Insight Guide Iceland (Insight Guides Iceland) (Paperback)

~ Jane Simmonds (Author) "Iceland has come a long way since the English poet Auden penned these facetious lines in 1936..." (more)
Key Phrases: largest icecap, bag accommodation, farmhouse accommodation, Ring Road, West Fjords, Middle Ages (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

One of over 400 titles in the Insight series,

Insight Guide Iceland. This 378-page book includes a section detailing Iceland's history, 10 features covering aspects of the country's life and culture, ranging from its anonymous 13th-century saga authors to its infamous rainy weather, a region by region visitor's guide to the sights, and a comprehensive Travel Tips section packed with essential contact addresses and numbers. Plus many enjoyable photographs and 16 maps.

About the Author

Since 2000. Hammond, American Map, Langenscheidt Dictionaries, Insight Travel Guides, Delorme – the famous names in the Langenscheidt family. These represent the most authoritative, up-to-date, and extensive travel and reference products available. In January 2003, the renowned Berlitz Publishing became part of the Langenscheidt Group. The Langenscheidt Publishing Group, the premier group of map and travel companies, offers over 4,000 North American and international street maps, road maps, atlases, language-learning, bilingual dictionaries, and travel-related products covering countries, cities, and languages in every continent.

Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Insight Guides (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887291767
• ISBN-13: 978-0887291760
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #243,362 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Iceland Guide book is great, October 20, 2000

By	Jason M. Sheen (Lehi, UT United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is the best series of guide books. There are not many complete guides to Icleand. I studied this book before I went on my vacation to Icleand. After reading in the "places to see" section I chose exactly what I wanted to see in Iceland. It just so happens this book led me to take a 10 hour tour in Iceland that is not the most popular tour--it ended up being the best part of my trip. If you go to Iceland, take the South Shore tour and visit the black sand beach and smaller waterfalls--not just the Golden Circle. You can read all about the sights in this book. The restaurant guide is very helpful. I give it 4 stars because some of the information is outdated. For example there are lockers at the Blue Lagoon. And the book should tell tourists how the entrance to the thermal pools works--this is important, esp for non-European travellers.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Guide for Planning Your Visit to Iceland, October 2, 2001

By	James Paris "Tarnmoor" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

There are two kinds of guidebooks: There are the ones you use for planning a vacation, for background, history, photographs, insights into the people, the language, and various aspects of the society. This kind of guidebook is frequently lavishly illustrated -- though you might not want to take it with you. THE INSIGHT GUIDE TO ICELAND belongs to this category. It is printed on a nice glossy paper stock and weighs almost 2 pounds! That's about 8% of what I allow myself for total baggage for international travel.

The other kind of guidebook is indispensible for its wealth of detail: opening hours of attractions, accommodations, restaurants, phone numbers, addresses, websites, e-mail addresses, and other info you would use "in country." Lonely Planet and Rough Guide are probably the best examples of this category: I take a razor blade and neatly remove the sections I don't need and pack the mutilated remains with my bags.

When I travelled to Iceland, I left my copy of the INSIGHT GUIDE at home. But I keep it to show friends where I have been and what a particular place looked like when it was NOT rainy or foggy. The photographs in this book are superb; the essays are of uniformly high quality; but it is short on up-to-date details. On the other hand, if you use it for planning or just armchair travel, you can't surpass it. It looks nicer than the Landmark Guide and the text is more interesting.

As Lord Dufferin wrote some 150 years ago in LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES, Iceland is a very different country when the sun is shining. Of course, you can't always get that: I saw some spectacularly awful weather at Stykkisholmur and Lake Myvatn, but I can appreciate a book that shows a country wearing its best finery. I plan to keep this book and refer back to it to plan future visits to this fascinating land.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Get this book, April 1, 2000

By A Customer

I just returned from a trip to Iceland and found this book to be very useful. It has great photos and good information. I would suggest using this in conjunction with the Lonely Planet guide--they cover each other's weaknesses. My only complaint with this book was the index, which we found to be inadequate. I spent a lot of time paging through the book looking for things I knew it contained but which weren't listed in the index. Still, it is a must-have if you are traveling to Iceland.