Esja Travel’s specialist tours cater to special interest groups

Photos, Food, Knitting or Yoga

Iceland’s Unique Photography
Travelling with a experienced photographer offers an exceptional opportunity to further your skills shooting unusual sights in dramatic lighting conditions. A specialist knows the best spots for each time of day at each location – yet leaves it to you to take that perfect picture.
Flying to Höfn, in Iceland’s south, gives you a glimpse of the potential. Breathtaking scenery, black sand beaches with the brilliant white of Vatnajökull glacier in the background, fantasy rock and ice formations – and the possibility of the Northern Lights at night. Jökulsárlón, the glacial lagoon provides countless unique opportunities. Waterfalls change with the seasons, while the Geysir hot spring area offers unusual contrasts.
At Þingvellir (Thingvellir), tectonic plates are tearing the earth apart, offering outstanding views, while the Reykjanes peninsula, with brightly colored geothermal hills, lakes and mud pools, faults and fissures, dormant volcanos and lava cones and craters, and the Blue Lagoon, contrasting with pastoral scenes and fishing villages, provides an unrivalled range of opportunities.
The constantly varying lighting conditions throughout the day and the year, along with the changing seasons, means that there is a virtually limitless variation in the kinds of photos you can take.
Then, there are tours to the North and West of Iceland, each of which is completely different again so, if you have already taken tours to the South, you will find entirely new opportunities and different conditions to exploit.

Follow that Food!
Taste the world’s best lamb and fish, each cooked to perfection – and learn how to do it yourself in this culinary adventure tour.
Have fun sea angling for your lunch. The chef at Fylgifiskar restaurant explains how to prepare and cook the fish with locally-grown herbs, spices and vegetables. A relaxing trip to the amazing Blue Lagoon follows.
This tour then takes you into the countryside, visiting Thingvellir, the Viking site of the world’s longest-running parliament, to Bjarteyjarsandur farm, a producer of gourmet lamb. The farmer shares fascinating local history and farming methods and today’s ecological sustainable lifestyle. After sampling the farm food, it’s back to the rooftop Grill restaurant, for a 2nd cooking class, followed by dinner.

From Sheep to Sweater
This knitting tour is all about visiting, experiencing and practising. It combines dyeing, spinning and knitting under the guidance of specialists in each field. Based in the beautiful, unique guesthouse by the ocean in Borgarnes, the tour delves into all the aspects of wool. You see how Icelandic plants and lichens are used to dye the yarn in a half-day workshop and then visit the Ullarselið Wool Centre.
You’ll be drawn into Iceland’s history at the Settlement Centre and enjoy the spectacular nature of West Iceland visiting Bjarteyjarsandur farm to learn about Icelandic wool, the Icelandic Goat Centre (with coffee and pancakes made from goats’ milk) and see the finished products, handicrafts and foods at the Ljómalind farmers’ market. You can relax in Borgarnes’ hot Jacuzzis before dining at Edda’s World and seeing craftspeople at work. Optionally, visit the Norse mythology exhibition.
With expert guidance, you will take home something you made yourself – and the knowledge of how to make these beautiful woolens.

Hot Yoga: The Arctic Yoga Retreat
The powerful healing energy of the Icelandic nature provides the backdrop to an adventure in spiritual refreshment under the guidance of Eva Thorgeirsdóttir, a passionate Icelandic yogini, whose joyful and playful classes blend a mixture of dynamic vinyasa flow and stillness. Challenging and rejuvenating, these times are permeated with deep spiritual insights.
A soothing trip to the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa after your flight begins the tour, which is based in the geothermal village of Hveragerði. You can see steam rising from hot springs around this beautiful village, nestled at the food of the mountains.
Frequent yoga sessions are interspersed with hikes around the hot spring area then up into the valley beyond, bathing in natural, 37°C hot pools and visits to Geysir, Gullfoss waterfall, a hike on a glacier or horse riding and to Thingvellir National Park, one of Iceland’s most sacred places, set in a rift valley where the Earth’s tectonic plates are steadily pulling apart.
Before returning home, there is a time to stroll around Reykjavik and pick up those souvenirs and gifts that will remind you of this special experience.
You can prolong your stay in Iceland after any of these tours to enjoy more of the wealth the country has to offer. Esja Travel can make all your arrangments.