Reykjavik stands as a true European cultural capital, while still maintaining a small-town feel. The hip factor is extremely high. Couple that with the steady stream of visiting Europeans of all stripes, just hanging out or there on business, and you’ve got the one of the coolest café society melting pots.

Start your adventuring in the Old City and work your way out. Reykjavik is full of art, with coffee bars and cafés providing the pit stops. Yes, there’s the Icelandic Phallological Museum filled with mammal penises, but that only takes a few minutes.

Visit any time. Like anywhere, visiting Iceland depends on what you want. Midnight sun? Go in June. Northern Lights? November through April. The biennial multidisciplinary Reykjavik Arts Festival is a cultural extravaganza in June. April through August sees a half dozen really good music festivals. The Fringe is in July. Pride is in August. Winter Pride is in March. The Laugavegur Ultra Marathon in July and the Reykjavik Marathon is in mid-August.

Make the food scene. The Food and Fun Festival is in March, but Iceland’s top chefs are busy reinventing the national cuisine all year long, embracing traditional foods and giving them a modern twist. Reykjavik’s Dill Restaurant is one of those at the forefront of this wave, with things like geothermally baked rye bread, salted cod, goose breast and incredible cheeses. The more casual Grill Market is another Reykjavik highlight. Grilled monkfish skewers, rack of lamb, grilled red fish, big steaks and puffin sliders (not kidding) top the menu here.

Get in the swim. Locals treat the public swimming pools like a social event, a way to start the day or unwind after work, year-round. Kinda like the pub. Check out the popular Laugardalslaug or the iconic, Art Deco Sundhöllin.

Head for the hills. The time you spend in the countryside will be what you talk about most when you get home. Iceland is the closest the Earth will ever get to looking like the moon. Sweeping beauty is absolutely everywhere, from the moss-covered lava fields to volcanic craters in the north. There is such a variety of breathtaking geology, you will find it hard to pick which tours to take. There’s something for all interests and fitness levels, from day trips to overnights. The big 4 x 4 trucks that take you out onto the glaciers have a Mad Max meets Monster Truck feel to them.

Trip up north. People stream to the northern city of Akureyri to watch the aurora borealis dance, sometimes all night. The geographical anomalies that dot this region are also a major draw, a veritable freak-show of sprawling waterfalls, volcanic oddities and geothermal go-sees. After you hike around crater ponds and explore lava ridges and caves, you can straddle the region’s giant fissure at the Grjótagjá Rift, standing with one foot on the Eurasian tectonic plate and the other on the North American plate. The Myvatn Nature Baths just east of the rift is a true delight; a man-made, mineral-rich, 36-degree hot spring pulling water from up to 2,500 metres below ground.

THINGS TO DO: IN AKUREYRI

Hit the big spa. Spend an hour or two at the famous Blue Lagoon on your way back to the airport. Mucking around in volcanic mud is the perfect way to say goodbye to this arresting and mesmerizing land—and your skin will thank you for it.

When you go. Average July temperatures are 12 C but of course can reach the 20s. And because Iceland lies in the path of the North Atlantic Current, its winter temps are mild considering how close you are to the Arctic Circle—hovering around +2/-2 C. Icelandair has some great packages worth investigating that also include the northern city of Akureyri.

VisitIceland.com
Icelandair.com

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Antarctica is all about zipping through icy bays on pontoon boats, hiking up glacial hills, kayaking or just plain penguin-watching. And a Quark Expeditions cruise through the islands of the Antarctic Peninsula is the perfect bucket-list adventure for anyone—thrill-seekers, nomads, romantics.

A quick Google search of “things to do in Antarctica” turns up “survive” as one of the main activities. The explorers that started arriving in the early 1800s can attest to that. The real activity, of course, is the journey itself—and this will likely be the furthest you will likely ever get from your house. Most cruise lines will have you landing in Ushuaia the day before you set sail. It bills itself as the City at the Bottom of the World—just a few kilometres from famous Tierra del Fuego National Park. (Weirdly, it used to be a prison colony.)

Pack your summer stuff. You will spend a few days in Buenos Aires first, where it will be full-on summer. You would be remiss not to take advantage of the weather, even for a day or two. 

Pack your ski stuff. While daytime temps in Antarctica’s “summer,” from December to February, hover around -2ºC, you’ll find yourself outside a lot. As well, ship corridors in this part of the world generally aren’t exactly toasty.

Get your awe on. Nothing can prepare you for the beauty of the giant walls of ice, frosty clouds rolling in low with full sun behind them, shimmering vistas across icy bays. Some of the ice we were looking at was thousands of years old.

ARCTIC ADVENTURE: IN GREENLAND

Spot the critters. Despite being a big deep freeze, the Antarctic archipelago has its fair share of wildlife. You will see different kinds of penguins (including the Gentoo, Adélie and Chinstrap) and seals (including the Weddell, Leopard and Crabeater) and soon be able to tell them all apart. All feed on krill, an algae-eating form of crustacean. Keep an eye out for whales. You will also see birds flying alongside the ship, nesting in rocky crags or feasting on krill at the shoreline: blue-eyed shags, Antarctic terns, brown skuas, snowy sheathbills and numerous varieties of petrels. On-board experts share their knowledge of ornithology, marine biology, zoology and geology with talks during downtimes.

Say yes to camping. At an overnight camping trip at Rongé Island, those brave enough not only survived but actually slept.

Take the plunge. On Deception Island, many brave souls stripped down and ran screaming into minus-one-degree water, part of a polar plunge. From my dry spot on the shore, this all looked very invigorating.

Don’t forget anti-nausea medication. The first and last legs of the journey are the most wobbly: crossing the notorious Drake Passage. We noticed the hooks under our dining-room chairs that would allow us to attach ourselves to the floor if need be. I remember one particular dinner where servers spent more time replacing utensils that slipped off the tabletops than they did delivering plates.

Be patient. It takes about 100 hours of sailing (not including touring around the peninsula itself), 30 hours of flying and four hours of taxicabs to get to Antarctica and back—truly the trip of a lifetime.

Quark Expeditions

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