Taking your time driving the Ring Road is necessary.

Iceland has a road that circles the country - called the “Ring Road” by the locals, but the traffic authorities have given in the number “1”.

The road does not circle the entire country, as the major peninsulas, like the Reykjanes Peninsula, the Snaefellsnes Peninsula and the West Fiords are excluded. None the less this road is probably the most used road outside of Reykjavik and if you do any substantial amount of sight-seeing in Iceland you will probably use this road more or less. 

Tourists often ask if this road can be driven in a day or two. Well, as the road is around 1.200 km in length you theoretically can drive it in twelve to fifteen hours or so during the summer months. But why would you want to do that? Granted, you would be passing through amazingly varied landscapes but you wouldn’t be able to see any of the most fabulous sights at all. 

A much better way is to do like the locals and take your time - spending a week or two is what we do - and even then you wouldn’t be able to visit all the sights. 

So, do yourself a favour and take your time driving the Ring Road. You won’t regret it.

It might come as a surprise but Iceland is in fact a golfer's paradise. The golf courses themselves might not be the best in the world but the diversity, the ever changing weather and the unique surroundings more than make up for what might be lacking in quality.

From the Reykjavik Golf Club

Add to that the possibility to play golf at midnight, in the bright arctic nights of summer, and you have a winning combination and a promise of a golf adventure you will never forget. 

With approximately 60 courses all around the country you are constantly offered new challenges, new surroundings and new characteristics to test your abilities and your patience during your golf holidays in Iceland. 

Take the Capital Area for an example. Here alone you have 9 courses, all which you can reach within an 20 minutes drive from the city centre. Each and everyone has its own unique characteristics, ranging from the black lava of the often windy and challenging Hvaleyrarvollur Course to the rolling hills and the quiet surroundings of the Vifilstadavollur Course. 

And that is just for starters. If you travel outside the Capital Area, within an hour's drive you could have reached many courses, including the Geysir Course located just 5 minutes from the famous Geysir geyser and 15 minutes from Gullfoss waterfall. 

As golf is considered a public sport in Iceland you will not find any courses or clubs aimed at the wealthy and the selected few. In fact you might find yourself playing a round with the taxi driver that took you to the restaurant the night before or the waiter at the restaurant. Do yourself a favour and embrace this atmosphere of this 'no class' spirit and enjoy the sport of golf as it was intended to.

Most golf clubs in Iceland are closed during winter but open again in May.

In their 15th annual State of the World’s Mothers report, Save the Children lists Iceland as the fourth best country to have children. Finland takes first place followed by Norway and Sweden.

The report looks at fundamental issues like maternal health, children’s wellbeing, educational status, economic status and political status.

The third Thursday of April is a special day in Iceland each year because it is the official first day of summer! On the calendar it is a red day so everybody gets the day off. In most towns there are parades and entertainment for the kids that many attend or people try to do something else together with their family. It is also a custom in Iceland to give children a summer gift this day, usually toys you can use for playing outside.

If you happen to be in Iceland on the first day of summer, do like the locals, make a day of it and participate in the festivities.

An Ester egg made of chocolate.

Easter is approaching and what happens then in Iceland? We all buy “Easter eggs”- decorated eggs made of chocolate and filled with candy. The eggs also contain a small note containing a saying or proverb of some kind (those familiar with fortune cookies know what I’m talking about).

The eggs come in various sizes, but are categorized by weight, the heaviest weighing 1 kilogram.

Primarily parents give their children and their spouses eggs but it is also common practice to give an egg to anyone you care about. Many employers give eggs to their employees, for an example.

Almost everyone receives an egg during Easter, and if someone suspects he or she will not receive one this year, he/she just buys one for himself/herself.

In many families there is a tradition of hiding the eggs and on the morning of Easter day the children wake up early and go on a egg hunt throughout the house.

Some organizations and companies, but not that many, also arrange a public Easter egg hunt in parks or other public areas.

After cracking open the egg your first task is to find the small note with the saying. This is important because family members and friends usually ask each other “Which saying did you receive?” and then discuss, or explain to the children, what the saying means.

So what do you do if you happen to be in Iceland over Easter? You do like the locals of course: Head to the nearest grocery store or supermarket and buy chocolate Easter eggs for your love ones, or just for yourself! Enjoy, and happy Easter!

An Icelandic gravel road.

Some tourists are not sure how difficult driving in Iceland will be, in terms of unpaved roads and bad weather. Of course many opt for the bus tours for pure convenience but there is no denying that they take away much of the freedom of being you own driver.

The fact is you are very unlikely to come across unpaved roads on the main tourist routes and navigation is fairly easy with a simple road map. As ever, you need to keep an eye on the weather and take sensible precautions as you'd do at home.

Your own car (or rental) is perhaps the best choice if you are visiting many attractions. Also, when you are your own driver you can spend as much time at the attractions as you want, not as much as the bus schedule gives. And some say Iceland's beauty is something to be experienced without crowds and if that is true, a bus trip is perhaps not the right choice. 

Driving in Iceland is easy, during the summer months at least, but many tourists are not accustomed to unpaved roads. Each year we see a few accidents that can be traced to the driver’s unfamiliarity of car handling on gravel roads. Most attractions can however be reached on paved roads, so don’t worry if you are not used to gravel roads.

Weather is another big concern for some because Iceland's weather can be very unpredictable, with rapid changes coming with little warning. You need not worry about this during the summer months (you could have rain in the morning and sun in the afternoon, but that’s about it) but during the winter months you would be well advised to take a good look at the weather forecast. The weather forecast is very accurate up to three and even five days ahead. Here is a link to the Icelandic Met Offices’ web. 

Road signs are plenty and follow European standards for the most part. This means that the signs contain symbols but not words which means you do not have to understand Icelandic to get around. 

Rest stops, as known on Europe’s highways, are not that frequent but you can pull over almost anywhere you like, if you for some reason are not comfortable driving. 

As for Icelandic drivers they are for the most part very considerate and courteous but be aware they tend not to use their blinkers very often.

If you are travelling to Iceland and are worried if your cell phone will work, you probably don’t have to worry. Iceland has the world's highest per capita number of mobile phones, and coverage is reliable in most populated areas. Coverage is also surprisingly high in the highlands, even where you least expect.

Some travelling from the US can run into some trouble though, as a surprisingly large number of US cell phones are not multiband or are “locked” to a specific network provider.

The Frommer’s travel guide provides very useful information for those wanting to stay connected in Iceland and the two major Icelandic network providers, Siminn and Vodafone, also provide some good information.