THE CENTER'S EXCLUSIVE NATURE AND PHOTO TOUR OF ICELAND 2020
August 18th to August 30th, 2020
All-inclusive including airfare (three meals a day, international airfare, domestic & Icelandic transportation, all admissions, hotels, museums outside Reykjavik). Minimum participants: 10; maximum: 21.
ABOUT TOUR
Introduction
We take you to Iceland in the late summer, when nature is slowly changing from the height of summer transitioning into fall. The intriguing colors, the ever-shifting weather, and nearly constant low angles of sunlight will create a lasting experience.
On this tour, you will be spoiled with one culinary delight after the other. Iceland is getting famous for its excellent variety of great food. Our tour leader and guide, Björn Rúriksson, personally checks out each menu so that every night’s dinner is quite different from the next: always an outstanding three-course meal with coffee and tea.
Our goal is to take excellent care of each participant during these twelve days in Iceland. You will enjoy the services of our wonderful driver and a roomy coach where each of you will have your own double seat with ample space for your gear: camera equipment, binoculars, jackets, etc.
For two of the nights, you are staying at the excellent four-star Hotel Selfoss, 50 km east of Reykjavik, situated on the banks of the powerful river of Ölfusá, the biggest river in the country. Hotel Selfoss has a lovely, luxurious Riverside Spa richly equipped with steam room, sauna, hot pool, rainwater showers, relaxation room, lounge and bar. See the hotel’s website at hotelselfoss.is
For the other nights, you are staying at excellent tourist hotels, and several nights in the one in Snæfellsnes and in North-Iceland's main town Akureyri. Many of our hotels are in beautiful surroundings, ideal to enjoy short walks in the mornings and evenings.
This program is rich in unique natural sites all around Iceland. You will enjoy a wide variety of waterfalls and mountains created from lava flows and volcanoes, extraordinarily broad vistas (since nearly all native trees were cut down long ago), and vast beaches of black sands. A popular attraction, photographically and historically, is the scenic area of Thingvellir, where the cradle of Icelandic democracy began in the year 930, only 60 years after this mid-ocean ridge land mass was first settled. Thingvellir is a geological wonder, with open faults and fissures, the most conspicuous rift valley in the world with craggy lava and green moss covering the landscape. Nearby is the Geysir basin with its spouting hot spring and pools of turquoise beauty, home to the 800-year-old Great Geysir.
We will enjoy great outdoor swimming pools, experiencing this fundamental culture of the Icelandic people. We will spend some delightful moments with the lovely Icelandic horse in its natural surroundings, taking advantage of the extraordinary, clear atmosphere and, hopefully, the low sun in the coming fall season. The first day after will be spent in Reykjavik, the most northerly capital in the world. Here are many museums and great shopping. In the early evening, we will gather for a great dinner at one of the excellent restaurants downtown.
The Tour:
Highlights
PLEASE CONTACT: Linda Hahn
Travel Coordinator|The Center
491 Hillsdale Drive|Charlottesville, VA 22901-5732
Phone and Fax 434.974.6538
email - Linda@thecentercville.org
website - https://thecentercville.org
DAY 1
Arrive in Iceland, drive to the capital Reykjavík and settle into our hotel in the metropolitan area. Explore the colorful capital on a guided tour and explore further on your own in the later afternoon. Enjoy an outstanding welcome dinner in the old town center.
DAY 2
The varied and fertile Borgarfjörður area with its cascading Hraunfossar waterfalls. Broad landscapes, glaciers and mountain ranges. Boiling wells of abundant flowing water at Deildartunga.
DAY 3
Charming idyllic small villages by the seaside. Fjords and promontories. The awesome Snaefells volcano and glacier with lava landscape and great volcanic coastal features. An exciting walk along the coastline with many outstanding photogenic land forms.
DAY 4
Drive to the North coast of Iceland. Lovely broad valleys of natural beauty and the charming icelandic horse. An area of many natural wonders which we will enjoy during the day.
DAY 5
Fascinating folk museums of the Skagafjördur district, one commemorating the big migration of Icelanders to Canada and the northern United States in the late 19th century. Akureyri, capital of the North, with its charming gardens and beautiful views of the fjord.
DAY 6
We enter the Lake Myvatn area, surrounded by a myriad of volcanic features, lava flows, pseudo-craters and cinder cones. On our route this morning we find the beautiful Goðafoss waterfall with a charming story to it.
DAY 7
Picturesque little town of Húsavík. Beaches facing the Arctic Ocean. Ásbyrgi prehistoric canyon. Dettifoss, Europe‘s largest waterfall and the training area of the American astronauts, the Moonscapes of the Arctic desert Ódáðahraun, the largest desert of whole of Europe.
