting to the fantastic 70-meter profound Hvítá canyon.
And on bright days, when a rainbow arches across the waterfall at a stunning screen where tranquillity matches power, an individual can easily comprehend why Gullfoss is Iceland’s most iconic all-natural attraction.
In Þingvellir you’ll walk the rift valley of this Mid-Atlantic Ridge that divides the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates and learn more about the place at which in 930, the Vikings established Alþingi, the earliest extant parliament on the planet.
Unchanged for millennia, Þingvellir is your birth-place of Icelandic culture and democracy, the national shrine of both Iceland and the ideal conclusion to a gold circle tourthe supreme must on each to-do list.
Forged with a constant duel of ice and fire hockey, the Skaftafell national book in southeast Iceland embodies fantastically strange landscapes which are unmatched anywhere on the planet.
Skaftafell’s pristine lands–covering over 4800 square km — are composed of a contrasting scene where powerful rivers cut by a fantastic black desert, that envelopes a birch wood oasis below the Svínafellsjökull glacier tongue.
Famed for its balmy climate, Skaftafell has for a very long time been among Iceland’s most popular summertime holiday destinations, where both sailors and overseas visitors alike have pitched their tents to a campground that’s watched over by the mighty Öræfajökull glacier himself.
Local services include transport, food, lodging, and guided excursions on the glacier tongue, by which exceptionally experienced guides direct their guests via excellent fields of deep blue crevasses and towering ice sculptures.
Glacier Hiking at Skaftafell is a memorable adventure that’s guaranteed to be the highlight of your trip into one of Iceland’s most glorious all-natural reserves, but resulting in the campground itself will also be numerous hiking paths to magnificent locations.
A comparatively short and effortless walk takes one to Hundafoss, the first and greatest of a series of waterfalls around the road leading to the majestic Svartifoss which flows gracefully over a terrific black basalt cliff at a birch wood forest cutting edge.
Skaftafell also functions as the perfect base camp for mountaineers trying to scale Iceland’s highest summit, Hvannadalshnukur, that climbs in the Öræfajökull volcanic glacier having an altitude of 2110 meters.
Jökulsárlón is always rated among Iceland’s biggest natural wonders and recently became the deepest lake in Iceland; the lagoon steadily develops according to glacial retreat, extending its borders and depths that have now attained 248 meters.
Jökulsárlón tours have brought people to southeast Iceland for a long time and remain among Iceland’s most popular tourist activities during the year.
Throughout summer a Jökulsárlón Boat Tour will take you on the lagoon within an amphibian vessel where you will have the fairyland of ice hockey and wildlife as you sail one of the enormous Icebergs and also get to taste the 1000-year-old icehockey.
The lagoon is every bit as magnificent in summer season, and also in late fall when ships can’t sail on the lagoon, a trip departs from Jökulsárlón towards another wonder of ice.
In summer, underground rivers of meltwater cut Vatnajökull–Iceland’s largest glacier–producing a huge underground network of ice hockey stations; and if the summer meltwater has run its course, the winter wonderland of this Vatnajökull Ice Caves is abandoned introduced.
