West Iceland

Being Iceland in miniature — a glacier, lava fields, black and golden beaches, fishing villages and bird cliffs on one 90-kilometre peninsula. Kirkjufell above Grundarfjörður is the most photographed mountain in the country.

Yes, and plenty of tours do — but it is a long one, around eleven hours door to door for a 350-kilometre loop. A night in Grundarfjörður or Stykkishólmur turns the same route into something you can stop for.

Deildartunguhver, Europe's highest-flow hot spring, feeding the Krauma baths next to it; the Hraunfossar and Barnafoss waterfalls; and Víðgelmir, the largest lava cave in the country. All of it is inside a 90-minute drive of Reykjavík.

Not for the Snæfellsnes loop or the Borgarfjörður sites, which are paved. Winter is a different question on the Fróðárheiði pass across the peninsula — check road conditions before you commit to crossing it.

The Baldur ferry from Stykkishólmur across Breiðafjörður, which also runs on to the Westfjords. Flatey has no cars, a summer population of a few dozen, and the oldest library building in Iceland.

It works year-round, which is not true of every region here. Summer opens the whole peninsula and the bird cliffs at Arnarstapi; winter brings northern lights over Kirkjufell and far fewer people, at the cost of shorter days and passes that can close.