Questions About Iceland for Mature Travellers

Iceland is a volcanic island of about 103,000 square kilometres in the North Atlantic, just south of the Arctic Circle, with fewer than 400,000 people. This guide answers the questions travellers ask most: where Iceland is and which continent it belongs to, the best time to visit Iceland, what the weather and daylight are like, and the practical matters of language, money, visas and getting around. We have run small group tours for mature travellers, couples and solo travellers since 1983.

If you would like to see the country with us, our Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour circles the island over 17 days, round trip from Reykjavík, and our guide to small group tours of Iceland explains how the journey is paced.

Where is Iceland, and what continent is it in?

Iceland lies in the North Atlantic between Greenland and Norway, and it is counted as part of Europe. Its nearest neighbour is Greenland, about 290 kilometres to the west; the Faroe Islands are about 420 kilometres away and Scotland about 800. The mainland sits just below the Arctic Circle, which crosses only the small island of Grímsey off the north coast.

Geologically, the answer is less tidy. Iceland sits on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart, so the west of the island lies on one plate and the east on the other. At Thingvellir, one of the three stops on the Golden Circle, you can walk along the rift between them; on average the plates move apart by about two centimetres a year. That movement feeds Iceland’s volcanoes and hot springs. Politically, Iceland is firmly Nordic: it belongs to the European Economic Area and the Schengen Area, but not to the European Union.

Thingvellir National Park, with its church and farmhouse beside the Öxará river, in the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian plates.

Most visitors arrive at Keflavík International Airport, about 50 kilometres from the capital, Reykjavík. Flights take about three hours from London and five to six from New York.

When is the best time to visit Iceland?

The best time to visit Iceland for most travellers is between late May and mid-September, when the days are long, the roads are open and the weather is at its mildest; winter is the season for the Northern Lights.

Summer (June to August) is the high season. Daylight lasts almost round the clock, puffins nest on the sea cliffs, the whale-watching boats from Húsavík are at their busiest, and the mountain roads into the interior usually open from late June or July, though the main sights are at their busiest.

The shoulder months of May and September are quieter. In May some highland routes are still closed, and some bird cliffs, such as Dyrhólaey, restrict access during the nesting season from early May to late June. By September the nights are dark again, so the first Northern Lights become possible while most roads are still open. Winter, from November to March, brings short days and storms that can close roads, but also the best chance of seeing the aurora.

Fishing boats in Húsavík harbour, below the town’s wooden church, on Iceland’s north coast.

What is the weather like in Iceland?

Iceland’s weather is milder than its latitude suggests, thanks to the North Atlantic Current, but far more changeable than most visitors expect. In Reykjavík, July averages about 11 to 12 degrees Celsius and January hovers close to freezing, according to the Icelandic Met Office.

Wind is the bigger factor. Gales can blow in any month, and sun, rain and hail can come within an hour. Glaciers cover about 11 percent of the country, including Vatnajökull, the largest ice cap in Europe by volume. Pack layers, a windproof and waterproof jacket and sturdy waterproof footwear whatever the season, and check the alerts on Safetravel, Iceland’s official travel safety site, each day.

Black sand dunes on the Stokksnes headland, below the Vestrahorn mountain, on Iceland’s south-east coast.

How many hours of daylight does Iceland have?

Daylight in Iceland ranges from about four hours in late December to about 21 hours in late June. Around the summer solstice the sun sets in Reykjavík just after midnight and rises again before 3 am, and the sky never gets fully dark for several weeks either side of it. The true midnight sun, when the sun stays above the horizon all night, can only be seen in the far north, on Grímsey. In midwinter the sun rises in Reykjavík at about 11.20 am and sets at about 3.30 pm.

When can you see the Northern Lights in Iceland?

The Northern Lights can be seen in Iceland from about September to April, on nights when the sky is dark and clear and the sun is active enough; summer nights are simply too light. The aurora appears when charged particles from the sun, carried on the solar wind, are steered by the Earth’s magnetic field towards the polar regions and collide with oxygen and nitrogen high in the atmosphere, making them glow, most often green.

