Rick Steves Iceland

Iceland is just far enough off the beaten path that it doesn't get as much tourist guide book coverage as it probably deserves. Fortunately for the enterprising traveler, Rick Steves has done his considerable homework. His "Rick Steve's Iceland" is close to being one-stop shopping for planning a visit. The author provides a menu approach to Iceland's attractions. An upfront section (in color!) introduces Iceland as a travel destination. The rest of the book provides options for Reykjavik (Iceland's capital and only real city), for attractions near Reykjavik, and for the famed Ring Road around Iceland (800 miles of access to rest of the country). The narrative lays out options, opinions and possible tradeoffs, along with the proper cautions for Iceland's weather and other natural hazards. This reviewer wishes the maps were a bit more detailed, and more of the photographs were in color. Well recommended as a very good planning resource for a trip to Iceland.

Back in 2014, Rick said on his website that he wouldn't be publishing an Iceland guide, and he recommended Lonely Planet's guide instead, but I guess that the money to be made off Icelandic tourism lured him into changing his mind. I've been a Rick Steves devotee since I was about 7, and I just won't visit any European destination without Rick as my guide. "Rick says..." is usually the first thing I say about every site, restaurant, hotel, etc., and my devotion to his guidebooks once provoked my travel buddy into tossing the Spain guidebook off the top of a castle in Segovia. As usual, Rick served up matter-of-fact info with the appropriate amount of detail and solid recommendations. I will say, though, that this was the first time that I had a Rick Steves guide that didn't give me information on everywhere I might have wanted to go in a country. I suppose it makes sense, since most travelers either stay in/around Reykjavik or do the Ring Road, but the fact that there was no information at all on the Icelandic highlands or on reindeer, for example, was surprising. Maybe in subsequent editions? Also, Rick is just clearly not a huge Iceland fan; he was more dismissive of much more of the country than in any other guidebook I've read, frequently calling restaurants, museums, or entire towns "uninspired" or "skippable." Finally, either I've gotten more adventurous (and am not in Rick's target demographic) or Rick is showing his age: many "short hikes" were quick walks on flat, paved trails, and the writing was downright disdainful when discussing festivals that included drunken revelry and the like. Still, it was a useful guide to the country as a whole, and his Reykjavik city walk was characteristically great.

Another great travel guide from Rick Steves. We have used Rick Steve's guides for Europe for many, many years. Rick writes for the traveler who want to mix with the locals and learn about the daily life of whatever country you may be visiting. His books are not for those who want the whirlwind "If-it's-Tuesday-it-must-be-Belgium" traveler. This will be our first trip to Iceland and this new book is up to his same high standards. It will be our "bible" for this next adventure. Rick is the best travel guide ever...hands down. His books are always up-to-date (provided you buy the latest edition) and perfectly practical. He is a practiced traveler and knows how to help you navigate your way through any new country/city while getting the most out of your experience and without breaking the bank. Highly recommend. (Now I just wish Steve would write about Asia and other continents.)

I preordered this book knowing it would be worth the wait and it was. In typical Rick Steves fashion, there is a lot of historical and practical information. As always there are plenty of time and money-saving tips. I particularly like how the ‘best of’ and ‘must sees’ are called out and color or shape coded. It makes finding bucket list ideas easier. There are also some handy single and multi day schedule samples as well. The book describes what there is to see be geographic region, broken into chapters like Western Iceland, Southeast Iceland and so on. Like most of Steves’ books, it caters to families and older travelers in my opinion. But that’s his demographic. While the vast majority of the book focuses on the peak season of the summer months, there are some tips and highlights that cover winter as well (my interest) but not as much as I had hoped for. There’s a lot of value in this book and is pretty much all you need to plan a typical vacation to Iceland. I take a half star off for a couple of reasons. There’s a lot of back and forth page turning, where something is referenced on another page. Not a reason the dislike the book, but somewhat annoying. But more than that, I’m looking for more extreme adventure, such as self-driven off road sites on the famous F roads, or dogsledding tours, and this book doesn’t cover that much. It only references driving rules and encourages buying tours for the off highway stuff. I also wish there had been a color map included as a pullout to take in the car or something. An additional book will be needed for the backcountry or extreme adventure information. But all in all an excellent book. A must-have for your first time in Iceland.

