There's a good reason why Iceland features on many-a-traveller's wish list. With mountains, glaciers, glacial rivers, lagoons, moss-covered lava fields, water falls and hot-springs, Iceland cannot fail to inspire wonder and a closeness to nature. The most sparsely populated country in Europe (364,134 people in 2020, over 102,775 square km) is also a tourist hot-spot - so those seeking solace might want to ensure they cover some considerable distance from the capital, Reykjavik. The "problem" is that Iceland is mostly populated around its coastal areas - which is served by a long ring-road that stretches around the 5000km coastline. Therefore, tourist coaches tend to follow the coastline - stopping at all the highlights - such as the incredible waterfalls. If this is something you'll want to avoid, then we found we needed to drive at least 1.5 hours along the ring road away from Reykjavik along the south coast road in order to see fewer tourists. On our trip, we hired a car at the airport. I was intrigued with the offering of "sand storm" insurance when picking up the car! There were 3 of us - my wife and I and our then 2 year old son. We didn't see many (perhaps any) other travellers with kids on this trip - perhaps because we travelled at the end of May - outside of school holidays. We have therefore visited sights that did not require extensive hiking (the main "hike" being when we explored a glacier in the national park). If you don't want to hire a care while in Iceland, you can also take the Airport shuttle bus to Reykjavik. On our trip, we stayed at 3 different accommodation locations. On the first 2 nights, we stayed in Reykjavik - in an AirBnB apartment rental. Reykjavik a 50km (45 minutes) drive from the international airport - Keflavik (KEF). From Reykjavik, we explored the famous Golden Circle driving route - simply breathtaking. For our second two nights, we rented a cabin in an isolated spot along the south coast road. For our final night, we rented a hotel room very close to the airport, in order to catch an early morning flight home. We visited Iceland in May - and brought typical clothing for hikes in the northern latitudes - waterproof trousers and jackets, layers to remove such as fleeces and sweaters, hats, gloves, good walking shoes and hiking boots. Basically, stock up from your local hiking store, and bring a ruck sack for water, snacks and extra layers. If you're just driving along the south coast and parking at the main sights, you'll never be too far from your car. But if you're planning on major hikes, you'll need to be prepared for all weather types. Since the coast is 5000km in length, you'll need to plan your route according to your time available in Iceland. We stayed for a relatively short 5 nights - and decided to explore around the Golden Circle, then head along the south coast road route. We were driving for several hours every day, and on our last day of return, we were driving almost all day to get back to the Reykjavik area. If you were staying for 7-14 days, you'd have time to explore right around the entire coastland, if you wanted to. If a trip to Iceland is your kind of thing, you may also want to check out my travel itinerary for

- where you'll find fewer tourists. In writing about where we visited in Iceland - I found myself wanting to use the same adjectives over and over again - magnificent, spectacular, incredible, breathtaking. Certainly, I've never seen geological activity such as the geysers and steam escaping from the hillsides - anywhere else. Simply beautiful - Iceland should be on every travellers dream-list. An incredible place for photography!