
My own private Iceland - wholeness
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/10/21/20905485/iceland-overtourism-reykjavik-blue-lagoon-northern-lights
======
eps
What a timely post. Sitting in Keflavik airport now, waiting to fly back home.

A thing to keep in mind is that it was an explicit effort on Iceland's part to
position itself as a prime tourist destination. After 2008 banking crisis they
were in a severe bend and looked for ways out of it. Hence the push for the
tourism. Then that volcano erupted. On one hand it all but killed nascent
tourism flow, but on the other hand it actually broadcasted Iceland as a land
of volcanoes and natural beauty. And the tourist tsunami started.

Be careful what you wish for I guess.

Tourism industry sucked in so many locals that there's now shortage of police
force and doctors, because they pay less. But from the visitor's perspective
the country now is as comfortable of the destination as it gets.

We did ~3000 km. Main roads are very good. The speed limit is 90kmh, which
seems low, but go any faster and you will feel wind gusts starting to throw
the car around. Gas stations are there when you need hen. As are hotels and
restaurants. Many farms now have cafes or eateries, invariably with unlimited
"soup buffets." Cards are universally accepted. In fact I have no idea how
Icelandic money look like. Lots of tourists, but the crowd quickly thins out
once you leave Reykjavik, or rather its center. Driving around the country
side - there's very little traffic. More often than not we were alone on the
road. However it's late October, maybe it's different in summer.

The country IS mind-boggingly beautiful. Saying this as someone who've been
around the world. Insane scenery. Lava fields covered in moss, pitch black
sand beaches, hot rivers that you can bathe in at -1c outside. Really
different, invariably impressive.

You all should come ;)

~~~
magashna
How's the language barrier? I've seen the dirt cheap flights there and a
slightly more impulsive me would have just flown out and winged it.

~~~
irrational
Depends on what language you speak ;-)

I spent 2 weeks there doing the ring road. Everyone we met spoke perfect
English. I mean absolutely perfect. We were talking to our server at a
restaurant in a tiny village in the north and asked him if he had ever been to
the USA since his accent was a perfect standard USA accent. He said he'd never
even left his village to visit Reykjavik!

------
Danieru
Might be off topic but I live to think about how well Japan has leveraged
tourism. Eight years ago Japanese tourism was near 100% domestic. Japanese
would visit mountains, onsen, and rural family. The idea that foreigners might
be interested seemed absurd.

Yet around the time of the great earthquake the Abe government say tourism as
a possible plug for the massive negative current account balance. The shutdown
of nuclear reactors left Japan importing vast volumes of fossil fuels. Tourism
leveraged existing capital, the hotels shrines and transport networks japan
has always had, while bringing foreign money.

Since then Japan has been signing visa free travel treaties with every non-
hostile nation imaginable. As a side effect the Japanese passport is now the
most "powerful" passport in the world.

Tokyo and Osaka can handle the foreign hordes no problem, but Kyoto has could
not. It is as if Japan has sacrificed the old capital to supply the rest of
the nation with fuel.

The government is still playing a 40% increase over the next many years. It
will be interesting to see how Kyoto manages, and if other tourist
destinations can arise.

~~~
nicksantamaria
> Eight years ago Japanese tourism was near 100% domestic.

Nope, calling bull on this. Not by a long shot. Japan has been a major
international tourist destination, particularly in the winter for at least 20
years.

~~~
netsharc
Well, the graph on
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Japan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Japan)
does seem to suggest in 2017 there were 20 million more foreign tourists in
the year compared with 2010, an increase of about 250%.

------
ixtli
> “The early-adopter travelers are already onto the next cool, cheap,
> relatively intact place,” Sheivachman says. Since the Skift article, the
> term has been widely applied to places like Barcelona, Venice, and Tulum to
> suggest that no one who’s in the know would want to go there anymore.

