A twisting row of seaside villages on the east coast. With quiet, well-maintained roads and invigorating scenery, this is prime road trip territory – even though the speed limit is a modest 90km/h on the highway. Still, when you’re trundling along at 55mph, there’s plenty of opportunity to gawp at Iceland’s superlative scenery.

If you’re a keen birdwatcher like Mike Unwin, you won’t be disappointed by northern Iceland: “Lake Myvatn brought a pageant of northern waterfowl, from gaudy harlequin ducks to golden-tufted Slavonian grebes. The next day we moored in Skjalfandi Bay and zipped over by zodiac to the delightful Flatey Island. Here puffins lined the cliffs, red-necked phalaropes pirouetted in the shallows and ptarmigan strutted along the low roof of the school house.”