|
DATELINE ICELAND
DATELINE ICELAND
- July/August 2003
A periodic look at news and events from the home of the Vikings. Brought to you by the Icelandic Tourist Board.
>Arctic Circle Golf
Holiday
>Paradise in a Hot Tub
>Iceland Welcomes Alternative Lifestyles
>Join the Traditional Sheep Round Up
>Cleared for Landing
>You Deserve a Break Today
>Star Struck
>Whale of an Award
>You Snooze, You Lose
>Summer Travel Tips
>They Said It
Arctic Circle Golf Holiday
You could play on the same golf course
you always play on, (insert yawn here), or you could be
really dashing and play on one of the northernmost golf
courses in the world. The Akureyri Golf Club, founded in
1935 in northern Iceland, is framed by glacial mountains
and Iceland's longest fjord. Nearby you will find geothermal
swimming pools, fine dining at the exclusive Fidlarinn restaurant,
and the great shops, galleries and nightclubs of Akureyri.
Akureyri, near the Arctic Circle,
is a world apart from South Iceland, but just a short 45-min.
flight away. This cosmopolitan town of 15,000 is within
easy distance of whale watching, massive waterfalls and
the world-famous Myvatn Nature Preserve in northern Iceland.
From $1,144* per person/double occupancy. For more information:
www.icelandair.com
Learn more about golf in Iceland at www.golf.is
Paradise
in a Hot Tub
Icelandair is helping to introduce
the fantastic new Nordica Spa located in the newly renovated
Nordica Hotel in Reykjavik. The spa offers Scandinavian
style soothing treatments and relaxation therapies.
The spa has two splendid geothermal
hot tubs with calming mineral salts in the water. Steam
rooms refresh you while relaxing with European aromatherapy
treatments. Out in the garden, an authentic Finnish dry
sauna lets you experience the relaxing warm energy of this
ancient therapy, along with chances to cool down in the
pure Icelandic air. A beauty salon in the spa provides manicures,
pedicures and facial treatments with world-famous Clarins
beauty treatments. After your treatments, relax as you are
serenaded by soft music and bird songs. From $689* per person
double occupancy.
Iceland Welcomes
Alternative Lifestyles
Icelandair is offering an unforgettable
weekend in gay-friendly Iceland. Gay Party Weekends are
planned Aug. 28, Oct. 9, and Dec. 29 and feature specially-priced
packages offering a taste of the best of Iceland's adventure,
culture, and nightlife. Packages include discounted admission
to the fabulous Spotlight and Club MSC, and lots of free
time for shopping, socializing, and relaxing spa treatments.
Prices range from $815* pp/do (Oct. 9 trip) to a New Year’s
Eve party package for $1,715* pp/do featuring a deluxe gala
evening at the famous Pearl Restaurant.
Join the
Traditional Sheep Round Up
Ride with the farmers as they gather
sheep from the mountains this September. Experience Icelandic
horses at their best, sure-footed and eager to fulfill the
task set for them every autumn. Join the farmers in their
singing and celebrate another successful journey into the
highlands to secure their sheep. Visit many sights in the
area such as majestic Gullfoss Falls, the famous Geysir
hot spring area and Thingvellir National Park. Prices start
at $1,245* pp/do for seven days, including five on horseback.
For more package information from
Icelandair, or to book a reservation, telephone 800 779
2899; [email protected];
www.icelandair.com
Prices quoted are exclusive of applicable
taxes and official charges by destination of approximately
$90 per person, including the Sep. 11th security fee of
$2.50 per U.S. enplanement.
Cleared for
Landing
Everywhere you look around the Westmann
Islands you see dozens of puffins - stout, clownish birds
nesting in lava outcroppings, teetering on cliffs, plopping
like stones into the sea. Every August, the baby puffins
sail out of their nests to make their first trip the ocean
and instead crash-land short of their goal, seduced by the
lights of human civilization.
This magical visitation and potential
avian catastrophe is known as pysjunaetur—the Night
of the Pufflings — and children and visitors await
it every summer, armed with cardboard boxes for the rescue
effort. In the morning, they release the babies at the water's
edge. When full grown, puffins are enjoyed in the Westmanns
roasted, smoked, or sliced thin, like carpaccio. Icelandair
prices start at $1,535* pp/do for a five-day puffin package
to the Westmann Islands in August.
You Deserve
a Break Today
Travelers en route to Europe may
take advantage of a stop in Iceland at no additional airfare.
Up to three nights in one direction may be added to your
travel itinerary, providing the ideal quick fix for jet
lag and the opportunity to experience Iceland's unique blend
of outdoor adventure and cosmopolitan sophistication. The
special Take-A-Break hotel rates range from $61-$105 pp/do
in September, about $10-$15 higher in August. To add a stop-over
to your Icelandair reservation, call 800 223 5500 ext 2
prompt 1.
Star Struck
Reykjavík is the second most
popular destination for celebrities after Paris, according
to the largest travel web site in Britain, www.lastminute.com
a weekly newsletter sent to over two million people. The
destinations favored by celebrities after Paris and Reykjavík
are: Dublin, Tuscany, New York, Prague and the Maldives.
(Ha! Try getting a tasty plate of puffins in one of those
places).
