Reykjavík

From September to April the nights are long enough to hunt the aurora, with the best odds between October and March on clear nights away from town. From June to July the sun barely sets and you can walk a black beach at midnight in daylight. Both are spectacular. They are not the same holiday, and no itinerary should pretend otherwise.

Skip the queue at the famous lagoon and go one better: Sky Lagoon's infinity edge meets the Atlantic minutes from Reykjavík, with a seven-step bathing ritual the Icelanders take seriously. Or stay in the water altogether at the Retreat, the lagoon's own hotel. Out along the south coast the hits are hits for a reason: Þingvellir's rift valley, where you can snorkel the Silfra fissure between two tectonic plates in water that has been filtering through lava for decades, then Reynisfjara's black sand and the ice lagoon at Jökulsárlón.

Our honest advice: give Reykjavík one day, no more. Harpa, the food halls, done. The country is the event, so we build trips around lodges instead: Torfhús Retreat's turf-roofed stone houses with private geothermal pools, ION on its lava field, or Deplar Farm up north if heli-skiing is the point. Private Super Jeep, not coach.

Aurora season

September to April. Best odds October to March, cold and clear, away from city light.

Midnight sun

June to July. Golden light at 1am and empty roads.

How long

Four to five nights. Enough for the south coast properly, without driving becoming the holiday.

Flight time

About three hours from London. The nearest truly foreign landscape on the map.