DAY 8
Mountains, mountain ranges, and the craggy coastline of the Eastern fjords. Many colorful fishing villages. In one village we find Lady Petra‘s fabulous stone collection and natural gemstones. She hiked the mountains all her life for collecting these precious rocks.
DAY 9
Visit the wonderful Glacial lagoon with floating icebergs. Tour the lake on an amphibian and enjoy photographing the adjacent beach of stranded ice of all sizes and sculptures. Visit the Skaftafell National Park. Walk to Svartifoss waterfall and into the amphitheater with great array of basaltic columns.
DAY 10
Drive out onto vast outwash planes in front of the big Vatna- and Mýrdalsjökull glaciers. Laki Lava, one of the largest lava fields on Earth – and a picturesque adventure at the same time.
We visit the small village of Vík. Encounter the awesome Skógafoss waterfall and the black sand beach of Reynisfjara with exciting coastal features. Stop at the Seljalands waterfall in the foothills of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano which 2010 eruption sent clouds of ash into the stratosphere which then then jet-winds brought all over Europe stopping all air traffic for six days. Pass through several quaint villages of the Southern lowlands of Iceland.
DAY 11
Explore the geological wonders of Iceland´s Golden Circle. Traverse the Mid-Atlantic ridge in Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site located where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates diverge from one another. Visit the site of the world‘s oldest parliament, the Althing, convened in A.D. 930. Further east is the interesting geothermal area of Geysir, turquoise pools and the ever spouting Strokkur Geyser. Then visit one of the most impressive waterfalls in Iceland, Gullfoss, the powerful 100-foot double cascade.
DAY 12
Enjoy the photogenic landscapes and lavas of the Reykjanes peninsula. Mudpots at Krýsuvík. Enjoy the world famous „Blue Lagoon“ natural bathing facilities. The warm waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulfur and reputed to help some people suffering from skin diseases such as psoriasis. Enjoy a wonderful lunch at Grindavik before advancing to the International airport for your flight home.
Pricing Information, Payment & Refund Policies
Tour Price
Price of tour for Minimum 10 and Max 21: $6,400 in double occupancy. Single occupancy $7,720.
Deposit $1,000. Travel protection is additional.
Payment, Cancellation and
Refund Policy
PLEASE CONTACT: Linda Hahn
Travel Coordinator|The Center
491 Hillsdale Drive|Charlottesville, VA 22901-5732
Phone and Fax 434.974.6538
email - Linda@thecentercville.org
website - https://thecentercville.org
Unique highlights of Tour compared to many other tours to Iceland
1.
Outstanding food Program (a delightful culinary experience), 34 carefully chosen full meals with tea and coffee (12 quality breakfasts, 11 lunches and 11 dinners) including a delightful dinner the first evening in a fine downtown Reykjavík restaurant. Beginning with a light breakfast following the arrival and ending with a lunch before departure from Iceland. For practical reasons the lunch on the open Reykjavik day is on your own.
2.
Two consecutive nights at some of the (3 or 4 star) hotels.
3.
One same excellent bus conductor and quality coach throughout the tour accommodating each participant with two seats (like one bench seat per person). Guiding during the whole tour program.
4.
Glacier Lagoon boat trip and museum visits.
5.
There are many moderate walks to enjoy during the tour. None of these walks are strenuous or lasting longer than roughly one hour. And there is always the choice of after-dinner walks!
6.
Reasonable daily mileage throughout the tour (c.a 170 daily miles on the average), allowing for some relaxed moments at our hotels before dinner.
7.
Autographed Art book signed by your Icelandic host is included; “Iceland From Above” – his forty years of aerial odyssey through Icelandic landscapes.
Bio of tour leader
Your tour is designed, directed, and guided by the veteran Icelandic tour director, Björn Rúriksson. He is a writer, publisher, photographer, naturalist, and an experienced pilot who knows his country and its natural history intimately from both the air and the ground. Björn has lived and worked in the U.S., has been leading tours of his native country since the 1980's, many with his co-leader friend and geologist, Pete Cross, who set up two-week tours, designed by Björn, for: The New York Explorers Club and The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Other institutions Björn brought to and guided in Iceland include the University of Northern Colorado, Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History and Denver Museum of Nature and Science.
Björn is author of many trendsetting photobooks on Icelandic natural history, and has given lectures on Icelandic nature and geology at many museums, 60 institutes and universities worldwide; i.e. United States Geological Survey, Harvard University, Ohio State University, Northwestern University, and University of Colorado in the US; Mannheim University in Germany and The Royal Geographical Society in London. Björn has also held 35 private photographic exhibitions worldwide, many in the States including: Rockefeller Center, Lincoln Center, Nikon House, and Newark Museum of Art.