Whale of
an Award
And speaking of celebrities, what
does an Icelandic whale watching boat manager have in common
with a certain U2 frontman? “Bono was relaxed, even
though he didn’t have one minute of peace; he spent
almost two hours with us,” said Ásbjörn
Björgvinsson, manager of the Húsavík
Whale Center, who met the Irish pop idol when the two of
them, among others, accepted the European Hero Award from
Time magazine. Ásbjörn got his award for his
work in organizing whale-watching trips, and Bono, 43, received
his for his passionate fight against poverty and disease
in Africa. “I spoke with Bono for a long time and
he was very interested in whale watching. Therefore, I invited
him to Húsavík on a whale-watching trip, and
he accepted (whenever that will be).”
Among other award-winners were football
player David Beckham, chef Jamie Oliver and novelist J.K.
Rowling. Take a whale-watching trip yourself and who knows,
that guy in the thick sunglasses may give you an autograph.
For more information: www.nordursigling.is
You Snooze,
You Lose
Model Berglind Olafsdóttir,
better known as “Icy” as a result of her Icelandic
heritage, is co-host of the show “Cram” on the
Game Show Network (yes, there really is such a thing on
cable). The central challenge of "Cram" is that
contestants will be kept awake for 24 hours and forced to
study esoteric subject matter. While studying, the show's
producers pull mean tricks on them like slowly turning up
the thermostat until it's baking in their study room, or
sending surprise attacks by marching bands. In other words,
they re-live college dorm life. (This show could signal
the end of Western Civilization as we know it).
Summer Travel
Tips
When planning a trip to Iceland,
here are a few handy tips you may not read in the official
guidebooks:
Visit the Arrival Duty Free Store
and Stock Up - You’ve seen those duty free shops
all over the world’s airports, but one of the few
Arrival Duty Free Shops are located at Keflavik’s
Leifur Eiriksson Terminal, offering up to 50 percent off
Reykjavik city prices. It’s located downstairs near
baggage claim.
Say Hola! to Icelandic-Mexican Food
- Hankering for a good taco during your visit? Visit
Mama’s Tacos at Laekjargata 8, Reykjavik. It’s
said to be the best Mexican food in Iceland, and with Mexican
music playing in the background, it gives new meaning to
the word “incongruous” (go ahead, look it up).
Filler ‘Er Up with Hydrogen
- If all goes as planned, this August you’ll
be able to hop a public bus powered by hydrogen, one of
the first in the world using this new form of energy. For
details, see www.newenergy.is
Shop ‘Til You Drop -
Want a good place to take that bus? Visit Smaralind, the
largest shopping center in Iceland. It offers over 70 stores
and businesses including a luxurious book store, cinemas,
restaurants and cafes. For more information: www.smaralind.is
Surf’s Up - With all
the country’s hot thermal water flowing essentially
free of charge from mother earth, it was only a matter of
time before some beach-deprived entrepreneur decided to
heat the ocean. Well, not the whole ocean, of course, just
a swimming bay near Reykjavik called Ylströndin Nauthólsvik.
Open daily from through Sept. 15, the free heated swimming
beach offers hot pots, showers, even sand. Ask about the
beach when you arrive. Surf City here we come.
Dog Days of Summer - If puffin isn’t
to your liking, try that great American staple, the hot
dog. Only try it Iceland style. Recent totally unscientific
polls conducted among Americans visiting Iceland this summer
have shown that the corner hot dog stand in Reykjavik -
and just about any gas station convenience store around
the countryside - has about the best hot dogs in the
world. Lamb and pork may be the main ingredients, and boiled
is the standard mode of preparation, but the fixin’s
are about the same, give or take a few bacon bits. The bun,
of course, is to die for (like all Icelandic breads).
They Said
It
If your desire is to see Atlantic
salmon in something close to their primordial state, there
are few better places than Iceland, the strikingly beautiful
accretion of volcanic rock, glaciers, and fertile pastureland
in the heart of the salmon’s range. … Iceland
is typical Atlantic salmon country: remote, unspoiled, blessed
with clear, cold rivers, and painted during the summer fishing
season with the two-hour sunsets of the northern latitudes.
Fen Montaigne
National Geographic Magazine
July 2003
Roughly the size of Kentucky, Iceland
in many ways resembles America's first National Park. So
much is similar to Yellowstone: the pungent smell of sulfur,
youthful mountains and massive valleys, the bubbling mud
pits and spewing geysers. The only things missing? Crowds
and trees. …
Open year-round, the (Blue) Lagoon
is actually the runoff pool from a giant geothermal energy
plant. The water is clean and just the right temperature
for soaking.
Mineral deposits and blue-green algae
color the lagoon an unearthly, milky blue, and the water
is said to be excellent for a bather's skin. Icelanders
often spread this silica mixture on their faces from wooden
boxes around the lagoon. That makes the place even more
unearthly, as you are confronted with dozens of mud-caked
strangers in the shifting clouds of steam.
Layne Kennedy
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
June 22, 2003
The snowcapped mountains and sheer
cliffs of Iceland’s West Fjords may be the wildest
coastline anywhere in the world. And all of this is just
halfway to mainland Europe, a five-hour flight from the
East Coast. Getting to a wild, Icelandic adventure often
requires less effort than a trek to the American West.
Natasha Singer
Travel Holiday
July 2003
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For information on other exciting
activities in Iceland, be sure to visit www.IcelandTouristBoard.com
or www.IcelandNaturally.com
|
