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.

in Focus

1.6.2007

Smoking Ban Takes Effect in Iceland

Smoking ban takes effect in Iceland New regulations regarding smoking take effect today; from now on it is prohibited to smoke in restaurants, bars, clubs and cafés across Iceland. The main reason for the smoking ban is to protect the health of restaurant workers.

“Indirect smoking can be very dangerous to people’s health. It can have short term effects like irritation to the eyes and throat, but also more serious effects like increasing the risk of heart attacks, lung cancer and hemorrhage,” as described on the Public Health Institute of Iceland website.

A statement from the Public Health Institutes reads: “The change […] is a very important advance in public health, tobacco control and occupational health in Iceland. The laws are particularly important for people working in bars and restaurants.”

It goes on to say: “Since 1999 they [bar and restaurant workers] have been one of the few professions having to work in smoking environments. From now on all workers enjoy the same right of a smoke-free workplace.”

Restaurants, bars, clubs and cafés in Iceland from now on will be completely smoke-free; there will be no designated smoking areas inside. Smoking is restricted in outdoor areas as well. Establishments may allow smoking outdoors, provided good airflow is secured.

Smoking bans have already taken effect in 14 US states, nine states in Canada and seven states in Australia. Restaurants, bars, clubs and cafés have been smoke-free in Ireland since March 2004 and in Norway since June 2004.

Source: Iceland Review (www.icelandreview.com).

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