This might be true for certain countries who’s people have recently made a
direct effort to subsidize tourism in an effort to increases it. But it’s just
embarrassing to think anyone who is alive to comment now could claim to be an
“early adopter” of a diverse and international city like Barcelona or Venice.
These places have played host to cultural (and literal!) revolutions since
before we were born and they’ll continue to do so after we’re all long dead,
but perhaps there will always be someone to write a pretentious Vox article
about how _they_ know the real character of a city and others shouldn’t bother
to try.

~~~
ijpoijpoihpiuoh
I don't think that viewpoint (that Barcelona is played out and too mainstream)
is at all the message of this Vox article. If anything, the article is a
criticism of that viewpoint.

~~~
ardit33
What? Barcelona is one of the most visited cities in Europe, to the point that
they think to start limiting tourism. How is not that mainstream?

~~~
ijpoijpoihpiuoh
Barcelona is mainstream, sure. That is an objective fact. But the person I
responded to seemed to imply that the Vox article was making some sort of
normative judgment about Barcelona. I don't think that any such judgment
actually exists in the article.

------
jpseawell
I went to Iceland back in March. I drove around the entire island in a
“touristy” Mercedes camper van.

As a visitor, I would say there were the perfect amount of tourists there..
not so many that it ruined my “experience”. However, that was in March. I
can’t imagine what it’s like in Summer.

I’m now learning to speak Icelandic, and looking for software jobs in
Reykjavik if that tells you anything. (Hiring managers please contact me)

Maybe I’m part of the problem?

You should go to Iceland.. it’s epic in a non-cliche kind of way.

~~~
flavor8
The golden triangle is a bit much. We started out on that route, but pulling
up to the first marked site and seeing 50 coaches and throngs of old Chinese
ladies all taking photographs in the same direction was offputting. But, we
then left the triangle route and explored on our own, and barely saw anybody.
Makes a lot of sense for tourist focused countries to keep tourists focused on
a particular area or route.

~~~
jpseawell
Agreed. Better to keep them corralled.

Now that I think about it we did hike for 25min out to the plane crash. When
we arrived it was full of instagram models taking selfies and wearing Supreme
gear.. not really the kind of wilderness I was looking for.

On the flip side, we did see the Northern lights at a camp site up North.
There were only a handful of people since it was still in the Winter months.
It felt very pure and intimate. Like it was our secret no one else knew about.
One of the greatest experiences of my life. I think that’s what all tourists
are searching for.

------
vertis
As a digital nomad I have come to realise that tourist experiences tend to be
very inauthentic for a number of other reasons as well.

Cities like Prague and Budapest make for great photos, but if you go just 20
minutes in any direction life is very different. There is very little glamour
if you're outside the old towns.

Being a digital nomad forces you to actually live in a city rather than just
sweeping through it and staying at 5 star hotels. Even then, you can't fully
experience a place if you don't speak the language.

In Munich there were so many events going on, but they were not really
accessible unless you spoke German.

Even if you're not in a place to do the full time digital nomad thing, I
highly recommend trying the live and work in a city for a month, it's highly
educational.

~~~
artiscode
Roughly same educational gains can be had by staying at an Average Joe Airbnb,
where normal residents live. A week should be enough to get a glimpse of what
cities are really about.

~~~
vertis
The length of time helps a little. You then have to do routine things like
grocery shopping.

But your point is otherwise true, it's about living where normal residents
live.

------
indigochill
>In the era of overtourism, the digital display isn’t just responsible. It’s
authentic.

Maybe responsible (although also lazy - go visit some actual place that's not
overcrowded). Not authentic.

I would call Perlan and similar aurora tourist attractions "aurora porn". They
always present the biggest and brightest and usually speed up the clip so you
can more easily see things moving. In reality, my experience of seeing auroras
just incidentally (once while walking around town and another time while out
at a remote cabin) has been perhaps not as visually striking but still
emotionally moving. It was so faint and slow that I kept wondering if what I
was seeing was really there. It was very much a different experience from the
films I'd seen of auroras.

Of course, the big bright auroras are out there, too, but would you call
buying a fish authentic fishing even if the fish you bought was more appealing
than the fish you caught? I think not.

