Iceland: Wake up, it’s a beautiful morning

Winter may be wonderful, but it’s in summer when Iceland really comes to life. Batteries are recharged after the long, dark nights and the bright days of summer go on forever. Flowers bloom, whales and birds migrate, and Reykjavik is ready to party.

Iceland’s capital pulsates with festivals, art, music and café culture in summer, while beyond the city the open road beckons. There’s plenty of scope to sell Iceland as an alternative to Europe’s usual summer resorts, and for sunseekers there’s one big draw – the sun’s out almost 24 hours a day.

Taber Holidays sales manager Terry Shaw said: “Iceland has had some great summers of late, with temperatures up into the 70Fs. Reykjavik is much livelier and people are also keen to explore further afield. In summer you don’t need a four-wheel-drive vehicle to get up into the highlands and explore the glaciers.”

Icelandholidays.com owner Gareth Gee also rates Iceland as a great summer destination.

He said: “In summer, visitors head east and north out of Reykjavik. As a result, clients tend to book longer holidays. Seven and 14-day flydrive packages are popular.”

The best way to start the day in Reykjavik is with an energising soak in a hot pool. Most hotels have them, but better still are the city’s outdoor geothermal pools. For a couple of pounds you get a towel and access to a nicely heated pool.

Clients might even manage a couple of lengths before climbing into one of the adjacent hot tubs, each one set to a different temperature. These are perfect places in which to bask and breathe the fresh air, as well as get to know some of the locals who visit the pools en route to the office.

After breakfast, it’s less than an hour’s drive out of Reykjavik to one of Iceland’s most important and beautiful historical sites. For more than 800 years until 1798, Thingvellir was home to the country’s annual parliament, the Althingi. There’s a new visitor centre by the car park, from which the path leads down along a vast fissure caused by the slow drifting apart of the American and Eurasian tectonic plates.

The parliament site itself is marked only by a flag, but it affords a tremendous atmosphere. Enjoy a view across Thingvellir Lake – Iceland’s biggest – to the Langjokull Glacier shimmering beyond. With its gentle hills and cracked lava the landscape is a geologist’s dream, and has inspired generations of Icelandic painters.

The perfect summer afternoon in Iceland can be spent renting a bicycle and heading for the beach. The best way to get there is to follow the walkers, joggers, cyclists and roller-bladers out along the path that skirts the waterfront from downtown Reykjavik. A 15-minute ride takes visitors to Nautholsvik, the city’s man-made beach. It is cut off from the icy Atlantic by a dyke, creating a lagoon that’s heated to 20C by run-off water from Reykjavik’s geothermal central heating system. It may be close to the Arctic Circle but in summer the beach is still the place to be seen, sunbathing, swimming, playing volleyball or sharing a picnic.

The light decreases in the evenings in Iceland, but in summer it never gets dark; instead the sky and water turn a dozen gentle shades of pink. Full of energy after a healthy day outdoors, clients should take stroll along Laugavegur, a street of shops and bars including the bar Kafibarinn, part-owned by Blur’s Damon Albarn and a hangout of bohemian celebs.

After couple of aperitifs, head to one of dozens of restaurants for a meal of fish or wild lamb — the more adventurous can try puffin or whalemeat.

Reykjavik is a very compact city with its restaurants, cafés, bars and nightlife all downtown. For live music try Grand Rokk or Gaukura og Stong.

After midnight the party starts to get livelier. NASA is still the most popular nightclub, although Pravda and Café Solon are giving it a run for its money. It’s easy to be caught off guard when your watch tells you it’s the small hours but you can see pink daylight outside.

So you might as well go with the flow and stroll on to the next place.