My sister and I recently took our first solo adventure to a foreign country together. And we didn’t exactly do a lot of planning before hand - but I did buy this book. Because I’m a 90s PBS kid, can you feel me? We rented a car, bought a basic map and took off around the ring road with Rick and Co. as our guide. This booked helped us prioritize our stops in our jam packed seven day trip. Rick gives you a run down of all major stops, best eatin and sleeping locations and sidebar info that you can’t help but read in your best Rick Steve’s voice. I’d say the info we we acted on was all right on! We were never once steered wrong on finding the right local eatery. They’re listed by price- $,$$, or $$$ and being the resident tighta$$ we pretty much stuck to the $. It always felt like we were eating in that cool place around the corner where the locals ate. This book barely left our hands and made for good reading and entertainment during windshield time!

This book literally made my trip 1000x better. Rick had one key piece of advice..."use airBNB". I wouldn't have occurred to me, and I never used it before this trip...but Iceland's population is like 90% tourist during the summer and the few hotel rooms are super-over-priced and not worth it (except a few). Rick did a good job of providing prioritized itineraries and so forth. Really helped me to plan a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Iceland. This book was much more helpful than all the other things I could find, because Rick allows for things that are must-see, not-so-must-see, and in between. The writing was well done and it was easy to read, but I could also bring the book out onto the road, with a few bookmarks, and it was handy. Probably the best tourist book I've purchased in recent years...

It's great having a new Rick Steves book to supplement the meager Iceland travel book offerings! Before I received it, I read Lonely Planet Iceland which was great. However, Rick Steves definitely delivers with his down-to-earth, "opinionated" travel writing. He doesn't hesitate to tell you what's worthwhile and what's not, which is valuable for a trendy tourist destination like Iceland. He also has different advice than Lonely Planet on the highlights of the country, ranging from which broad regions to prioritize, down to specific sights. You may agree or disagree, but it's great to have another trusted opinion when researching your trip. I also like his description of road trips, including directions, scenic routes, suggested stops, places to eat, etc. The book is organized very well. I suspect this will be the book that earns a place in my suitcase!

My family is embarking on a short trip to Iceland this summer and we've had great success with Ric Steves guides for over a dozen prior trips in under 4 years. Like others in the series, this guide is detailed and accessible, it will appeal to experts and novices alike. Despite considerable description, it is not bulky to carry around. It is beautifully illustrated and impressively thorough, yet still compact enough for you to hold it comfortably in your hands or tuck it into a bag. Its comprehensiveness will appeal to more hardcore adventurers. But its special features, such as thumb tabs and a fold-out visual index, make it accessible for beginners, too.

The book is very helpful and covers a great range of things that should be helpful on our trip to Iceland

Much to my surprise, this guide is meant exclusively for the US public. As we are Europeans most if not all of the practical information was of much use or relevance and we ended up having to buy in a rush Lonely Planet, which is far more geared toward a more global public. This factor could usefully be indicated in the description of the product.

Lo stile dello scrittore è interessante, e mostra molto particolari che sia la Rough che la Lonely ignorano, specie per Reykjavik Tuttavia se qualcosa non gli piace , lo ignora . Completamente. Io visiterò i Westfjords e la penisola di Snaefellsnes nel prossimo viaggio (motivo per cui ho comprato questa guida, visto che la mia vecchia Lonely è ormai datata ); ebbene, con mio completo sconcerto entrambi meritano un trafiletto di mezza pagina : nient’altro Se volete un approfondimento su alcuni capitoli del vostro viaggio va bene , ma se volete visitare il West Iceland passate oltre

Rick Steves series is always our go-to when traveling in Europe. So glad an Iceland one came out in time for our trip. The advices were very useful.

As always Rick Steves books are wonderful.