Suppose you live on an rather secluded island not far from the Arctic. Once in a white hillbilly moon an iceberg brings along a polar bear. After weeks and even months sailing around the ocean with nothing for company but ice it would be rather nice of you to welcome the bear with some means. ... Read More
Even if Icelanders have just recently come out from under the rocks as a nation we are quicker than Usain Bolt to embrace all the “lovely” things about getting money for nothing. It would seem a stretch, while also kinda crazy and dumb, in a fishing nation like Iceland for restaurant owners to go out of ... Read More
The major symbol of Reykjavik city is the Hallgrimskirkja church. PIC Rog01 In spite of what many visitors believe the city of Reykjavik is a very young city in all respects. Those “old” buildings you see crammed between modern high rises in the center of the city are very seldom ... Read More
It´s always good sport to poke fun at other nations for their weird beliefs or customs. At least it has been towards Iceland and Icelanders throughout and for good reasons too. Yup, we´re pretty weird over here all things considered. Weird customs abound (rotten shark), weird people everywhere ( Björk), weird laws (it was perfectly ... Read More
Talk about ignoring the locals! What team Total Iceland has been saying about the famed Blue lagoon for years is now front page material for all the large news sites in Iceland due to a couple of unknown foreign bloggers giving the place a big thumbs down. We should be mad, of course. After all, ... Read More
Contrary to what tourism officials and tour operators want there are quite a lot of folks out there interested in visiting Iceland that do not have bank vaults full of cash lying around. With hotel prices going through the roof many of those pack a tent and travel cheap. But how good an idea is ... Read More
Taking care is easier said than done. Especially when doing all those unique Iceland activities like climbing a glacier, hiking the highland or shopping in Reykjavik. Should you at any point need to visit the emergency room at the nearest hospital you better have some serious loose change in your pocket. According to recently released ... Read More
Poor old Johan Stone from the Netherlands. All happy and shit about visiting Iceland in February only to get seriously mad and pissed about getting stuck in snowstorms and getting nowhere fast on local roads. Too bad old Johan did not read Total Iceland. The only Iceland guide to tell you how a deep winter ... Read More
Common stupidity is a growing phenomenon in this world it seems. If in doubt, consider these two brand-new examples from Iceland. There is one less Chinese in the world after a Chinese tourist was swept out to sea in the popular Reynisfjara beach in Iceland. This guy was all fine and dandy, taking selfies and ... Read More
If driving around Iceland in September or October you may have noticed, or perhaps actually been delayed, by herds and herds of sheep being chased by farmers on foot, horses or in vehicles. This is effectively what is known as the yearly sheep-roundup and is fast becoming a major draw for tourist. In the Iceland ... Read More
Today´s media leaves much to be desired. We are bombarded with all kinds of quack information purporting quick fixes to make our lives better, healthier and richer too. All while we are getting worse, sicker and poorer too. One famous example is the extreme happiness of the people of Iceland. You may have come across news ... Read More
Now you can get a preview of how life will be like when you´re 89, sick as hell and nobody gives a damn. Just such a service will soon be available in Iceland. Turns out a number of managers for government-run care homes for the elderly and sick are getting desperate. No one is ... Read More
Here we are again. Slightly older and a little wiser and still dreaming about that Iceland trip like we did last year and the year before and the year before that etc. We hate being the ones to piss on the parade but you would have saved quite a bit of dough by visiting last ... Read More
We know! Iceland is not the first country to come to mind when thinking of golfing in some exotic locale. Hell, it´s probably near the bottom of the list alongside North Korea. Do they even have golf courses over there??? But lo and behold, we do. Actually you´ll find amazing variety of golf courses in ... Read More
You may or may not have heard about Silfra pond at the famed Thingvellir National Park in Iceland. Massively popular for divers since it affords the chance to literally dive between continents. But there´s a downside too. This week a tourist of Chinese origin died after having experienced unknown difficulties diving in Silfra. Hardly a ... Read More
About time some foreign journalist saw the light. A recent piece in the world-famous travel magazine Condé Nast is pretty much an echo of all we´ve been saying for years. The piece, What Not to Do in Iceland, is well written and informative and even a bit daring. But above all written by a journalist ... Read More
It is getting infinitely harder for backpackers and those on tight budget to visit Iceland. This place was always expensive but now demand is way more than supply regarding hotels, guesthouses and even restaurants, making any budget trip here next to impossible. Examples abound. Basic bed in a basic hostel in Reykjavik these days can ... Read More
If we had a dime for every time we´ve come across some local tour enterprise offering foreigners the chance to sample the infamous rotten shark and to kill the taste with a drink of the even more infamous Black Death spirit, we´d be right up there in Silicon Valley doing some Jeff Bezos shit. Instead, ... Read More
For a town its size it´s quite amazing the varied things one can do in Akureyri. PIC Tom Olliver At the beginning of the century any connoisseur traveling around Iceland would have cut the trip short halfway and hurried home with horrible stomach aches. Outside of Reykjavik city and Akureyri ... Read More
Twenty years ago the thirteen different Santa´s of Iceland only got mentioned in hushed tones as if a secret. After all, why should smelly, dirty, ugly and slightly criminal fellows from the mountains have any chance against the generous, fat and shiny Coca Cola Santa Claus now celebrated worldwide as the one and only? But as ... Read More
We understand your concerns completely. Setting up camp in cities of this world can be a daunting thought. Often campsites are far away from everything. Security less than perfect or non-existent and necessary services poor and sometimes lacking altogether. Not so in Reykjavik city. In the area known as Laugardalur (see map below) you´ll find ... Read More
Some locals refer to Asbyrgi national park as the capital of elves in Iceland. Indeed, that could well be the case in this stunning horseshoe shaped canyon close to the northern coast of Iceland. Asbyrgi would be best described as an oasis if there ever was one. The weird-shaped canyon is one of a handful ... Read More
We don´t know about you but team Total Iceland believes we should treat animals as fairly and squarely as possible. Animals do so much for this humankind. Things we do not even notice in daily life. Which is why, with great sadness, we have to report that Icelandic farmers are among the worst possible offenders ... Read More
One has to wonder. Today not a human with a camera has not made or is not making a trip to Iceland to capture the beauty of this fair land of ours and brag about back home. The same beauty nobody was interested in five years ago? The same beauty that has been here for ... Read More
