Vik

Black sand lies below a cliff where hexagonal basalt columns stack like stairs. Waves surge far up without warning, so the notices say never turn your back on the water.

Three sharp basalt stacks stand in the water in front of the village. The story says trolls dragging a ship were caught by the sunrise and turned to stone.

A headland running into the sea is pierced by a hole wide enough for a boat. Puffins nest on the cliff in summer, so part of the area is closed to people then.

Few places let a walker reach the ice 20 minutes after leaving the car, and this is one. Posts driven in where it stood each year let the retreat be measured by eye.

It measures 25 metres across and 60 metres down, dropping straight off an old sea cliff. Climbing the 527 steps beside it opens a view along the river from above.

A path runs behind the fall, so the whole circle can be walked from inside the water curtain. The spray is heavy and anyone passing without a raincoat comes out soaked.

The body of a transport plane that made an emergency landing on the black sand in 1973 still lies there. It lies 4 kilometres from the car park with almost no markers on the way.

It is the one building above the flood path, which is why it serves as the volcanic refuge. White walls under a red roof stand out between black sand and green slope.

Moss covered walls wind down to a depth of 100 metres. The rim path is narrow and trodden moss recovers slowly, so it closes often.

From May to August puffins dig burrows in the cliff soil and raise their young. Rope marks where people may stand and no one crosses that line.

A show that pours real lava, melted to over 1100 degrees Celsius, down a chute in front of the seats. When it flows, the heat reaches your face. Afterwards you hear the cooling crust crack like glass and get to touch a piece.

A waterfall tucked into the gully just east of Skogafoss. From behind the Skogar museum you climb a fence stile and walk about 15 minutes in. Unlike its big neighbour it sees few people, and you can pass under the rock behind the curtain of water.

South coast household goods, boats and turf houses gathered over one man's lifetime. A turf-roofed farmstead and a small church were relocated to stand in the yard. A separate hall next door covers roads, bridges and mail coaches.

A few hundred metres north of Seljalandsfoss, a waterfall hides inside a cleft in the rock. To see it you step along stones in the stream bed and squeeze through the gap. Shoes get soaked, so waterproof boots help.

An ice cave where the Myrdalsjokull glacier ends, reached in a tour vehicle leaving from the village. Volcanic ash runs through the ice in black bands. Unlike most ice caves, this one has tours in summer as well.

A lone hill rising from the black sand plain east of the village. Hjorleifur, one of the first settlers, is said to be buried on it. Gigjagja cave at its foot has a mouth shaped like a face in profile, which draws a lot of photographers.

An outdoor pool, 25 metres long, built in 1923 by damming hillside spring water. Parking sits down the valley and the walk in lasts about 20 minutes; no attendant is on site. When ash filled it in 2010, volunteers brought diggers to clear it.

A 25-kilometre route that starts above Skogafoss, crosses the pass between two glaciers and descends to Thorsmork. For the first few hours the river throws one waterfall after another. It passes craters formed in the 2010 eruption.

In a field at Kirkjubaejarklaustur the tops of basalt columns break the surface like hexagonal tiles. The name means church floor, though no one laid it; it formed naturally. Allow about one hour driving eastward from Vik.

Lava from the 1783 Laki eruption stretches to the horizon under a thick quilt of moss. A short path leads from a small car park beside Route 1. Signs ask you to stay on it, since trampled moss needs decades to recover.