Welcome to Iceland Guest - Your Online Travel Guide.

Iceland Guest is an information website for your travel to Iceland. On this site you can get all the tourist information you need for your vacation in Iceland. We hope that you will find this online travel guide useful in planning your holidays in Iceland.

About Iceland
Iceland is a refreshingly unconventional travel destination. The Icelandic nature is unspoilt, exotic and mystical with its spouting geysers, active volcanoes, tumbling waterfalls, towering mountains, vast lava plains and magical lakes. Iceland’s fjords, glaciers and highland plains present visitors with some of the most beautiful and enchanting places they will ever see, as well as a rare feeling of utter tranquillity.

For travelers on a quest for action, Iceland’s pristine nature offers great potential for outdoor activities such as snowmobiling, horse riding, cave exploring, hiking, swimming, skiing, river rafting, kayaking and mountain safaris on modified four-wheel drives, to name but a few. Iceland supports a surprisingly diverse Nordic flora and fauna and is an ideal place for ornithology enthusiasts, while also offering some of the world’s best whale watching destinations.

About Reykjavik
Reykjavík sometimes feels like a cosmopolitan capital and a tiny seaside village - all wrapped up in one. But Reykjavík has the best of both worlds; the qualities of a modern, forward-looking society complemented by a close connection to Iceland‚s beautiful and unspoilt nature.

Reykjavík’s legendary nightlife is bolstered by plentiful cultural and social happenings in addition to an abundance of first-class restaurants. The size of Reykjavik city centre is also limited enough to allow for easy navigation by foot. Reykjavík has been described as a young and daring city that is characterized by strong contrasts. Conveniently small, clean and safe, it is more or less free from the major problems that haunt many other capitals. Big city events are frequent, the winter lights festival finished recently with thousands of participants and more tourist at this time of the year than we are used to.

Museum and Culture

Eiríksstaðir - Haukadalur Tel. 434 1118

Eiríksstaðir

Eiriksstadir

Eiríksstaðir - Home of Eiríkur the Red.

In Haukadalur, Dalabyggð in the west of Iceland, the Eiríksstaðir ruins were excavated in the summers of 1997-99. Excavations by archaeologists from the National Museum of Iceland in 1997 revealed the existence of a farmhouse with an interior area of 50 m². Dating from the 10th century, the ruins are on public display. The ruins of the women handcraft house, were they did weaving was also found this summer, below the ruins of the farmhouse.

A replica of Eirík and Thjóðhild´s farmhouse has been built some 100 m from the ruins. It is a conjectural reconstruction of a Settlement Age farmstead, with its layout, outlines of walls, entrance and long fireplace based on findings from the excavated ruins.

The structure of the building was based on the oldest known types from Iceland as well as studies made both in Iceland and neighbouring countries. Panelling is used for the interior and the ceiling has rafters and brushwood lining, with a triple layer of turf to from the roof. The walls are turf-built using clumps with twine between them, probably the original building technique as revealed during excavation.

The house was built using models of Settlement Age tools, which were reconstructed, based on archaeological finds or ancient descriptions.

Eiríksstaðir features a living presentation of Viking culture, with guides in Viking Age costume describing the people who originally lived there and the lifestyle during the Age of Settlement. There is good access for people with disabilities, sanitary facilities and detailed information signs at the car park.

Eiríksstaðir are a great success of farmhouse from this time, the visitors do get the feeling that Vikings are still living there. E.g. outside of the farmhouse is wood for the longfire, inside is a smell of food, the visitor get a taste of row smoked lamb.

There is also a storeroom, were we keep food, bowls for dinner, spoons and lot of other kind of utilises.

The replica was opened at 24th June 2000, as the vikingship "Íslendingur" went for its travel on the same route as Leif the lucky went for 1000 years ago. Last year around 10.000 visitors came to Eiríksstaðir.

The first Leif Eiríksson festival was held at Eiríkstaðir in Haukadal valley in August 2000 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of his sailing trip to Vínland.

This year the Leif Eiríksson festival will be held at Eiríkstaðir in Haukadal valley on 9 - 11 July It will be a light, informative celebration for the whole family. Both local Vikings and others will be present at the festival where ancient games as well as more modern ones will be played, e.g. treasure hunts, etc. The program will include plays, singing and music amongst various other events. Light refreshments prepared in the ancient manner, as well as more modern fare, will be offered.

There will be free fishing in the Haukadalur lake. Eiríksstaðir Home of Eiríkur the Red