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!
Loved this tour, it’s a brilliant and beautiful country Excellent leader who had great stories. Could have engaged with us more, but as it was his first top deck and I think he was used to an older crowd maybe we were a bit of a shock to him. Only annoying thing was an optional extra - blue lagoon we had to organise ourselves (find times, book etc) our leader only stepped in when we were saying we were having trouble booking a transfer. He then helped us out, but the company (intrepid) made us then pay for this as we were told the bus was done for the tour even though we had another day to go. Just different to other top deck optional extras - which were all organised by the leader.
Fantastic trip to Iceland We had a fantastic trip to Iceland. A lot was fit into the few days that we were there but the itinerary was just right. There was quite a lot of driving but it was worth it to see all of the sights that we did and our group leader entertained us with tales of Iceland throughout the journey. I am already planning my next trip to Iceland to explore the country further!