No towns, no trees and roads that open for a few weeks a year: the empty heart of the island.
Most visitors see Iceland's coast. The interior, a high plateau of lava deserts, ice caps, rhyolite mountains and hot springs, remains almost empty. Nobody lives there. For most of the year, nobody can even get there.
Roads that open for a few weeks
The highland roads (known as F-roads) usually open from late June and close in early September, depending on snow and conditions. They are unpaved, and many rivers have no bridges. Hire cars are not allowed on many of them, and even capable 4x4s turn back at deep fords.
That is why we travel by super-jeep: modified four-by-fours with enormous tyres, driven by guides who read every river crossing.
What you find there
- Landmannalaugar, where the mountains are streaked in ochre, rose and green, and a natural hot spring waits at the end of the day
- Black sand deserts that look like another planet
- Canyons, steaming valleys and ice caps on the horizon in every direction
- Silence
The interior is the Iceland most people never see, and the one guests talk about longest.
How to go
Our highland journey runs in summer only. We spend nights in private mountain huts, cross by super-jeep and leave by helicopter over the ice. Dates depend on when the roads open each year. [Verify before launch]