Does June 2001 count as recent?
Iceland is a great place for a visit (and it sure will impress your friends back home when you say you've been there). There's so much to see and do I can't wait to make another stopover on my way to Europe. Don't let the ride from the airport fool you with its endless expanse of moss-covered lava fields. By day 2 you'll be hooked!
Weather in June is cool - high temperatures in the upper 50s F. Like all coastal areas in northern Europe, weather in Iceland is subject to change without notice. In Iceland the changes seemed even more frequent then elsewhere; no matter what the weather was doing (sunny, cloudy, drizzly) it never held out longer than an hour. It rarely rains hard; the number of rainy days per month seems at first alarmingly high, but the number of millimeters of precipitation is actually quite low.
Iceland is famous for its nature attractions. From volanoes to glaciers to fjords to geysers to boiling mud pools to crater lakes to black sand deserts, you'll find it all. Touring the countryside is what tourists tend to do by day, either in rental cars or on public buses, or using one of several commercial tour outfits. (Reykjavik Excursions, the same company that operates the Flybus service to the airport, gives leisurely and informative tours of all areas around Reykjavik, with only one brief shopping stop per day.
Prices are about what you'd pay for day-long tours in the USA.)
By night travellers return to Reykjavik and enjoy the lively nightlife. (Of course, you can stay in the smaller towns too if you wish.) If you're not the partying type, you'll be pleased to know that bookstores are an important component of evening entertainment here, and tend to stay open until 10 or 11 PM. (Icelanders are very well-educated and well-read.) All stores stock English-language titles.
I was fortunate enough to be in Iceland within a week or two of Midsummers' Day; we had 21 hours of daylight followed by 3 hours of twilight from about midnight to 3 AM. It never got completely dark. The endless days were wonderful but really can mess with your circadian rhythms, so don't be surprised if you get the urge to embark on a vigorous constitutional at 11 PM!
The guidebooks like to say they're not sure whether to label Reykjavik a big town or a small city. It's true it can be tough to figure out - in what other country can you walk through the capital city and see people out mowing their lawns? The old part of Reykjavik is postcard Iceland and leaves little to be desired in terms of charm (except for one block which seemed kind of run-down for some reason). The entire country is very safe; murders are big news here, and the prison didn't even have a fence around it until a couple of years ago. (The bus driver told us the fence was more to keep curious passers-by out than the inmates in.)
The only downside to planning a trip to Iceland is air transportation options are limited. From North America the only carrier is Icelandair which flies to Iceland from BWI, JFK (Mar-Oct only), MSP, and MCO. (Halifax, Nova Scotia service has been discontinued.) Icelandair has through ticketing arrangements with US airlines if you need to leave from another airport. From Europe the choices are limited too: Icelandair is the only carrier from most places; one of the British low-fare carriers used to have a middle-of-the-night flight to Reykjavik from London but rumor has it this service no longer exists. In terms of FF miles the picture is just as bleak: It may be possible to get SAS EuroBonus miles but I do believe your options end there.
Iceland may not be the easiest place to fly to but it's definitely worth breaking your usual flying patterns to make the trip at least once. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Edited to add more praise:
Don't forget about the geothermally heated swimming pools - good for a soak any time of year. And the air... so clean! A real treat for those tired olfactory bulbs.
[This message has been edited by Factotum (edited 01-15-2003).]