There’s joy to be found in the darkest winter months, and people living in cold places use a variety of rituals to celebrate the lack of light – and its eventual return

Artist Lilja Birgisdóttir on her favourite places for culture, eating out and bathing

Guardian readers share off-the-beaten-path tips, from a Spanish nature reserve to a walk on water in Norfolk

We’re all so desperate to get away. But were our summer breaks as good as we remember? Famous travellers tell their sorry tales to Michael Segalov

A carbon-neutral tour off Húsavík, in north Iceland, makes for a greener, more peaceful experience for visitors and sea creatures

Landmark galleries are great, but there’s a fascination and immediacy about the small, offbeat museums scattered across the Icelandic countryside

From living on an island with a population of two in the Falklands to a cabin in Alaska 300 miles from the nearest road, five writers tell us about the routines and strategies they developed to deal with loneliness

The tales of heroes and feuding families in Iceland’s founding chronicles inspire this countrywide walking, hitchhiking and camping trip

I spoke to the company on the phone, but they told me they had no record of the reservation

Stonehenge is the springboard for a motorbike and ferry trip to a modern, pagan-inspired monument in Iceland, taking in Germany, Denmark, and the Faroe Islands – and some seriously unkind weather for those on two wheels