I remember when I was as a young girl travelling to Cancun in Mexico with my friends from high school. This was back in 1993 when Cancun was still a popular and relatively safe travel destination.
Little did we know as teenagers, the weather in Cancun in May was not what we had been led to expect. It was the middle of the rain season and we had a lot of rainy days. Some people were furious about the weather. This was Mexico, not Iceland! Rain and clouds were not what we had been expecting. Nevertheless, we managed to get sunburnt despite the rain and clouds. I guess our Icelandic white skin wasn´t prepared for such conditions.
When travelling to Iceland a Travel Planner can never promise good weather. What a Travel Planner can promise is weather. All kinds of it. Several times a day.
When people ask me when is the best time to go to Iceland, I have decided to be very honest because I cannot promise good weather. But I can promise that weather, all kinds of it, is a big part of the thrill.
If you are adventurous like a dear friend of mine who joined me for Christmas in Iceland some years ago, you take it all the way and go swimming outside in the hail. It is amazing to go through that cold shock on your walk from the changing area to the pool and then dip into a warm and wonderful geothermal sensation outside in the darkness. It wakes you up and instantly puts things in perspective. He got hooked and went for a dip every day of the trip.
It is a fact that that the hot tubs at every Icelandic swimming pool is a venue for discussions on every conceivable subject, from early morning to evening. The locals change into English (or Danish!) sometimes to involve foreigners. It shows some kind of common identity when you enter the hot tubs and I think it is a very unique and precious Icelandic thing.
A trip to Iceland is never chosen because of consistently good weather but because of combination of other experiences, people and nature. If you are lucky you get all kinds of weather. Then your trip has been a success.
