Iceland

Unlike many of the guide books I looked at or purchased, this one has LOTS of pictures. I'm taking 29 people to Iceland for Christmas and this guide is everyone's favorite.

Let me introduce you to this Insight Guide on Iceland, the beautiful aurora borealis-lit island in the North Atlantic. I bought this book because it is adorned with some truly beautiful pictures, only to find out that its contents are of the same quality or better.><p>The information is provided in three ways:<br>YELLOW (pages 15-139): Just for this part, it is worth buying the book. Every little detail of Icelandic history, society and nature is given here. Vikings, whales and the notorious weather are dealt with, but also "the push for independence", the 300-species bird life, and the purifying of the Icelandic language.<br>BLUE (pages 147-327): Almost all places in Iceland are covered. It kicks off with Icelandic metropolis Reykjavík, and continues counter-clockwise around the whole island, supplying you with information about the attractions you'll encounter.<br>RED (pages 329-378): The practical side. Climate, cycling, what to buy, media... easy to find info for the quick look-up. Although it isn't the aim of the book to give EVERY tiny restaurant or hotel, and though you can find it elsewhere, quite a bit of those places are listed here. What follows is an emergency-style two-pages course in Icelandic, and after that the index, which could just be slightly better (too few things are covered). ****1/2<p><<ILLUSTRATIONS>><p>Too many to count: historic drawings, children, nature, towns... they show both the negative and the positive sides of the island: a desolate farm in the snow under an ink-blue sky, but also a young girl on her father's shoulders, with the national flag on Independance Day. *****<p><<LAY OUT>><p>The lay out is very good. The reading pleasure is high, because a lot of different fonts are used, and the keywords in the text are bold. A word that refers to a place on the map is marked with (1), (2), (3), (...). The same sign is used on the map, which I found extremely useful and easy. Another good feature is the use of a mark at the top of the pages, saying: "Map on page xxx", so you don't have to look for the map yourself. *****<p><<BINDING>><p>The book and the fat glossy paper feels good to the hands, the weight is perfect (thank God it's a paperback). The top side of the book is printed with the colors as shown above, so you can easily find what you are looking for. And there are two cover foldouts with maps of Iceland and Reykjavik bus routes. ****<p><<CONCLUSION>><p>This book is just what you need if you are planning a trip to Iceland, or after it to see where you've been and find more interesting facts and figures. Highly recommended. *****

There are two kinds of guidebooks: There are the ones you use for planning a vacation, for background, history, photographs, insights into the people, the language, and various aspects of the society. This kind of guidebook is frequently lavishly illustrated -- though you might not want to take it with you. THE INSIGHT GUIDE TO ICELAND belongs to this category. It is printed on a nice glossy paper stock and weighs almost 2 pounds! That's about 8% of what I allow myself for total baggage for international travel.The other kind of guidebook is indispensible for its wealth of detail: opening hours of attractions, accommodations, restaurants, phone numbers, addresses, websites, e-mail addresses, and other info you would use "in country." Lonely Planet and Rough Guide are probably the best examples of this category: I take a razor blade and neatly remove the sections I don't need and pack the mutilated remains with my bags.When I travelled to Iceland, I left my copy of the INSIGHT GUIDE at home. But I keep it to show friends where I have been and what a particular place looked like when it was NOT rainy or foggy. The photographs in this book are superb; the essays are of uniformly high quality; but it is short on up-to-date details. On the other hand, if you use it for planning or just armchair travel, you can't surpass it. It looks nicer than the Landmark Guide and the text is more interesting.As Lord Dufferin wrote some 150 years ago in LETTERS FROM HIGH LATITUDES, Iceland is a very different country when the sun is shining. Of course, you can't always get that: I saw some spectacularly awful weather at Stykkisholmur and Lake Myvatn, but I can appreciate a book that shows a country wearing its best finery. I plan to keep this book and refer back to it to plan future visits to this fascinating land.

What a wonderful survey of Iceland! This 378-page book is printed on heavy, slick paper, unlike the usual travel-book newsprint, and has very readable type. It's full of beautiful photos, but they don't overwhelm the wealth of information. Page layouts are varied with enough white space to keep you moving along. The editors cover EVERYTHING! There are many maps, and each location is handily indexed to a map site and page. The text is honest, straight-forward, and interesting with plenty of variation in type face. The movable Location Finder helps you quickly find what you need.

Not only is this book a travel guide, but it is a history and profile of the people and their island. It reads very well and is richly illustrated with many photographs. The color is beautiful.