Cloud is the usual spoiler, and a bright moon and city lights weaken the display, so the best views are away from towns. The Icelandic Met Office publishes an aurora and cloud-cover forecast, and our article on the Northern Lights explains the science. No one can promise a sighting.

The Northern Lights over Kirkjufell and the Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.

Do you need a visa to visit Iceland?

Visitors from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States do not need a visa for a short stay in Iceland. Iceland joined the Schengen Area on 25 March 2001, so visa-free visitors can stay up to 90 days in any 180-day period across all Schengen countries, with a passport valid for at least three months beyond their planned departure. Citizens of other countries may need a visa.

Entry rules are changing. The Entry/Exit System used at Schengen borders, including Iceland’s, records non-EU travellers’ fingerprints and photographs and has been fully in use since 10 April 2026. An ETIAS travel authorisation will follow, but no start date has yet been announced. Check the current requirements with Iceland’s Directorate of Immigration and your government’s travel advice before you book.

What currency does Iceland use, and do you need cash?

Iceland’s currency is the Icelandic króna (ISK), but you will rarely need cash, because cards are accepted almost everywhere, from city cafés to remote petrol stations. Foreign currencies are seldom accepted, so if you want a little cash, withdraw krónur from an ATM. Tipping is not expected.

The name króna, “crown”, is shared with the Danish, Norwegian and Swedish currencies, a legacy of the 19th-century Scandinavian Monetary Union. Iceland, then under Danish rule, used the Danish krone; the union broke down at the start of the First World War, and Iceland’s own króna separated after Iceland became a sovereign state in 1918.

What language do Icelanders speak?

Icelandic (íslenska) is the official language, and English is widely spoken, so visitors rarely have trouble making themselves understood. Icelandic is a North Germanic language of the West Scandinavian branch, along with Faroese and Norwegian. The medieval Icelandic sagas were written in Old Icelandic, or Old Norse, and Icelanders can still read them today, although pronunciation has changed. Isolation and a living literary tradition kept the language close to its old form through centuries of Danish rule.

How did Iceland get its name?

According to the medieval Book of Settlements, Landnámabók, Iceland was named by a Norwegian Viking, Flóki Vilgerðarson, who had lost a daughter on the voyage out. After his livestock died in a hard winter in the Westfjords, he climbed a mountain, saw a fjord choked with drift ice and called the land Ísland. Earlier visitors had tried other names: Naddoddur called it Snæland, “Snowland”, and the Swede Garðar Svavarsson, who sailed around it, named it Garðarshólmi after himself. Greenland, by contrast, was given its inviting name by Erik the Red to attract settlers.

When was Iceland settled, and when did it become independent?

Iceland was settled by Norse people from the late ninth century, and the sources give 874 as the year Ingólfur Arnarson made his home at Reykjavík. Irish monks may have lived there as hermits before them. The settlers came mainly from Norway, and from Iceland, Norse sailors went on to Greenland and to Vinland in North America, reached by Leif Eiríksson, Erik the Red’s son.

In 930 the settlers founded the Althing, a general assembly that met each summer at Thingvellir, and around 1000 they adopted Christianity. In 1262–64 Icelanders accepted the rule of the King of Norway; when Norway and Denmark came under one king in 1380, Iceland passed to Danish rule. It gained home rule in 1904, became a sovereign kingdom sharing the Danish king in 1918, and on 17 June 1944 was proclaimed a republic at Thingvellir.

Turf-roofed houses in rural Iceland, a way of building that goes back to the Norse settlers.

How do you get around Iceland?

Most visitors get around Iceland by road, because there are no passenger railways and domestic flights link only a handful of towns. Route 1, the Ring Road, circles the island for about 1,320 kilometres and has been fully paved since 2019, but many side roads are gravel, single-lane bridges are common, and the mountain F-roads into the interior open only in summer and need four-wheel-drive vehicles. Journeys take longer than the map suggests; check road conditions at umferdin.is before setting out. Our Iceland ring road itinerary shows how a 17-day journey breaks the circuit into manageable days.

Sheep on a country road in Iceland, a common sight when flocks graze freely in summer.

What are the best places to visit in Iceland?

