Summerhouses in West Iceland

West Iceland is the part of the country people skip on a first visit and regret on a second. It covers Borgarfjörður and the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, both within easy driving range of Reykjavík, and offers a quieter version of nearly everything the south is famous for. There are waterfalls, lava fields, basalt sea cliffs, a glacier-capped volcano, and small fishing villages where you can park outside the cafe and walk straight to the harbour. There are also a fraction of the tour buses.

The peninsula is the headline. Snæfellsnes is the bit travellers usually mean when they say West Iceland, and it earns the "Iceland in miniature" nickname honestly: a glacier (Snæfellsjökull) at one end, lava fields, basalt sea stacks (Lóndrangar), a black pebble beach with shipwreck remains (Djúpalónssandur), a moss-walled gorge you walk into (Rauðfeldsgjá), an accessible volcanic crater you climb in 10 minutes (Saxhóll), a working fishing harbour (Stykkishólmur), and the most photographed mountain in the country (Kirkjufell, with Kirkjufellsfoss in the foreground). You can drive the whole peninsula loop in a day, but two nights from a house on Snæfellsnes is far more sensible because the light moves so fast.

Driving here

From Reykjavík the fastest way north is through the Hvalfjörður tunnel, which is currently free of charge and drops you into Borgarfjörður in about an hour. The longer way around the fjord is itself a worthwhile trip if you have the time, because it passes Hvammsvík hot springs and the trailhead for Glymur, the country's second-tallest waterfall. Onto the peninsula proper, Route 54 is the spine; in summer you can also cut south to north over Vatnaleið (Road 56), which is shorter and keeps you above the cloud line on a good day.

Borgarfjörður

The inland half of the region is often skipped completely, which is a small tragedy. Hraunfossar is the strange one: a 900 metre stretch where the Hvítá river is fed not from a mountain but from a lava field, with hundreds of small falls trickling out of the porous rock. It is two minutes from the parking lot. Reykholt has the saga writer Snorri Sturluson's old farmhouse and a small but excellent museum if you want a wet-weather hour. Húsafell is the hot pool town and the trailhead for Surtshellir, a real lava cave you can hike through with a head torch.

Where to base yourself

For Snæfellsnes proper, the area between Grundarfjörður and Hellissandur is the right base. You are within 30 minutes of Kirkjufell, the national park, and the southern fishing villages of Arnarstapi and Hellnar with their cliff walks. Stykkishólmur is the most picturesque base if you want a working harbour and the option of the ferry across to the Westfjords (it crosses Breiðafjörður to Brjánslækur, which cuts hours off the drive north).

For Borgarfjörður, anywhere around Reykholt or Húsafell. These bases also work well for a Reykjavík airport pickup and the Snæfellsnes loop the next day.

When to come

May through September is the easy answer. June and July give you midnight sun, perfect for shooting Kirkjufell at 1 a.m. without setting an alarm. September and early October bring the light back into a useful range and the autumn colour onto the lava fields, with a real chance at the northern lights once it gets dark.

In winter the peninsula stays open and the road is well maintained as far as Stykkishólmur, but the inner peninsula loop gets icy and snow-blown. Check road.is. The trade-off in November to March is dark, weather, and very few other cars; the trade-up is the aurora directly over the glacier on a clear night.

What people get wrong

The peninsula does not photograph well from the road. Most of the best stops involve a 5 to 30 minute walk in from a parking lot. Plan for shoes, not slippers, and budget more time at each stop than the map suggests. The peninsula is bigger than it looks: a circuit is around 90 km of driving plus the side trips, so closer to 200 km in total.

The other mistake is assuming Snæfellsnes makes a sensible Reykjavík day trip. It does not. Sleep on the peninsula. The morning light on Kirkjufell from a house 10 minutes away is a different experience to the same light after a 3 hour drive.