Iceland Weather

Weather

Iceland is best visited between early July and mid September. Any other time and it starts to get increasingly colder and darker, putting severe limits on travel and activities. In accordance with this, most campsites are open over this period, as are tours over glaciers and such forth. During this time Iceland is often fairly changeable in terms of weather, switching from glorious sunshine to wind and rain, and then back again, all within a few hours. The higher you venture or the closer to glaciers you choose to go, the colder it will be, so do bring plently of warm clothes, but as often as you need to put on extra layers you'll also find yourself taking them off and replacing them with shorts and a t-shirt! Bring both waterproofs and sunglasses, though whatever the weather be sure to bring decent, waterproof walking boots, because regardless of sunshine the ground is pretty rough and any hiking undertaken will most likely require some fording of sorts as well. In winter Iceland very much quietens up, and travel becomes less and less frequent as conditions worsen. A city break maybe good at this time, but don't expect to get much hiking or other outdoors stuff done, it's simply too cold and too dar for too long. Still, this is more than made up for by the Northern Lights...

Temperate; moderated by North Atlantic Current; mild, windy winters; damp, cool summers