While it is the focus of scores of wild holidays and corporate jollies (think exploring volcanic beaches on monster jeeps or quad bikes; admiring sulphurous pools with gushing geysers and plenty of steamy lagoon-wallowing), the mountain-flanked capital, Reykjavik, is also increasingly becoming a favourite destination for conducting business too.
One work-in-progress is the Danish-designed Icelandic National Concert Hall and Conference Centre, due to open in 2009 on the site of the old Reykjavik harbour, which will adjoin the country’s first five-star hotel. Iceland’s reputation as a business destination is blossoming thanks to its compact size, which offers ease and convenience in planning a trip, combined with its rapid cultural revolution that has taken place over the last 20 years.
There is no better demonstration of this transformation than in the nation’s cuisine. Iceland’s traditional dishes – sheep’s head, rotten (or ‘putrefied’) shark, whale meat and the flesh of assorted sea birds – would probably alarm the unaccustomed palate. But, thanks to the innovation of celebrated Icelandic chefs such as Siggi Hall, owner of the eponymous Reykjavik restaurant, the country has recently carved a reputation as a veritable hotspot for culinary delights.
The key, it seems, is the marriage of international gastronomic influences and the good, honest and fresh ingredients that are so plentiful locally: almost-wild lamb, hormone-free by law and often served smoked, and Atlantic Ocean-fresh seafood galore. For a city that was, not so long ago, home to just a handful of restaurants (all, I fear, focusing heavily on variations of cormorant stew), the foodie face of Reykjavik has had a remarkable make-over. From delectable street food, which largely consists of irresistible lamb hotdogs smeared in mustard, two types of onion and ketchup, to restaurants as fine as you might find in any other major European city, you will find something to satisfy every taste and budget. In the capital, Reykjavik, try the restaurant du jour, Sjavarkjallarinn, ‘The Seafood Cellar’; revolving, top-floor Perlan, ‘The Pearl’, or, for unpretentious home cooking, Mulakaffi.
In stark contrast to Iceland’s forward-thinking food, entertainment and hospitality scene, the fire-and-ice landscape that frames it all remains one of the rawest and awe-inspiring on earth. Its extreme, unpolluted and barely populated beauty is characterised by waterfalls (including Europe’s biggest, Dettifoss), geysers, red and black sand beaches, monster glaciers, the famously dramatic northern lights, volcanoes and steaming lava fields. It provides a veritable adventure playground for sporty travellers, with a huge ticklist of activities from pony trekking to white water rafting and diving expeditions to sites such as the thermal chimney in Eyjafjördur.
For sight-seeing, favourites destinations among tourists include the Blue Lagoon – a surprisingly unnatural phenomenon that came about when drainage channels adjacent to a geothermal power station became clogged by silted minerals, forming a pool – and Geysir, which used to spurt an impressive 70 feet into the air but has long since been inactive.
If you fancy venturing off the beaten tourist track, however, try the lesser-known Snaefellsjökull glacier on the northwest coast, two hours from the capital and chock-full of caves and hot springs, without the crowds. It’s a great spot for ice walking and climbing as well as salmon fly-fishing and whale-spotting nearby. Popular with eco-tourists, Hotel Hellnar, at the glacier’s base, was the country’s first to be stamped with the Green Globe badge of honour, and boasts a building fashioned “ecologically” and from natural materials, with local and organic fare on the menu.
Fact file
Despite being similar in size to England, the whole of Iceland has a population of just 294,300 – compared to England’s 48 million. It is the sixth richest country per capita in the world.
Iceland had the world’s first female president, Vigdís Finnbogadόttir, first elected in 1980.
Reykjavik celebrates National Beer Day on March 1 every year, to mark the 1989 end of its 75-year prohibition. However, today’s beer can set you back between £4 and £10 a pint, so locals often kick off the drinking at home.
Even to this day, surveys repeatedly reveal that 80 per cent of Icelanders believe in elves. Building companies – including, it is alleged, those involved in the development of the nation’s vast ring road – have been known to consult clairvoyants about the location of local elf dwellings before starting a new project.
