The Rough Guide to Iceland (Rough Guides)

This is a very comprehensive guidebook for Iceland. Lots of suggested activities beyond Reykjavik and big three Golden Circle sites. Iceland was spectacular and I hope you get a chance to visit. Recommend at least a week if you can budget the time. Keep in mind Iceland is both spectacularly beautiful and spectacularly expensive. The car rental was almost as much as the airfare. Budget you time and money accordingly.

We found this book very useful during our trip. It included many tidbits that other guides overlooked and added greatly to our experience. The depth of information was good. In fact, it is so packed with information, it is a bit hard to navigate the book, or find where you had read about that interesting POI to stop at.

Good overview of Iceland. I used this guide to drive around the ring road, and it was invaluable at pointing out things to do and tips about what to eat and where to stay. (Sparing us from just eating gas station hot dogs, which are good the first few times.)

This guide, from the pictures to the history, made my journey across Iceland so much more exciting! Friends bought the lonely planet guide and ended up taking my rough guides book since they were staying longer than me. The only thing that I wish was different was the southern coast section... We travelled clockwise like the book does, except when it hits the southern coast and changes to explaining from west to east.

The best guide to Iceland, its people and the culture.

I preordered this book hoping that getting the most recently published book would give me the most up to date information. I was very wrong. There's a paragraph in the intro talking about how gay/ lesbian people aren't welcomed in Iceland, that they all go to Denmark and the Netherlands to be accepted. Huh? Iceland was one of the first countries to legalize gay marriage. Their prime minister is an open lesbian with a wife. The rest of the book is hard to read because it just lists out cities and their important information. I have no way to figure out where each city is in relation to the next. It is organized by territory, but other than that there are no basic maps to help one figure out the distance and relationship of Thingvellir to Mosfellsbaer, for instance. So I spent most of my time reading this book googling each city to figure out where it was in relation to the places I really want to see. There is also no helpful information regarding the Icelandic language and its unique alphabet. I don't want to be the ignorant traveller that walks into a store and asks in English if they speak English. I don't need an Icelandic-English dictionary. Just the basics, plus an explanation of the different letters, would be nice. The author also gets subjective regarding a few Icelandic cities saying that there " is nothing worth stopping for" in several places. I was very excited to find that there's an Icelandic Textile Museum (and Iceland is famous for its textiles) in Blonduos. The author claims that Blonduos has "little reason to stop here." Really? Did he even stop there? The book does list some recommended hotels and restaurants, which is really the only thing I've used out of this book. Otherwise I've been using the Google to plan my Iceland trip. I've used Rough Guides before to plan trips, this one is just frustrating. I don't like relying on the Internet and its wealth of misinformation for travel, but this book leaves much to be desired.

This book is helping us plan out trip to Iceland in April. The book has bits of history, and ideas for sidetrips, as well as info on the popular sites throughout Iceland. I wish that there were more maps, or a pullout driving map for the island, like many other travel books offer.

Traveling in Iceland using this new edition of the Rough Guide gave me and my wife the impression that the author did not like Iceland. Simply put, there was ample evidence that most of what was written was obtained by an online search or word-of-mouth. There were a number of inaccuracies and omissions that would be unimaginable if the author had actually spent time in Iceland. In all likelihood, it was written from a three-day stay in Reykjavik during July (the height of tourist season). Here are some examples of the lazy writing that caused us MANY headaches: -It is assumed that everyone in Iceland (locals and tourists) has a cellphone. There are rarely any phones available in hotel rooms or B&B's, and many times the phone number listed for a B&B is the cellphone of the owner. This was not mentioned in the book. -Some towns are simply not mentioned. While the towns in Iceland tend to be very small and would not rate a mention in most guidebooks, this is true of 90% of the towns. There are only 320,000 people in Iceland - their towns can all be listed. For example, try finding Suðureyri in the guidebook. Not there. The town is a fairly substantial fishing village near Ísafjörður. -Puffins: it is no secret that Iceland is home to many nesting grounds for puffins. We traveled to Iceland in the second half of August expecting to find puffins. According to the guidebook, the puffins can be found from April to Mid-September. Good luck with that. Any local can tell you (and will, if you ask them) that the puffins all leave by Mid-August. After August 15, you can only expect a few isolated puffins anywhere around Iceland. You might get lucky and find a group stopped at a southerly stop for a while (we did), but don't count on it. Where we saw a flock of puffins (at Vestmannaeyjar), none had been spotted a week prior. Yet another example of lazy, inaccurate writing that could have been corrected by some cursory research. -Opening hours: we found more than one attraction with incorrect hours listed. Don't trust any times that say open after 18:00. -Laugavegur: Everything written about the laugavegur lists it as a four-day hike from Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk, with no other options. The author clearly pulled all of his information about this trek from other sources and did not try it himself nor talk to someone who had. While it is a full four days from start to end, there are buses that can be hired that reach Álftavatn (and Emstrur), which cut the walk in half - something useful if you wish to go elsewhere. Taking a bus either in or out of Álftavatn also avoids all of the potentially treacherous river fordings. The hike from Landmannalaugar to Álftavatn is also, by far, the most scenic portion of the hike. -Buses: The only bus routes mentioned in the book start and end in Reykjavik. While those routes certainly exist and are useful, there are many other routes that start and end elsewhere. Bus tickets start at ~$50 a ride/person. Knowing all of the possibilities will help with planning more interesting excursions into the interior of Iceland without losing days on a bus. -Roads: the road conditions and experience of driving in Iceland is quite different from the U.K. (including Skye) or mainland Europe. Doable, but be ready for very rough terrain (even the "good" roads). Not mentioned in this book. I leave these bits of advice as examples of why you should find a different guidebook and as helpful tips to those wishing to go to Iceland (which is GREAT!). Good luck!

I once bought rough guide to plan my trip to Jamaica and it was great! So I decided to buy it again for my trip to Iceland. It is a great guide book with a lot of information for places to visit. Good information and reviews about accommodation, restaurants from low budget ones to luxurious ones.. I can recommend this book to everyone.

I'm satisfied with this first general guide to Iceland. It will be completed with other books for more photos, and more detailed maps. A good buy though.

I've used Rough Guide before for India and Vietnam. This one for Iceland contains down to earth info that other travel guides often do not have. If you are to get just one travel guide, I highly recommend Rough Guide

Nice guide. Detailed info and maps upfated to latest release. Ideale for visiting inland and coast of Iceland. Very complete.

Produto de excelente conteúdo.