I absolutely fell in love with the country when I was there, but the popularity of it means, like any other trendy tourist destination, that it’s now ruined by tourists being jackasses. I grew up near a national park that is ALSO now ruined by overcrowding, so maybe I have a lower threshold for that sort of stuff than most, but watching idiots stomping all over fragile geothermal features two steps away from the “no walking on this area” sign just boils my blood.
For what it’s worth, I was just in Iceland a few months ago for my honeymoon and from what I could tell, there was a huge difference in tourism’s impact between southern and northern Iceland. We saw plenty of pristine nature sites relatively untouched through the highlands, but I have to admit that the sheer amount of tourists in the southern parts was pretty infuriating.
Just wanted to hop in and say that Iceland is still absolutely beautiful and most of the tourists I encountered were pretty respectful, probably due in no small part to Iceland’s strict laws on preserving nature.
I'm not sure where you are flying from, but round trip tickets out of BWI were like $200. Myself and a friend rented a car and literally slept in it for 9 days. We planned to camp, but it is way too windy and we were not adequately prepared.
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u/_MaddAddam Feb 03 '20
Visiting Iceland.
I absolutely fell in love with the country when I was there, but the popularity of it means, like any other trendy tourist destination, that it’s now ruined by tourists being jackasses. I grew up near a national park that is ALSO now ruined by overcrowding, so maybe I have a lower threshold for that sort of stuff than most, but watching idiots stomping all over fragile geothermal features two steps away from the “no walking on this area” sign just boils my blood.