~~~
netsharc
I don't get why he's calling it authentic. It's a simulacrum, just like porn
to real sex.

But it makes me think of this photo series
[http://www.photography.at/_fake_holidays.html](http://www.photography.at/_fake_holidays.html)
(or with more words: [https://medium.com/gone/surreal-photos-from-inside-the-
fake-...](https://medium.com/gone/surreal-photos-from-inside-the-fake-
vacation-industry-f50ad4ff30c7)) of faked vacation spots: a ski hall in Dubai
or of a tropical beach inside a hangar in Germany. And I have to wonder, how
"authentic" is even Reykjavik nowadays? It certainly has been Disneyfied with
the many many souvenir shops and "trendy" cafes, and as the article said, x
years ago it used to be empty, and now it's full of tourists, so it certainly
isn't "authentic" Reykjavik.

But then again, maybe tourists nowadays are just like watchers of porn. They
know it's fake, but it's what they're seeking anyway. I was in Iceland in
July, and even with the tourists, the nature is still great. Although I had to
wonder what people were actually doing... they see something pretty and their
first reaction is, "I have to take a picture of this!".

~~~
vertis
There is a theme park just outside Da Nang, in Vietnam called Ba Na Hills[1].
The park is done up just like a European village. It's complete with a Gothic
cathedral and a German beer hall, and is surreal to walk around.

Oddly, it's primarily targeted at South Korean tourists rather than locals.

It's well worth the visit if you're in the area.

[1]: [https://banahills.sunworld.vn/en/](https://banahills.sunworld.vn/en/)

~~~
nyolfen
huawei has a campus in china built in such a style, though it's not meant for
tourism:

[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Huawei+Songshan+Lake+Base&t=h_&iar...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=Huawei+Songshan+Lake+Base&t=h_&iar=images&iax=images&ia=images)

------
coldtea
> _Tourism has never been “authentic.”_

Countries and places all around the world, pre-mass tourist, have, however
been authentic.

In that they didn't have tourist traps, their economy / businesses weren't set
up on tourisms, local were indeed surprised to see you -- and not just seeing
you as just another tourist to bring them money, restaurants etc were all what
locals ate, etc.

So people visiting at those times -- even as recently as the 70s-80s or so for
some places--, if we can call them tourists (the most used term then would be
"travellers" then I guess), did get an authentic experience of the place.

Not necessarily in their own mind of course (they could still experience it
under whatever BS prism), but in the physical / economic / etc reality that
they encountered.

> _If fully one-fifth of humanity are traveling away from home, then how
> foreign are tourists, after all?_

As foreign they can be. Will tourists are always around in some place, each
individual tourist is foreign, in that they'll spend their 2-4 weeks and
leave.

They're not invested in the place, they artificially skew the local economy to
cater to them, e.g. by inflating rents (e.g. through AirBnB) for people who do
live and work in the place, they bring extra pollution (often-times being
2-10x the resident population of some place per year), they feed a class of
rent-seekers (literally rent-seeking people like hotels, rooms to let, private
beaches and exhibits, and so on), and they also bring the distasteful demand
for bland services (from souvenir shops, tourist traps, BS dance clubs, fast
food chains, "authentic" tourist restaurants, etc, that the locals could not
care less about, but live on because of the tourists).

~~~
dsfyu404ed
>They're not invested in the place, they artificially skew the local economy
to cater to them, e.g. by inflating rents (e.g. through AirBnB) for people who
do live and work in the place, they bring extra pollution (often-times being
2-10x the resident population of some place per year), they feed a class of
rent-seekers (literally rent-seeking people like hotels, rooms to let, private
beaches and exhibits, and so on), and they also bring the distasteful demand
for bland services (from souvenir shops, tourist traps, BS dance clubs, fast
food chains, "authentic" tourist restaurants, etc, that the locals could not
care less about, but live on because of the tourists).

Eventually it comes full circle and the local identity is built around some
perceived vision of self importance (coping mechanism?) and being quaint and
catering to tourists. These things the locals "could not care less about"
eventually become the culture, disgusting as that may be. I grew up in such a
place.

I could write a novel but it suffices to say that everyone who didn't stand to
inherit a business fleecing tourists (or fleecing people who fleece tourists)
got out as soon as they could resulting in a morally bankrupt society where
you cannot trust anyone not to screw you for personal gain and I (and
thousands of other people who "got out" over the years) am very much rooting
for global warming to wash them all into the ocean.

