IS · Curated travel guide
Eyjafjallajökull, Hekla, Vatnajökull and 7 more — what each one is, and why it is worth the detour.
Chosen from everything Wikidata knows about Iceland and ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions describe them, which is about as close to "famous" as open data gets.
Glacier and volcano in Iceland
Sometimes called by the numeronym E15, one of Iceland's smaller ice caps, west of Mýrdalsjökull and north of Skógar, covering the caldera of a volcano whose summit reaches 1,651 metres (5,417 ft).
Photo: TommyBee, Public domain
Stratovolcano in South of Iceland
Also spelled Hecla, an active stratovolcano in southern Iceland, 1,491 m (4,892 ft) high. Among Iceland's most active volcanoes, it has erupted more than 20 times since the year 1210, in and around the mountain.
Photo: Hansueli Krapf, CC BY-SA 3.0
Icelandic glacier
Iceland's biggest ice cap by both area and volume, and Europe's second-biggest by area, after the ice cap on Novaya Zemlya's Severny Island. It lies in the island's south-east and covers about 8% of the country.
Photo: Zairon, CC BY-SA 3.0
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Volcanic fissure in Iceland
Properly Lakagígar, a volcanic fissure in the west of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, near the small village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur and the Eldgjá fissure; Laki itself is the mountain the fissure cuts through.
Photo: Chmee2 / Valtameri, CC BY-SA 3.0
Volcano in Iceland
An active volcano with a fissure system in Iceland's Vatnajökull National Park. Its central volcano lies entirely under the ice, beneath the northwestern part of the Vatnajökull ice cap.
Photo: Roger McLassus, CC BY-SA 3.0
Large volcano in Southern Iceland
An active volcano under the ice in southern Iceland, which has been highly active through history, with at least twenty recorded major eruptions since 2920 BC.
Photo: The original uploader was RicHard-59 at Finnish Wikipedia ., Public domain
Waterfall in Northeast Iceland
A waterfall in Vatnajökull National Park, Northeast Iceland, said to be Europe's second most powerful after the Rhine Falls. It lies on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum, a river flowing from the Vatnajökull glacier and draining a large area of Northeast Iceland.
Photo: Spike, CC BY-SA 4.0
Waterfall in Bláskógabyggð and Hrunamannahreppur, Iceland
A waterfall in southwest Iceland where the Hvítá river runs through a canyon, on the boundary of Hrunamannahreppur and Bláskógabyggð. One of Iceland's most popular sights, it is part of the "Golden Circle" tours of the country around Reykjavík.
Photo: Andreas Tille, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Stratovolcano in Iceland
A stratovolcano capped by a glacier, 700,000-year-old, at the western tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in western Iceland.
Photo: Axel Kristinsson from Reykjavík, Iceland, CC BY 2.0
Church in Iceland
A Protestant Lutheran parish church in Reykjavík, Iceland, 74.5 metres (244 ft) tall: the country's biggest church and its second-tallest building.
Photo: Steinninn, CC BY 4.0
A Nordic island country between the North Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is Europe's most westerly and most thinly populated country. Reykjavík, the capital and biggest city, is home to about 35% of its roughly 395,000 people.
Officially Iceland. Known locally as Ísland.
Based on the Wikipedia article, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0: the facts are Wikipedia's, the wording is this site's.
This guide lists 10: Eyjafjallajökull, Hekla, Vatnajökull and Laki and others.
By machine, from open data, with no human ranking them and nobody able to pay for a place on the list. Everything Wikidata records in Iceland that is a building, a landform, a protected area or a tourist attraction, has coordinates, a photograph and an English Wikipedia article, is ranked by how many Wikipedia language editions wrote about it. Provinces, cities, airports, stations and stretches of sea shared with the neighbours are filtered out.
Icelandic. The currency is ISK.
A travel eSIM is usually the cheapest way, and avoids a roaming bill. The plans suggested at the foot of this guide start at $2.15 for 2GB per day. The eSIM is data-only and sits alongside your normal SIM, so calls, texts and WhatsApp keep working on your own number.
Nova and Síminn. Your phone picks whichever has the best signal where you are, the same way a local phone does.
Maps, tickets and translation all want data, and roaming is the expensive way to get it. A Computatus eSIM eSIM connects to Nova and Síminn once you land, and installs by QR code before you leave.
| Plan | Data | Valid | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2GB per day Cheapest | 2 GB | 1 day | $2.15 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $2.54 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 15 days | 3 GB | 15 days | $2.69 | Get it → |
| 3GB for 30 days | 3 GB | 30 days | $2.86 | Get it → |
| 3GB per day | 3 GB | 1 day | $3.04 | Get it → |
| 5GB per day | 5 GB | 1 day | $3.67 | Get it → |
No app needed. Install by QR code before you fly, keep your own number for calls, and it connects the moment you land.
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this guide. Nothing above depends on it: the places are chosen before any price is looked up.
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