Sprawling Reykjavík, the nation's nerve center and government seat, is home to half the island's population. On a bay overlooked by proud Mt. Esja (pronounced eh-shyuh), with its ever-changing hues, Reykjavík presents a colorful sight, its concrete houses painted in light colors and topped by vibrant red, blue, and green roofs. In contrast to the almost treeless countryside, Reykjavík has many tall, native birches, rowans, and willows, as well as imported aspen, pines, and spruces.Reykjavík's name comes from the Icelandic words for smoke, reykur, and bay, vík. In AD 874, Norseman Ingólfur Arnarson saw Iceland rising out of the misty sea and came ashore at a bay eerily shrouded with plumes of steam from nearby hot springs. Today most of the houses in Reykjavík are heated by near-boiling water from the hot springs. Natural heating avoids air pollution; there's no smoke around. You may notice, however, that the hot water brings a slight sulfur smell to the bathroom.Prices are easily on a par with other major European cities. A practical option is to purchase a Reykjavík City Card at the Tourist Information Center or at the Reykjavík Youth Hostel. This card permits unlimited bus usage and admission to any of the city's seven pools, the Family Park and Zoo, and city museums. The cards are valid for one (ISK 3,300), two (ISK 4,400), or three days (ISK 4,900), and they pay for themselves after three or four uses a day. Even lacking the City Card, paying admission (ISK 500, or ISK 250 for seniors and people with disabilities) to one of the city art museums (Hafnarhús, Kjarvalsstaðir, or Ásmundarsafn) gets you free same-day admission to the other two.

Scoresby Sund is the largest and longest fjord system in the world, and it exhibits all the natural wonders Greenland has to offer. This labyrinth of islands, fjords, and ice boggles the mind at every turn. Named in honor of William Scoresby, the English explorer who mapped the area in 1822, Scoresby Sund today hosts only the small town of Ittoqqortoormiit, although it has been inhabited by many Paleo-Eskimo cultures in the past. The area is incredibly rich in Arctic wildlife, hosting musk oxen, arctic foxes, and a wealth of marine life including whales, belugas, narwhals, walrus, and seals, as well as several species of sea birds, including King Eiders, Atlantic Puffins and several species of geese which migrate to the area during the fleeting Arctic Summer. It is also one of the best places in the world to see polar bears in their natural habitat, an experience that can never be forgotten. But the scenery is the true highlight of Scoresby Sund. The area is very sheltered, and the waters of the fjords are often glassy and calm, save the vast icebergs that calve off the vast glaciers that drain from the Greenland Ice Sheet into the fjord. Staggering geological variation means no two mountain views are the same, some black, layered, and covered with permanent ice, while some are jagged, pinnacled cliffs sweeping out to the fjord to eye-watering heights, crowned with ice that never melts.

In the 1920s the sparsely settled coast of East Greenland had too many families living in Ammassalik (today’s Tasiilaq) for the hunting grounds available and in 1925 Scoresbysund was chosen to start a new settlement with some 70 Inuit from Ammassalik and four families from West Greenland. Less than 10 kilometres from the entrance to the Scoresbysund system, Ittoqqortoormiit (“Big House Dwellers”) lies on the southern tip of Liverpool Land, a low and rounded area compared to the steeper mountains further south or into the fjord system. Some 460 inhabitants call Ittoqqortoormiit, one of Greenland’s most isolated settlements, their home. Not counting the military and civilian researchers at Daneborg, Northeast Greenland, their closest neighbors actually live in Iceland. Although Greenland’s hottest hot springs are located some 8 kilometres south of Ittoqqortoormiit, the village is frozen in some nine months of the year and access to other parts of the country can only be done via the Nerlerit Inaat Airport at Constable Point some 38 km to the north with flights to Iceland and West Greenland. The former village’s shop serves as a small museum, features historic photographs and costumes, and shows what a typical hunter’s home from the 1960s looked like. Today hunting narwhals, seals, polar bears, and muskoxen is still an important part of the life, but tourism is gaining importance.