~~~
coldtea
> _These things the locals "could not care less about" eventually become the
> culture, disgusting as that may be. I grew up in such a place._

Yes, that's absolutely true.

And while the modern mindset (at least in some countries) doesn't allow us to
make value judgements in such matters (the idea being that "everything is OK
as long as the one doing it is not forced by gun to do it, and they make money
doing so"), I'd still say it's bad and sad.

------
stef25
Visited Iceland about 2 years ago, mainly Golden triangle. Didn't think there
were too many tourists at all (and I have a low tolerance for hoards of
tourists ... You couldn't get me back to Mont St Michel if you paid me).

It's a beautiful country, a bit eerily so. The blue lagoon is stunning to look
at but too expensive to bathe in. Once you've seen it, you've seen it. The
views don't change that much. Even on the golden triangle, looking out the
window tends to get boring.

For a country constantly emphasizing the need for safety on the road, I was
surprised to get a very beat up Toyota with worn out brake pads, no working
charger in the car and the guy just saying "you get what you pay for".

It's incredibly expensive. Two sandwiches (and I mean 2x slices of bread with
some cheese and lettuce) and soft drinks was like 20EUR or more.

I enjoyed the trip but don't really understand the hype. Perhaps it just gets
more exposure cause it's safe and easy.

Among the 40+ countries I've visited the best views and nature for me were in
Tenerife (of all places), inland around El Teide, Morocco's Atlas mountains
and North Vietnam, everything between Hanoi and the Laotian / Chinese borders.

~~~
eatwater123
From my experience, the glory in Iceland is absolutely not found in the golden
circle. The rest of the country is mind-boggingly empty and gorgeous. The
interior looks like a complete different planet, the western fjords are
stunning, and then when you do eventually come across another human; they are
incredibly nice and welcoming.

~~~
alpinemeadow
Absolutely! I went there many times, but first time was in 2014 with my
teenage daughter to do the Laugavegur trail from Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk.
It was a 4 day hike thru lava fields, skirting glaciers, hot vents and
fumarolas. Over tourism is only a problem if you stay in the well known
circuits!

------
hrnnnnnn
I lived in Iceland during part of the explosive growth of the tourism industry
and witnessed some of its negative-for-the-locals effects firsthand.

There were once two or three decent mid-sized concert venues in downtown
Reykjavik (capacity ~500 - ~1000) now, as far as I know there are none, as
they were closed to make way for more hotels.

My partner is Icelandic and she saw the pattern from the original collapse
repeating: when the number of tourists slows those new hotels will lie empty
and the local culture, well the music scene at least, will be the worse off
for it.

~~~
kd5bjo
> Now, as far as I know there are none

I don’t really follow the music scene here much, but there seems to be a
pretty steady stream of concerts coming through Harpa, Gamla Bíó, and
Háskólabíó, along with several bars that have live music all the time.

~~~
hrnnnnnn
Harpa's not what I was considering a mid-sized venue. It's big and fancy and
probably won't let your brand-new band play in front of 100 people. I was
thinking more of NASA and the one I can't remember the name of that was on
Hverfisgata.

Never been to a show at Háskólabíó, is it decent?

