This was my third trip to Iceland and I my first solo trip. Traveling alone allowed me to be nothing other than a photographer and traveler. It also meant that all the work of making and breaking camp, cooking meals and making decisions were all mine and mine alone.

So what worked and, inevitably, what did not work (at least to the extent that it is worth complaining about?)

There and Back

jetBlue / IcelandAir – jetBlue handled the direct round trip flight to Boston Logan and was kind enough to wave the (then) newly instated second bag fee. That won’t happen again… The red eye put me and my luggage in Boston 7 hours prior to IcelandAir finishing the trip. My IcelandAir flight was the first of the day so I was stuck with lots of luggage and little sleep until the IcelandAir ticket window opened 5 hours of so after I landed. I was beyond happy to get rid of my luggage.

Especially when compared to jetBlue, IcelandAir seems like a blast from the past. All women cabin crews in tailored uniforms and giant row filling stainless steal carts are the most obvious contrasts to jetBlue. Older 737′s with very little in the way of inflight distractions is another. The fact that they continue to serve meals also makes them a vanishing breed.

And in a final homage to times gone by, both the outbound and inbound Boston to Reykjavik flights were on time.

I will complain a bit about the schedule. IcelandAir hubs in Reykjavik and the flight is timed to land in Europe in the early morning. That is fine if, as most of the people on the plane were, you are headed for Europe. If you jump of in Iceland you wander up to the rental car counter after midnight still facing a 45 minute drive from the Airport into the big city.

Thanks largely to the German cartographer at ourfootprints and my trusty Garmin Nuvi, I drove directly to my favorite place to stay in Reykjavik, GuestHouse Anna. Anna’s is located near the transportation terminal should you take the airport bus into Reykavik. It is also an easy and welcomed walk from Anna’s to the Reykjavik city center. Anna’s is a nice and fairly priced place and she is a gracious and properly eccentric host.

The first batch of hand-made images from my most recent trip to Iceland are up over at WilliamSmitheyJr.com.

More to follow…

Enjoy.

I’m scheduled for three weeks in Iceland this year. This will be my third trip in as many years.

With most of the population living in and near Reykjavik, much of Iceland is thinly populated. Even as tourism peaks in the Summer, the countryside outside the Capital area seldom seems crowded. Campgrounds are widely available, fairly priced and, thanks to the open style of camping, don’t really ever fill up in the way that American campgrounds, limited by individual sites, so often do. ¹

It is also easy to stay in places that have ceilings, walls and such. Guesthouses, hotels, hostels, resorts and even rural schools offer weatherproof if often expensive places to stay throughout the country. Unlike the campgrounds, indoor accommodations do fill up in high season so advanced reservations are a very good idea.

So, staying indoors is dry, pricey and inflexible. Car camping, despite the logistics of hauling gear 5000 miles from home, provides the freedom to travel and photograph as weather and whim dictate. Not incidentally, campgrounds typically have hot showers (geothermally heated in some parts of the country) and clean restrooms with flush toilets.

Getting there requires, at least for we West Coast types, both Domestic and International flights. Each has different restrictions on baggage with international, aka IcelandAir, the more restrictive. Since I’m not about to become responsible for a typo that results in a violation of IcelandAir’s baggage policy, you should go here and read it yourself.

Generally, the roads in Iceland are excellent. There are also plenty of rough, 4×4 style roads but the rental car companies don’t want their cars on them. The interior then is basically off limits except to tours, busses, locals and folks who bring their personal vehicles in from Europe. It’s just as well – you only think you want to drive across a glacial melt stream/river. Those giant four wheel drive rigs the locals drive have snorkels for a reason.

Vehicle rental is expensive and the price of fuel is just plain mean. As I type this AutoEurope (I have no interest or affiliation with these folks, they just have lots of my money…) is charging about $600 US per week for your choice of tiny car. Reserving early (as in February) or for travel off peak season can cut this price by one-third. Gasoline is sold by the liter and adds up to better than $8.00 US per gallon. That’s the bad news, the good news is that gasoline is widely available. Most stations are automated. Memorize your credit card pin – it is required in some areas to purchase at the pump.

With the rainfall totals in the Summer months less than you might expect, the wind becomes the most common camping problem. The Europeans are fond of tunnel type tents with large vestibules. After a first trip with a standard issue back packing type tent, I settled on this free-standing tent, complete with a giant wind-stopping vestibule, for year two.

¹ Campgrounds can seem very full on the first weekend in July. This is the traditional start of Icelandic camping season and just about everyone with a tent trailer is out enjoying the 24 hour daylight and summer weather. This is also the only time that Iceland campgrounds get noisy. The rest of the year all is quite by midnight.

A portfolio of eighty or so (and growing) of my best images from two trips to Iceland. Developed in Aperture and assembled into a web site using iPhoto, iWeb and .mac. Only a couple of two frame panoramas and one HDR image were touched by Photoshop (tm.)

The images are displayed using the iPhoto / .mac Web Gallery feature so you’ll need a modern Browser, broadband and FLASH.

Enjoy.

Lone Tourist and Mudpot. Námafjall, Krafla, Iceland.