Iceland 9 (Lonely Planet) Paperback – June 22, 2015

I am a huge fan of the Lonely Planet series and LP Iceland did not disappoint. LP provides great technical information about preparing for travel and once you get there. Their advice on travel to and from the airport by Flybus saved anxiety, time and money. Also, with the profusion of day trip travel companies, their assessment of which company provides highly rated trip also helped us enormously. The listing of restaurants allowed us to dine at some fantastic places in Reykjavik. Of course, the core and continued strength of LP guide books are the descriptions of what to do and see. As usual, their advice helped guide us to the sights and trips that we were most interested in. And the proved accurate each time.Another small tidbit that ended up being incredibly useful was the advice that Icelanders use plastic for all their purchases. This worked magnificently. We had our first trip where we didn't have to change money at the beginning and then have to worry about changing back, or spending all the money.

This book was very helpful on my two week driving and hiking adventure in the Summer of 2015. I relied on it as my only professional tour book during the trip. While it dives into deep detail on some locations / topics many entries are smaller summaries of several paragraphs in length. That's not a nit on the book, rather those small summaries provide more than enough context to do a quick Google search for more info if something catches your eye. Just enough detail without being overwhelming.My favorite "feature" was that the book is divided into regional sections and the topics inside those sections follow the Ring Road. So if you are out driving the road its super easy to follow along with where you are, what's coming up next, etc.Most importantly if you're debating on Iceland as a destination GO. Its an amazing place full of unique beauty and friendly people - both the native Icelanders and other travelers from all over the world. Also - anyone under about 45 learned English in school which makes communicating super easy.

Pros:- Highlights all the must-sees and should-dos- Like all other Lonely Planet guides I've used, this is very thorough, has up-to-date and accurate information on a wide variety of destinations- Prices and opening hours are largely accurate, but travelers should still try to confirm info online when possible (i.e., the Blue Lagoon opening hours, that sort of thing)Cons:- Hypes up less exciting destinations... can be hard to pick out exactly where to go, though the essentials are mentioned- Spends too much time on places no tourist should bother visiting (such as tiny towns with <1k population)- Not exactly geared for photographers; i.e., does not attempt to highlight some of the cool waterfalls, viewpoints, or hikes that are so worth going to.- Not enough information on hikes and more outdoorsy type activities, as compared to the Frommers easyguideKnowing the above about Lonely Planet guides, which is true for most of the series, I still used this to plan the backbone of my trip to Iceland, and added on additional places based on additional research by word of mouth, online, and the Frommer's guide. Would highly recommend pairing this with the Frommer's guide for a more outdoorsy approach to an amazingly beautiful country. Will definitely go back to Iceland, and will definitely use this to plan my next trip.My personal opinions/addendums:- In 7-8 days, it is a little difficult to do the entire Ring Road, but perfectly easy to do the west, Golden Circle, and southeast. In 11-12 days, it is pretty easy to do the entire Ring Road. A section of the Ring Road in the northeast (between Egilsstadir and Myvatn) is both dirt road and a mountain pass.- Try to rent a 4x4 (or Jeep, as Icelanders call SUVs) if possible- Dettifoss and Selfoss are better photographically from the eastern side, which involves ~30km of bad dirt road- Aldeyjarfoss is totally worth the ~30km of dirt road and ~5km of rocky 4x4-only F-roads- Surtshellir offers a super unique lava cave/tube experience, though it's a long drive away from popular destinations and requires at least flashlights (though helmets and headlamp recommended)- For US visitors, Geysir offers nothing special compared to Yellowstone

I always use Lonely Planet when I travel to a foreign country, especially when traveling Europe. Aside from the hotel booked on the first and last night, everything was at our discretion. I was in Iceland during the "off season" (first week of May) and had 4 travel books at my disposal between me and my travel partners. This one was especially useful when looking for guesthouses/hostels/hotels and restaurants. Loved the "hot spring" route they have in here: I would not plan a trip around hot springs, but it was awesome to have a comprehensive route to refer to so we could check out a hot spring that was on our path. As always, Lonely Planet provides useful information on culture, history, due/don'ts and must see's. Still my favorite travel guide. Definitely have this on your Iceland trip, even if you have a guided trip with an itinerary already planned. You can learn a lot about this country and each town/area from the book alone.

Great guide book it helped us find some really special gems to see off the beaten track (not that you run into many people in Iceland!). We used this book to navigate our trip around the country.The book is ordered so that a traveler starts out in Reykjavik, to the Golden Circle and from there has them travel north clockwise around the country. We, however, wanted to go counter-clockwise in our trip and just used the book mostly from back to front. It got a little confusing sometimes but worked out well.Lonely Planet's guide to Iceland had good recommendations for food and did us well in our search for lodging.The only downside was that there was more it could contain, not all towns were listed, and there are even less photos. However for the price you pay it is worth it.