Iceland

Iceland is a young island in geological terms and behaves like one — a place where the ground steams, splits and occasionally erupts, and where a population smaller than a mid-sized city has the run of a landscape most countries would ration.

Reykjavík is the base for almost every trip and the world's northernmost capital; from it, the Golden Circle and the south coast string together waterfalls, black-sand beaches and glacier tongues within a single day's drive. The full Ring Road takes the country in at its own pace — the Eastfjords, the Mývatn geothermal fields, the Jökulsárlón lagoon where icebergs drift to the sea. The Westfjords, harder to reach, are the country at its emptiest.

The two seasons offer two different countries. June through September is the practical window: midnight sun, open mountain roads, puffins on the cliffs. The dark months trade all of that for the aurora and the geothermal pools — a fair exchange, if you know which trip you booked.