Carving deep into north-eastern Greenland, Kejser Franz Joseph Fjord promises cinematic scenery along every turn. Taking its name from the audacious expedition that brought the first Europeans to chart these remote realms, the fjord owes its title to the Austro-Hungarian leader who fiscally sponsored the daring explorations. Nestled within the vast and dramatic wilderness of Northeast Greenland National Park, the majestic fjord is surely fit for an emperor - and the sense of adventure remains palpable. Opening up into Foster Bay and the Greenland Sea, this fjord alone reaches inland for 120 miles, evolving and branching into one of Greenland's most expansive and awe-inspiring fjord systems. Towering, sheer mountains plunge suddenly into deep, inky-dark seas, while landmark formations - dashed with coppery-red hues - combine to create amazing photogenic landscapes. Encounter the astonishing scale of massive glacial chunks, birthed by terminating glaciers, as they embark on their own long and leisurely journeys. Get down onto the placid water to explore, paddling up close to ice floes, while curious seabirds circle above. Memorable northerly wildlife encounters could occur at any moment in this spectacular locale - keep your eyes peeled for narwhals and perhaps creamy-white beluga whales breaching. You might even strike it lucky and spot elusive polar bears padding along the shoreline.

King Oscar Fjord is a major fjord system in eastern Greenland. With a depth of 110 kilometres and a width of up to 25 kilometres, it marks the border with Scoresby Sund with its superb majesty. You feel very small in the middle of this labyrinth of giant valleys, in the heart of these superb and hostile landscapes, in this mineral and icy environment, between mountain peaks and icebergs. Named in 1899 by explorer and geologist A.G. Nathorst, this gigantic and majestic fjord was named after Oscar II, King of Sweden and Norway. In Danish and Greenlandic, it is known as Kong Oscar Fjord. Arctic wildlife can be seen in the surrounding area, from lemmings and musk oxen to arctic hares and foxes and ptarmigan, or more rarely wolves and polar bears.

Two colossal terraces of sheer rock stand either side of this extraordinarily located town - which rides a jutting spit onto an immensity of black fjord water. Surprisingly, considering the remoteness of its location and its compact size, Isafjordur is a modern and lively place to visit, offering a great choice of cafes and delicious restaurants – which are well stocked to impress visitors. The town is a perfectly located base for adventures amongst Iceland's fantastic wilderness - with skiing, hiking and water-sports popular pursuits among visitors.

Iceland is well-known for its spectacular waterfalls. The iconic Dynjandi waterfall, located in the Westfjords region, is regarded as one of Iceland’s most impressive and majestic waterfalls. At the top, the cascading water is roughly 100 feet wide and tumbles down about 330 feet into the fjord. Its name Dynjandi means, “the thundering one” and its vast size, enormous sound, and sheer force is overwhelming. It has also been nicknamed, ‘The Bridal Veil’ because of the way the water sprays and spreads over the rocks.

Sprawling Reykjavík, the nation's nerve center and government seat, is home to half the island's population. On a bay overlooked by proud Mt. Esja (pronounced eh-shyuh), with its ever-changing hues, Reykjavík presents a colorful sight, its concrete houses painted in light colors and topped by vibrant red, blue, and green roofs. In contrast to the almost treeless countryside, Reykjavík has many tall, native birches, rowans, and willows, as well as imported aspen, pines, and spruces.Reykjavík's name comes from the Icelandic words for smoke, reykur, and bay, vík. In AD 874, Norseman Ingólfur Arnarson saw Iceland rising out of the misty sea and came ashore at a bay eerily shrouded with plumes of steam from nearby hot springs. Today most of the houses in Reykjavík are heated by near-boiling water from the hot springs. Natural heating avoids air pollution; there's no smoke around. You may notice, however, that the hot water brings a slight sulfur smell to the bathroom.Prices are easily on a par with other major European cities. A practical option is to purchase a Reykjavík City Card at the Tourist Information Center or at the Reykjavík Youth Hostel. This card permits unlimited bus usage and admission to any of the city's seven pools, the Family Park and Zoo, and city museums. The cards are valid for one (ISK 3,300), two (ISK 4,400), or three days (ISK 4,900), and they pay for themselves after three or four uses a day. Even lacking the City Card, paying admission (ISK 500, or ISK 250 for seniors and people with disabilities) to one of the city art museums (Hafnarhús, Kjarvalsstaðir, or Ásmundarsafn) gets you free same-day admission to the other two.