Is Gaukurinn still going?

~~~
kd5bjo
Harpa’s got some halls that size, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything there
at less than 5k ISK per ticket. Gaukurinn is still going, with something on
the schedule almost every night. The only time I’ve been inside Háskólabíó was
as an overflow lecture hall, so I don’t know how well it works for shows.

------
simonebrunozzi
I visited Iceland in the summer of 2008 [0], loved the place, and loved the
espresso there! Being Italian, that's something I don't easily concede to a
country :)

[0]:
[https://www.flickr.com/photos/simone_brunozzi/albums/7215760...](https://www.flickr.com/photos/simone_brunozzi/albums/72157606445909806)

------
JRKrause
I'll just leave a tip for anyone planning to vacation in iceland: if you plan
to visit the Blue Lagoon, try and arrive just as it opens early in the
morning, preferably while it's still dark out. It will be mostly empty and
this results in a far different atmosphere than the traditional "water park"
feel you'll get later in the day.

------
Lio
This cracks me up, I've been on that exact Game of Thrones tour with Theo;
he's almost exactly as described in the article, which is really fun by the
way.

We did the whole Golden Circle thing. We knew from that start that we were
obviously been ferried around the same routes as everyone else. I was OK with
that for a first trip to any country.

I didn't find the crowds over powering. Everything is either new to you or
you've seen it in TV/films but you get a kick out of seeing it for real.

When we next go to Iceland I think we'll probably stay in the north and make
our own way around. That'll be a different kind of holiday but still equally
good.

...also I'm pretty sure that Theo said he wasn't originally from Reykjavik no
matter what those lying journalist say. :P

------
pansinghkoder
I visited Iceland in 2016 for 10 days with two of my friends.

\- We partied in Reykjavik on weekend and my god! I was amazed to see the
clubbing culture there. It was so different from Bay area. Nightclubs were
open till 4 and people stayed till 6. Not to mention it was summer; so sun was
setting at 3am-ish while people were drunk on dance floor.

\- We went towards laugavegur next day for our adventure of 4 day trail. It
was a pretty smooth drive until we were attacked by armies of black fly who
entered our car through open window and my friend almost toppled the car over
while fighting them off (yes the road was 9-10 ft above the land).

\- Next day, we started our trek where we experienced the unforgiving weather
of Icelandic highlands. I have been stuck in avalanches before (rockies,
patagonia, himalayas) but this was a level up. The weather was colder, the
wind had a deathly sting. We had to dig up our camp in snow and at that point
tbh it seemed like I was digging my grave. It kind of made sense why they shot
Castle black senes for GoT here. Don't get me wrong, I fully enjoyed the hike.
The colors, the view and the greenery was amazing. The best part of it was
making pinto beans over steam coming below 6ft of snow.

\- Next 5 days we camped near beautiful waterfall of Seljalandsfoss. It was
surreal. We used to drive to same grocery store in morning, get basic stuff to
cook and get drunk in the afternoon (or night..? it was hard to tell). It was
pretty close to popular Skogafoss waterfall but this waterfall was equally
beautiful with lot less people visiting.

The point I am trying to make is yes, tourism is overwhelming for a delicate
place for Iceland but you don't have to visit just the golden circle or the
jokursalon. Yes, these places are beautiful but the experience really gets
terrible when there are a thousand people trying to get glimpse of snow island
in 200 m long standing space.

My advice to the people who are in 20s: Try to hike, drive to unconventional
places. Iceland has a lot to offer than what you see or read in
blogs/instagram. The fun of travel is in experiencing local culture, exploring
places and stumbling upon things. It is NOT about getting selfie and checking
off things to do in a list written in some random blog.

------
cardiffspaceman
If Iceland might be disappointing, there's always Svalbard. They actually do
have polar bears!

------
RocketSyntax
Golden Circle is the most boring part of Iceland. If they had better de facto
tours people would come back.

------
rathinmadhu
Nice

------
jayalpha
If you want to lough your balls off, read this story. Iceland involved:
[https://www.rooshv.com/i-was-detained-by-icelandic-police-
af...](https://www.rooshv.com/i-was-detained-by-icelandic-police-after-my-
london-bound-flight-redirected-to-keflavik-airport)

~~~
driverdan
I downvoted you because Roosh is a misogynistic asshole and doesn't deserve
any traffic to his site.

~~~
24gttghh
Wow that dude is a real POS. Good on the UK from banning his ass. I didn't
find the GP's link to that article funny. GP must have a very out-dated sense
of what is considered "funny".

