Why Iceland, you're asking yourself? Well….
It all started with a bet. Jordan said more people were interested in going to Iceland than Israel. I disagreed. I may have even guffawed. He couldn’t believe someone that traveled as much as I do could be so unaware of the cultural goldmine that is Iceland. I couldn’t believe that anyone within a stones throw of the Bible belt could ignore the fact that Christians essentially exit the womb with a burgeoning desire to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. So like the logical people we are, naturally, we took to our Facebook page to settle the debate. We created a poll with several hot destinations including Iceland and the Holy Land and attempted to unbiasedly manipulate our friends and family into voting on where the most appealing travel destination was. Maybe you even innocently participated in it.
As much as it pains me to admit defeat, Iceland won out by a landslide. I was shocked with the results, but I’d be lying if I said that this was the first time Iceland had piqued my interest.
A couple years earlier my friend and fellow travel enthusiast, Ashley, had visited the good ole Land of Fire and Ice and his pictures left me speechless. Whale watching, the blue lagoon, volcanoes! How had I so mistakenly assumed that this beautiful country was nothing more than a big floating Iceberg?! It turns out, that was the point.
Legend tells that the earliest settlers, the Vikings, literally named it “ice-land” to trick their enemies into thinking they hadn’t stumbled onto the natural treasure trove that they in fact had, and using the ole grass-is-greener switcheroo, insisted they instead head to “green-land,” which is in fact, an actual floating iceberg. Genius move. (I also read that this is a bogus account of how this island got its name, but since I moonlight as a literature teacher, I’ll wink at its historical inaccuracy since it makes for a good story).
Now that Iceland was back on my radar I started to see it everywhere. More and more friends were visiting and sharing their pictures, I would read articles about it in magazines and on Facebook, heck even the Real Housewives of Orange County went there, not to mention its repeated appearances on Game of Thrones. It was after overhearing a couple of students gush about Iceland that I decided I was sick of being a bystander. I wanted to see this mythical land for myself.
It took me a few months of nonstop research to decide where exactly in Iceland we should go, what time of year would be best suited for our purposes (prime northern lights viewing times, for example), and how long to make the trip, but I finally did it. Since starting Land + See one of my favorite things is diving head first into a new destination and learning its nuances—hand picking each little nook and cranny of the tour and trying to uncover all the hidden gems along the way. I’m a little obsessed with not feeling like a tourist. Authenticity is always my focus.
I hope you like what I planned. I put my heart and soul into this tour, and while I’m generally a pretty cold-natured person, I couldn’t be more excited about this “hot” destination.
Be on the lookout as I’ll be updating you with day-by-day details periodically in my blog, but for now, here’s a little taste of how our Iceland tour came to be. You can check out the full itinerary by clicking HERE. Iceland here we come!!