The best places to visit in Iceland are mostly its landscapes, but start in Reykjavík, whose capital area is home to nearly two-thirds of Icelanders: the National Museum tells the nation’s story, and the tower of Hallgrímskirkja looks over the old town.

Fríkirkjan, Reykjavík’s Free Church, on the Tjörnin pond, with the tower of Hallgrímskirkja rising behind.

East of the capital, the Golden Circle links Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004; the Geysir geothermal area, where Strokkur erupts every few minutes; and Gullfoss, which drops 32 metres in two stages into a gorge. Near the airport, the Blue Lagoon formed from the runoff of the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, which opened in 1976. Eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula have closed it several times since late 2023, so check before you go.

Strokkur erupting at sunset in the Geysir geothermal area, watched by visitors.

Along the south coast come the waterfalls of Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, whose 2010 eruption grounded flights across Europe, and the black sand beaches around Vík. At Reynisfjara, sneaker waves can surge far up the beach without warning and have swept people away, so keep well back from the water. Further east, Vatnajökull National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2019, covers about 14 percent of Iceland and includes Skaftafell and the icebergs of the Jökulsárlón lagoon.

Basalt columns and the Reynisdrangar sea stacks on Reynisfjara black sand beach, near Vík.

In the north, Lake Mývatn is ringed by craters, lava formations and steaming vents, and Apollo astronauts trained in the lava fields of north-east Iceland in 1965 and 1967. In the north-west, the Westfjords offer deep fjords and the seabird cliffs of Látrabjarg, and the Snaefellsnes Peninsula packs a glacier, lava fields and fishing villages into a short drive.

Skógafoss in South Iceland, with a walker on the riverbank for scale.

What is Icelandic food like?

Icelandic food is built on lamb and fish, and today’s menus are thoroughly modern, so you need not eat fermented shark unless you want to. Traditional flavours reflect the old ways of preserving food through a long winter: drying, smoking, salting, fermenting and pickling in whey.

Those flavours return each year during Þorri, the old midwinter month from late January to late February, when many Icelanders sit down to þorramatur, a spread of traditional food served with dense rye bread, butter and brennivín, a caraway-flavoured schnapps. It typically includes:

• hákarl: cubes of fermented shark
• sviðasulta: a brawn, or “head cheese”, made from sheep’s head
• lundabaggi: rolled sheep’s meat and fat, soured in whey
• hrútspungar: pickled ram’s testicles

Geothermal greenhouses now grow tomatoes and cucumbers through the dark months, as our article on Icelandic food explains. On our tour, travellers visit the farm at Bjarnarhöfn on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and can taste its shark meat (Day 4), and see tomatoes grown with geothermal energy at the Fridheimar horse and tomato farm (Day 16).

A modern Icelandic tasting board with roasted root vegetables, savoury bites and a small glass.

Is Iceland a good destination for mature travellers?

Iceland suits active mature travellers well, provided you are comfortable with uneven ground, steps and changeable weather. Many of the main sights, including Gullfoss, Geysir and Skógafoss, are reached by short paths from car parks, but those paths can be wet, icy or steep, and the climb to the top of Skógafoss is several hundred steps. Some days also include several hours on the road.

Our tour is graded Level 2 – Moderate: you need to be able to carry your own luggage, manage stairs and take part in three to five hours of activity a day, the equivalent of walking up to 8 kilometres on uneven ground. Our article on visiting Iceland as a mature traveller covers the island’s history and highlights in more depth.

Green and rust-coloured mountains and braided rivers in the highlands around Landmannalaugar.

Seeing Iceland on our Iceland cultural and wilderness tour

Our Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour circles the island over 17 days from Reykjavík, with an Odyssey Program Leader. Day 2 brings the National Museum and the Blue Lagoon, Day 3 Thingvellir, Day 4 Snaefellsnes and Day 6 the Látrabjarg cliffs. Lake Mývatn follows on Day 9, a whale-watching boat from Húsavík on Day 10 and Dettifoss on Day 11. On Day 13 we take a short boat ride among the icebergs of Jökulsárlón and walk in Skaftafell, Day 15 includes a short hike at Landmannalaugar, and Day 16 brings Gullfoss and Geysir before our farewell dinner. The tour is Level 2 – Moderate, in small groups of up to 16.