Hiking Review - Norway versus Iceland

(covering trails and treks, difficulty and diversity, navigation and maps, transport and much more)

‘Norway… or Iceland?’ The names alone evoke powerful images in many people’s minds. Both countries offer magnificently beautiful trails and treks – from a few hours to many days in length, among pristine nature, fjords, lakes, glaciers and mountains.

If you’re struggling to decide which of the two countries to choose for your next hiking/trekking trip, you are not alone. Given that they both offer awe-inspiring landscapes to explore on foot, it is fair to ask how to make up one’s mind. 

If you are tempted by both Norway and Iceland, perhaps this post will help you on your way. No matter which you choose, you are very likely to have a most amazing hiking adventure – provided you plan and prepare according to your skills, experience and fitness.

I know Norway – and particularly the area to the south of Trondheim – very well, better than I know Iceland. I have spent years researching and trekking through numerous national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty in Norway. My guidebook, published by Cicerone Press, describes treks around the best parts of Norway’s southern mountain areas. I love Norway, and would have travelled there again last summer had it not been for quarantine restrictions coming into play shortly before I was due to travel. 

Iceland, however, had long been on my bucket list. When the quarantine regulations made it impractical to go to Norway, Iceland jumped at me. After six days of quarantine and two negative tests, I was free to travel. I travelled throughout the whole country and hiked every day that the weather allowed. I did day hikes (albeit sometimes long ones), preferring to use my time to travel to all areas and experience the incredible variety of landscapes from south to north and west to east. My personal knowledge of Iceland therefore extends to this one summer and the research I have done for this article. Please consider that a disclaimer.

This is a lengthy blogpost, I’ll admit, which is why I decided to split it into two Parts. It aims to give an in-depth comparison, reviewing those aspects of Iceland and Norway that are important to a hiker, such as the landscapes you are likely to see, the quality of tracks and trails, ease of navigation, the accommodation, transport infrastructure, etc. The Table of Contents section up top jumps you to sections of particular interest to you.

Budgeting

Neither Iceland nor Norway is known as a budget destination. Brace yourself for incredulity (and maybe even hysterical laughter) when faced with a shopping or restaurant bill. I found the best way to deal with this somewhat painful reality was to refocus on the amazing landscapes and the experiences I was having. They are utterly unique and incredibly special. Be your own judge.

While hiking/trekking in both countries you can potentially save money by camping in your own tent, and if staying in hostels or huts, take along your own sleeping bag or sleeping liner and towel. This saves you the hiring cost, particularly as liners are compulsory. You can also save significantly by avoiding both alcohol and eating out. That beer or glass of wine is going to make a dent in your budget. It might not be the advice you want to hear, but consider becoming a teetotaller for the length of your stay. For information on actual spend on a hiking trip in Iceland (in this case the Laugavegur trek), see here. And for information on budgeting for a trip to Norway, see here. It can also be useful to consult websites like budgetyourtrip.com when planning a budget for your hiking holiday – particularly for information on the cost of getting there and transport options. 

summary:

Both countries are comparable – they are more expensive than most other hiking destinations

Before looking at the differences in hiking itself, let us compare the landscapes, the countries’ popularity, climate, and hiking season.

The Landscape

Iceland is a young country by geological standards: only 70 million years old. It straddles two tectonic plates – the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate, which drift apart by 2cm every year, making Iceland a country that experiences frequent small earthquakes, has many active volcanos under its glaciers and is literally steaming in many places. Iceland’s landscapes have been shaped by this volcanic and seismic activity, with the glaciations as an overprint. You’ll encounter vast lava fields, black sand beaches, and dark, craggy cliff-faces inhabited by millions of sea birds. These contrast with the country’s moss-carpeted valleys, its powerful cascading waterfalls (some of Europe’s most powerful), deep ravines, and hot springs, geysers, and stinking, bubbling mud pools. In the south, the numerous glaciers of Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest ice cap, calve into lakes, and icebergs can be seen drifting out to sea at some spots. All kinds of lava fields can be explored, with extensive lava cave systems beneath, and geothermal activity can be seen and experienced in many places first-hand. The variety and diversity of natural features is incredible. All this makes Iceland a unique and fascinating destination. Little wonder it is often called the ‘land of fire and ice’.

Norway’s landscape, on the other hand, has been carved by glacial activity, and subsequently by the weathering effects of wind and water. It is best known for its fjords, formed over many ice ages by glaciers that have left behind steep slopes, rocky shorelines and deep waters. However, you can also hike in alpine terrain, tundra-like landscapes, lush valleys, and rocky, mineral areas – for days or weeks on end. Many of the country’s ‘vertigo hikes’ are world famous, such as those at Trolltunga, Preikestolen, or the Besseggen ridge. Norway is home to Scandinavia’s highest mountain – Galdhøpiggen (2469m) – and standing on top of it on a sunny summer day you will feel like you’re standing on top of the world. At height, vegetation thins out quickly and you find yourself surrounded by low scrub and exposed rock. You’ll still see glaciers here, and (lower down) misty waterfalls and roaring streams amid green valleys teeming with life. Unsurprisingly, many people associate Norway with wild, unspoilt nature, beautiful scenery, and activities such as hiking, skiing and fishing. Norwegians are known to embrace their outdoors with great zest, and this has resulted in a fantastically developed system of trails and mountain huts in all parts of the country – close to towns and also very remote indeed. In Norway you are spoilt for choice in terms of national parks, with superbly marked trails to help you along.

summary:

Simple – both countries are bucket-list territory.

