We aim to give students an insight into life in Iceland and a chance to see the Land of Ice and Fire at its best –hiking, volunteering and mixing with Icelanders.

Iceland is where the American and European continents crash into each other causing spectacular rifts and volcanoes. The combination of its near-arctic location with volcanic activity gives it an extraordinary beauty – weird rock-forms, hot springs, huge glaciers and wild waterfalls.

Iceland is a European country (not in the EU but in the Schengen zone) and a liberal democracy with a population of only 370,000. Economically it used to be dependent on fish (still important but starting to run out), and finance (but the main banks went bust in the 2008 banking crisis), so now it’s tourism above all.

This trip includes workshops on tourism and on the geography, ecology and geology of Iceland. Iceland also has a special culture from ancient sagas to an extraordinary range of modern musicians, poets and artists – they are also exceptionally good at bridge and chess. We delve into all this at various points on our journey!

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