The top attraction of Iceland for most tourists is the dramatic landscape and natural phenomena; mighty waterfalls and roaring glacial rivers; erupting hot springs and bubbling mud pots; hot water pools ideal for bathing; vast sand deserts; and unexpected oases in valleys overshadowed by mountains and glaciers. Iceland is also a popular destination for nature lovers with special interests, such as birdwatching.

The interior of Iceland is uninhabited, and many of the roads across it are negotiable only by four wheel drive vehicles, and then only in mid-summer. With no hotels or shops, highland travellers must be self sufficient.

All around the coast and in lowland areas, there are towns and villages which are easily reached by road and air. Several of the towns have year-round hotels, and many use schools as summer hotels during the long vacation from May to September - the main tourist season - to offer clean and inexpensive accommodation.

Most visitors use Reykjavík, Iceland's capital, as a base for day trips or longer journeys to the countryside - which really starts just outside the suburbs. Despite its small size (100,000 inhabitants), Reykjavík is a technologically advanced city and boasts a number of high class hotels which serve regular tourists and offer extensive facilities for the growing conference trade. Capitalizing on Iceland's location midway between Europe and North America and on the publicity given to the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev Reykjavík Summit, the tourist industry sees the conference and incentive trade as an important way of extending the season beyond the natural limits which the weather and climate impose.

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