Explore Iceland with Rick Steves and Cameron Hewitt

Jean: Love being able to confidently plan vacations to unknown places by reading through Mr Steve’s eyes!

United States on Jul 17, 2023

McGinty: The book is very helpful and covers a great range of things that should be helpful on our trip to Iceland

Canada on Jan 07, 2020

Product Expert: Used this book to plan our 9 day trip to Iceland pretty much on the fly. My family had other guide books (Frommers and DK) and I downloaded a Lonely Planet ebook. This became the go to for the group. No guidebook is perfect (e.g. he vastly under described the effort it took to get to Seljavallalaug pool, really downplayed the Snaefellsness Penninsula while others raved), but generally 9 out of 10 times, the recommendations were a hit and information was easily attainable. The book generally followed the clockwise route we took around the ring road, which was helpful. If you plan to go deeper into the interior with a 4x4/camping, there are probably better sources. I would also check out blogs like Guide to Iceland, but this was well worth the money to throw it in the daypack and carry along for the adventures ahead. Often, I would program multiple destinations in Google maps for a day trip and ask my son to read the detailed descriptions while we were on our way to the next stop. Definitely a good tool to have in addition to the countless other resources out there (including the 14 people you probably know who already visited Iceland and have tons of advice).

United States on Aug 01, 2019

cathy michael: Excellent book with great cost saving tips.

Canada on May 11, 2019

Milvia van Rij-Brizzi: Much to my surprise, this guide is meant exclusively for the US public. As we are Europeans most if not all of the practical information was of much use or relevance and we ended up having to buy in a rush Lonely Planet, which is far more geared toward a more global public. This factor could usefully be indicated in the description of the product.

United Kingdom on Apr 27, 2019

Amazon Customer: Rick Steves series is always our go-to when traveling in Europe. So glad an Iceland one came out in time for our trip. The advices were very useful.

Canada on Apr 02, 2019

carol ann glanville: As always Rick Steves books are wonderful.

Canada on Aug 31, 2018

Meggie OK: Back in 2014, Rick said on his website that he wouldn't be publishing an Iceland guide, and he recommended Lonely Planet's guide instead, but I guess that the money to be made off Icelandic tourism lured him into changing his mind. I've been a Rick Steves devotee since I was about 7, and I just won't visit any European destination without Rick as my guide. "Rick says..." is usually the first thing I say about every site, restaurant, hotel, etc., and my devotion to his guidebooks once provoked my travel buddy into tossing the Spain guidebook off the top of a castle in Segovia.

As usual, Rick served up matter-of-fact info with the appropriate amount of detail and solid recommendations. I will say, though, that this was the first time that I had a Rick Steves guide that didn't give me information on everywhere I might have wanted to go in a country. I suppose it makes sense, since most travelers either stay in/around Reykjavik or do the Ring Road, but the fact that there was no information at all on the Icelandic highlands or on reindeer, for example, was surprising. Maybe in subsequent editions? Also, Rick is just clearly not a huge Iceland fan; he was more dismissive of much...

United States on Aug 20, 2018

Omar A. Candelaria Rivera: Was going to write long review, but I'll keep it short:

If you're traveling less than 2 weeks on Iceland, this is the guide for you. Only exception is if you're going to the Westfjords. This guide doesn't include much information about that area since the author suggests that it's not worth it unless you're spending at least 2 weeks in Iceland. There's also no information about the Highlands, which is something that only very experienced hikers venture to visit.

That being said, what it does includes would probably be above expectations for 90% of Iceland travelers. It has broad sections on Reykjavik and near areas, Golden Circle, South Coast and Ring Road. This was my first time in Iceland so I only stayed in the South Coast, but got all the way east to Diamond Beach. Next time I'll do the Ring Road and probably Westfjords. I don't see myself buying another guide. Will probably use this one and just do some additional research on the Westfjords.

Final comment: I got the chance to check the Lonely Planet Iceland guide at the airport and this one is much better. The Lonely Planet one is shorter. It does include Westfjords and Highlands, but all the other areas...

United States on Aug 02, 2018

Kernman: I preordered this book knowing it would be worth the wait and it was. In typical Rick Steves fashion, there is a lot of historical and practical information. As always there are plenty of time and money-saving tips. I particularly like how the ‘best of’ and ‘must sees’ are called out and color or shape coded. It makes finding bucket list ideas easier. There are also some handy single and multi day schedule samples as well. The book describes what there is to see be geographic region, broken into chapters like Western Iceland, Southeast Iceland and so on. Like most of Steves’ books, it caters to families and older travelers in my opinion. But that’s his demographic. While the vast majority of the book focuses on the peak season of the summer months, there are some tips and highlights that cover winter as well (my interest) but not as much as I had hoped for. There’s a lot of value in this book and is pretty much all you need to plan a typical vacation to Iceland. I take a half star off for a couple of reasons. There’s a lot of back and forth page turning, where something is referenced on another page. Not a reason the dislike the book, but somewhat annoying. But...

United States on Mar 27, 2018