Wow, what can I say, it was brilliant!!! My first group holiday and I definately chose well. Glacier trekking was awesome, we were lucky to have fantastic weather on this day, we also saw the iceberg lagoon and yes, later that evening we saw the Northern Lights too. While in the East we stayed on a farm which was located in front of mountains and just in front of the ocean, a beautiful setting! Petur the guide was great, incredibly knowledgeable about Iceland - past and present, we had all sorts of stories from him about the Vikings, he was a good laugh, oh and he has a very large box full of nibbles on the mini bus, this went down very well! :) . Caving was great too, but I was very nervous as I'm not good with small spaces, you didnt have to do the caving, but Petur reassured me and looked after me the whole time, definately worth doing! All together an excellent holiday, there's some travelling but lots of stops to see waterfalls and sites, oh and the food was good too, especially the trout at the farm, yummy. The whole experience was that good that I'm planning my next holiday with Exodus already.
Gorgeous country with amazing sights! Scenery is utterly amazing, especially if you haven't been to New Zealand. Comfortable bus with individual USB ports at every seat. Lots of stops (generally every 45 mins or so). Back roads can be bumpy. Food is VERY expensive so be prepared. It's cold - even in summer months - so bring scarf, hat, gloves.
The Stelkur trip around Iceland gave hearty servings of the history, culture, geology and ethos of this remarkable island. Sure, we all knew the island had volcanoes and glaciers, but I for one was not aware of the tremendous impact of glacial flooding on the island and its people. This trip hit so many high points that it was almost dizzying, from puffins and whale spotting to black sand beaches littered with remnants of icebergs, to seemingly countless waterfalls and glacier views, to vigorous and rewarding hikes, superb cooking by our guide, solitude on the hut to hut portions (we saw one other hiker during 4 days), tales of Icelandic heroes, trolls and elves. Our guide, Solvi, was a natural teacher, gifted storyteller and even sang us to sleep one night with an Icelandic lullaby. He surprised us often with little outings or touches that were not listed on the official itinerary and made us feel like we'd been let in on special secrets. We looked for kids rescuing young puffins who had not made it to water, tobogganed down a huge black sand dune, and snatched blueberries from the bushes that lined the trails as we hiked. There was magic in the air on this trip!