Touring Iceland on Highway One

Iceland may be cold and dark in Winter, but in Summer it transforms into a country that really should have a different name – not so much Iceland – really more like Waterfall land – as the winter ice and snow begins to melt and find its way down to the sea.

June can be an excellent time to make the road trip around the island, following Iceland’s famous highway One. The roads are not as crowded as they will be in the later months of Summer, and you’ll find more accomodation options.

The full circle Iceland road trip is a journey through spectacular landscapes – featuring glaciers and icebergs, volcanoes and geothermal springs, and did I mention… waterfalls.

This video was recorded over 9 days in June 2019, as I drove around the island on a self-driving tour curated via a company called TOURIS. They provided the itinerary and maps, booked the hire car and arranged accomodation with dinners and breakfasts for each day of the trip. You can customise your trip depending on the type of accomodation you prefer, the type of car you want, as well as choose from a range of additional options such as hot springs, whale watching, glacier walks or even a guided trip inside a lava tube tunnel. I was a fully paying customer so this is not a plug, but I was very happy with their service – and totally amazed with the experience of visiting Iceland.

Iceland is geologically very active because it is a part of the mid-Atlantic ridge – the upswelling that separates the African and Eurasian tectonic plates from North and South America. The mid-Atlantic ridge is the longest mountain range in the world. If you have never heard of it, it’s because almost all of the ridge, apart from Iceland, is hidden under the mid-Atlantic ocean.

I shot this video mostly with an Osmo Pocket – the same camera I used for the Gibraltar story. I also used a GoPro 5 to shoot some of the timelapses, plus a Sony HX-90V for some zooms and long shots. All of this gear is lightweight and portable and forms a very flexible combination for shooting video when travelling.

This video has optional captions in both English and Spanish.
Subtítulos opcionales en inglés y español