Iceland

Iceland does not look like Earth. The pseudocraters of Lake Mývatn, the geothermal fields of Hverir steaming and bubbling like a planet still under construction, the black sand beaches of Reynisfjara where basalt columns rise like a cathedral organ — this is a country that NASA used to train Apollo astronauts because nowhere else on the planet looked sufficiently alien.

The Ring Road circles the entire island in roughly 1,330 kilometres. Driven slowly over 8–10 days, with a private guide and stays at the handful of genuinely good hotels (Deplar Farm in the north, the ION Adventure Hotel near Thingvellir), it is one of the great self-drive journeys in the world.

Winter brings the aurora. Summer brings the midnight sun and access to the highland interior — Landmannalaugar's rhyolite mountains, the Askja caldera, the Highlands' F-roads that require a serious vehicle and a serious driver. Iceland rewards both seasons differently.