The big island with the chilly name is becoming one of Europe’s hottest properties, bursting natural wonders: active volcanoes, valley glaciers, Europe’s biggest waterfalls, lava fields, geysers, thermal pools and the aurora borealis. Reykjavik, the world’s northernmost capital, is a cultural dynamo with live music, great restaurants and museums squeezed into a subtle small-town environment. Outside the capital there’s puffin-watching, whale-gazing, white-water rafting and medieval relics that make those famous lcelandic sagas to life.

BEST TIME TO VISIT

Early June to the end of August, when the country defrosts

ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCES

Enjoying Reykjavik’s famously uninhibited nightlife Swimming in the piping-hot waters of the geothermal field at Nesjavellir Snapping a photo of the iceberg-filled Jokulsarlon lagoon Checking out Vatnajokull-Europe’s biggest icecap Cooing over thousands chicks on Heimaey island Dogsledding on the icecaps at Myrdalsjokull

GETTING UNDER THE SKIN

Read lndependent People by Halldor Laxness, one of half a dozen brilliant novels by the Noble Prize winner, or the comic drama Angels of the Universe, by Einar Mar Gudmundsson

Listen to Bjork, Quarashi and Sigur Ros

Watch Children of Nature directed by Friorik Thor Frioriksson, which tells the story of an elderly couple forced into a retirement home in Reykjavik. 101 Reykjavik, directed by Baltasar kormakur and based on the novel by Hallgrimur Helgason, is a drak comedy that explores sex, drugs and the life of a loafer in downtown Reykjavik

Eat harofiskur (haddock), which is cleaned dried in the open air until dehydrated and brittle. For something sweet, try ponnukokur (lcelandic pancakes).

Drink kaffi (coffee), lcelandic beer or the traditional lcelandic brew brennivin, a sort of schnapps made from potatoes and flavoured caraway

IN A WORD

Skal! (cheers!)

TRADEMARKS

Fire and ice; Bjork; fish; volcanoes; the aurora borealis; beer guzzling; hot springs

SURPRISES

At weekends the whole of Reykjavik joins in the great lcelandic pub-crawl, which goes on till dawn; it’s forbidden for parents to bestow non-lcelandic or foreign-sounding names on their children

Onec ypu’ve seen some of the lava fields and eerie natural formations that charactrise much of the lcelandic landscape, it will probably come as no surprise that lcelanders believe their country is populated by hidden races of wee people: jarovergar (gnomes), alfar (elves),ljosalfar (fairies), dvergar (dwarves), ljuflingar (lovelings), tivar (mountain spirits), englar (angels) and huldufolk (hidden people).