Iceland 9 (Lonely Planet)

I always use Lonely Planet when I travel to a foreign country, especially when traveling Europe. Aside from the hotel booked on the first and last night, everything was at our discretion. I was in Iceland during the "off season" (first week of May) and had 4 travel books at my disposal between me and my travel partners. This one was especially useful when looking for guesthouses/hostels/hotels and restaurants. Loved the "hot spring" route they have in here: I would not plan a trip around hot springs, but it was awesome to have a comprehensive route to refer to so we could check out a hot spring that was on our path. As always, Lonely Planet provides useful information on culture, history, due/don'ts and must see's. Still my favorite travel guide. Definitely have this on your Iceland trip, even if you have a guided trip with an itinerary already planned. You can learn a lot about this country and each town/area from the book alone.

This book was very helpful on my two week driving and hiking adventure in the Summer of 2015. I relied on it as my only professional tour book during the trip. While it dives into deep detail on some locations / topics many entries are smaller summaries of several paragraphs in length. That's not a nit on the book, rather those small summaries provide more than enough context to do a quick Google search for more info if something catches your eye. Just enough detail without being overwhelming. My favorite "feature" was that the book is divided into regional sections and the topics inside those sections follow the Ring Road. So if you are out driving the road its super easy to follow along with where you are, what's coming up next, etc. Most importantly if you're debating on Iceland as a destination GO. Its an amazing place full of unique beauty and friendly people - both the native Icelanders and other travelers from all over the world. Also - anyone under about 45 learned English in school which makes communicating super easy.

Pros: - Highlights all the must-sees and should-dos - Like all other Lonely Planet guides I've used, this is very thorough, has up-to-date and accurate information on a wide variety of destinations - Prices and opening hours are largely accurate, but travelers should still try to confirm info online when possible (i.e., the Blue Lagoon opening hours, that sort of thing) Cons: - Hypes up less exciting destinations... can be hard to pick out exactly where to go, though the essentials are mentioned - Spends too much time on places no tourist should bother visiting (such as tiny towns with <1k population) - Not exactly geared for photographers; i.e., does not attempt to highlight some of the cool waterfalls, viewpoints, or hikes that are so worth going to. - Not enough information on hikes and more outdoorsy type activities, as compared to the Frommers easyguide Knowing the above about Lonely Planet guides, which is true for most of the series, I still used this to plan the backbone of my trip to Iceland, and added on additional places based on additional research by word of mouth, online, and the Frommer's guide. Would highly recommend pairing this with the Frommer's guide for a more outdoorsy approach to an amazingly beautiful country. Will definitely go back to Iceland, and will definitely use this to plan my next trip. My personal opinions/addendums: - In 7-8 days, it is a little difficult to do the entire Ring Road, but perfectly easy to do the west, Golden Circle, and southeast. In 11-12 days, it is pretty easy to do the entire Ring Road. A section of the Ring Road in the northeast (between Egilsstadir and Myvatn) is both dirt road and a mountain pass. - Try to rent a 4x4 (or Jeep, as Icelanders call SUVs) if possible - Dettifoss and Selfoss are better photographically from the eastern side, which involves ~30km of bad dirt road - Aldeyjarfoss is totally worth the ~30km of dirt road and ~5km of rocky 4x4-only F-roads - Surtshellir offers a super unique lava cave/tube experience, though it's a long drive away from popular destinations and requires at least flashlights (though helmets and headlamp recommended) - For US visitors, Geysir offers nothing special compared to Yellowstone

I am a huge fan of the Lonely Planet series and LP Iceland did not disappoint. LP provides great technical information about preparing for travel and once you get there. Their advice on travel to and from the airport by Flybus saved anxiety, time and money. Also, with the profusion of day trip travel companies, their assessment of which company provides highly rated trip also helped us enormously. The listing of restaurants allowed us to dine at some fantastic places in Reykjavik. Of course, the core and continued strength of LP guide books are the descriptions of what to do and see. As usual, their advice helped guide us to the sights and trips that we were most interested in. And the proved accurate each time. Another small tidbit that ended up being incredibly useful was the advice that Icelanders use plastic for all their purchases. This worked magnificently. We had our first trip where we didn't have to change money at the beginning and then have to worry about changing back, or spending all the money.

Just finished up a six day road trip around the Ring road, Snaefellsjokull peninsula, and the West Fjords. With such a tight schedule, this book was a life saver. We'd pass something labeled an attraction, so we'd quickly look in the book for an idea of what it was before making the turn off. For the most part, it had everything we saw. The detailed maps in each area were often better than the road map we had for the entire country. The store and gas station listings helped us a ton, when we didn't feel like using Google. One of the best things I bought for the trip and a must have for road trips on the island.

Sufficient but would expect more insight. Mainly about accommodation and food

現状でえられる、アイスランドの観光本はこれしかないのではないでしょうか。 前の版も持っているのですが、少し情報がかわっています。地図が若干小さくなったり、 トレッキングコースの紹介が減ったりしています。 といっても、つまりはほかの情報が増えたということですので、わずかでも内容の検討 がなされているということだと思います。それだけ最新の情報、必要とされている情報 の整理をちゃんとやっている出版社だということです。 高校英語程度の文法がわかって、電子辞書（webでも）を使えるならば、購入する価値 はあると思います！ 実際、２週間ほどアイスランドに行ってきたのですが、ほとんどの観光者は本書をもって いましたし、自分も旅先で十分たすかりました！ 追記 なんと一人の方が参考になったをおしてくれました！ いま読み返して書いてなかった点を追加します。 ロンプラ全体的にいえることですが、歩き方と違って写真が多くありません。 写真がある方がいきたくなる人もいれば、写真を先に見てしまうといく価値がない という人もいますので、好きずきですが、私はないほうが好きです。

great guide as usual, very useful for my trip

Excellent condition

C'est un guide très complet, d'utilisation facile et, c'est le que me plait d'avantage, avec des opinions subjectives des auteurs vers beaucoup des endroits. M'a aidé décisivement. C' était un compagnon de route que j'ai consulté plusieurs fois a chaque heure de voyage. Pour tout ça, je le recommande sans doutes.