Vík: Iceland’s Southernmost Village

Hello from Iceland! I’ll be posting from here for the next couple of weeks as I explore and take notes for the second edition of our new guidebook, Rick Steves Iceland. There’s a lot to discover on this little island, and I look forward to packing you along. (Do you have traveling friends who are also dreaming of Iceland? Be sure to invite them to join us here or on Facebook.)

We begin in the tiny town of Vík, Iceland’s southernmost village. While most travelers’ Icelandic memories are a charm bracelet of jaw-droppingly beautiful natural sights, I enjoy visiting the workaday towns along the way — and showing them to travelers. These towns aren’t pretty, as it’s rare to find buildings here from before WWII. Most Icelandic homes are built more to resist the weather than to delight the eye. Still, on this ice-covered rock between Norway and Greenland (just a bit bigger than Maine, with 340,000 people), towns like Vík are real — and good travel is real, too. Join me on a quick tour of Vík with Stefan Valsson of Reykjavík Bike Tours.

By the way, guides like Stefan are easy to book anywhere in the world via Tours By Locals. I’ve used them in both hemispheres to book guides when I don’t have a particular person already in mind.

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