Nourish Body and Soul
Winter in Iceland can be a magical experience totally unlike the summer. It’s as if you’re entering another land and another time.
Most visitors come to enjoy the festivities of Christmas and New Year – often not realising all that can be done here when the days are short and the nights are long. Icelanders have learnt long ago that they can take full advantage of each season and enjoy them all to the utmost and that is something they take delight in sharing with visitors.
Wouldn’t you like to take home stories that stretch the credibility of your listeners? Stories such as bathing in sub-zero temperatures in waters so warm you could relax for hours, all the while enjoying a light show overhead that bathes the landscape in mystical colours.
This is what Reykjavik Excursions offers. Leaving in the early evening, the tour first passes through the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Þingvellir National Park before driving over the moors, often covered in snow, to Lake Laugavatn. Here you’ll find Laugavatn Fontana geothermal baths, the steam baths and hot pools that have been enjoyed by generations of Icelanders. Now, the whole facility has been completely renovated and rebuilt into a work of art. You really don’t feel the cold, it’s that cool!
With pools of different sizes and temperatures, you can relax and let the waters soothe you while enjoying the night sky. On many nights, it’s as if an ethereal ballet company is performing in the skies above for your pleasure, as the different colours and shapes of the Northern Lights swirl and play overhead. After this food for the soul and spirit, you can enjoy food for the body, too, in the form of a buffet in Laugavatn Fontana’s restaurant, before continuing a tour of this beautiful area.
On top of the world
Another popular tour at this time of year is the Highlands Northern Lights Tour. It also travels through Þingvellir. Always interesting in daytime, at night, it is clothed with mystery and shadows, whilst bathed in the lights from the heavens – whether moon, stars or Northern Lights.
Unlike the day tours, you don’t stop here but rather head to Efsti-Dalur where you can have dinner in the cosy farm restaurant. You’ll want to eat well, as there’s a lot ahead of you this evening.
The tour then heads up towards the Langjökull glacier as, all the while, the guide is regaling you with stories of the local area, the glacier and the Northern Lights. To take full advantage of the region, you meet up with a specially modified vehicle, able to handle the rigours of the rugged terrain. Naturally, it would not be wise to attempt the summit of the glacier in the dark but the tour takes you to spectacular spots in the area. Although it is totally night, there is an unearthly light from the reflections off the snow from the sky above.
After a walk to enjoy the beauty of the nature up here, you’ll enjoy the hot drinks and local specialities all the more as you mull over your experience – and how you’ll be able to explain it to your friends back home. While they may question your sanity (though, at the same time, harbouring feelings of envy), you will have joined that elite group of people who treasure the beauty of the Icelandic mountains and glaciers.
For a tour like this, good clothing and footwear are essential to get the most out of it. It is an unforgettable experience that few will ever have the opportunity to enjoy.
| BSI Bus Terminal ◦ 101 Reykjavik,[email protected] www.re.is,tel: +354 580 5400 |