Popularity

Iceland embarked on a tourism initiative after the global financial crisis essentially wiped out the country’s banks in 2008. It became wildly popular as a tourist destination, with visitor numbers rising from 1.8 million in 2009 to 5.2 million in 2019 – dwarfing its own population of about 350,000 – with US and UK visitors making up almost a third of the total. Signs of over-tourism are evident at some sights and day hikes, especially around the Golden Circle. This tourist route in southern Iceland covers about 300km (190 miles). It loops from Reykjavik into the southern uplands and back. Here you’ll see large parking lots, a culture of ‘access restriction’, pathways that have been extended to cope with the number of visitors… although in the late summer of 2020 there were hardly any hikers and only a few people at the major sights.

Norway is still somewhat under the radar for visitors from the US; it attracts tourists mainly from other Scandinavian countries and Central Europe (UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and France). But mostly you’ll find Norwegians holidaying in their own country, which makes for a local experience as you share in what Norwegians call friluftsliv – a love of all things outdoors. If you stay at the huts of the Norwegian Trekking Association you will be treated to traditional Norwegian fare in the evenings with a dose of local history and custom, regardless of your language proficiency. ‘Good food, long beds and warm hospitality’ was the motto of one of the first such mountain huts in Trollheimen. That said, some day hikes in Norway have also become wildly popular with tourists – for example at Preikestolen and Trolltunga, where crowd management is necessary.

summary:

There will be parts of both countries that you’ll find busy, but Iceland has a few more places that could be very busy indeed during the high season. These include the well-known multi-day treks of Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls. However, in both countries you can find places where you won’t meet a soul, if that is what you are after.

Location and Climate

Norway is located in Northern Europe, and its elongated shape, flecked with many islands, gives it one of the longest coastlines in the world. The region of Southern Norway runs from Kristiansand on the south coast towards Trondheim about halfway up, comprising the ‘bulb’ of the country. North of here, Norway becomes very narrow and the climate more arctic and tundra-like. Southern Norway borders on Sweden in the east, while to the west the North Sea and Atlantic Ocean border the long coast. Norway is one of the most mountainous countries in Europe, and the mountains form a barrier between the Atlantic maritime climate (warmer and wetter) in the west and the more continental climate in the east (drier and colder). Therefore, precipitation in Southern Norway is highly variable, depending on where exactly you are. Rondane boasts one of the driest areas in Norway, while the Westfjords are exposed to the Atlantic weather systems and can be quite wet. Consequently, the alpine areas of Jotunheimen and Dovrefjell can get occasional snow as early as August, so hikers have to be prepared for a variety of conditions. Luckily, the app and site of yr.no offer a weather forecasting service that has great accuracy. I’ve used it to plan hikes and adventures over the last 10 years and found it to be reliable often up to a week in advance. 

Iceland is an island country in Northern Europe, just beneath the Arctic Circle, with coastlines on the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. It enjoys a much milder climate than its name and location would imply. This is due to a branch of the Gulf Stream flowing along its southern and western coasts, greatly moderating the climate. However, this also brings mild Atlantic air into contact with colder Arctic air, resulting in a climate that is marked by frequent changes in weather and associated storms. Any weather system that arrives over Iceland has had to travel across the surrounding bodies of water and is therefore influenced by them. In general, this leads to more rainfall in the southern and western part than in the northern part of the island. Having spent almost four weeks there this summer, I can testify to these rapid changes of weather. After a spell of mild, sunny weather at the start, almost every day was different. What struck me most was that there seemed to be no way of telling. You literally do not see it coming. It could be sunny and utterly pleasant one day, and the next you’re being battered by strong, cold winds, or foggy, rainy conditions have moved in overnight. However, the Icelandic meteorological institute offers a great weather forecasting service and their website is very thorough (see https://en.vedur.is). I find it a captivating site to read. Their predictions turned out to be very accurate in the short term (up to a week), and this helped greatly in planning walks and hikes. As to any warnings they provide, disregard them at your peril!

summary:

Norway has a climatic divide going from west to east. The mountain ranges often act as a weather barrier, and there are distinctly different climatic systems, namely maritime and continental. Iceland is at the mercy of the Atlantic and Artic weather fronts. Therefore, expect faster changes of weather and much more wind. Otherwise, summer temperatures are quite similar, and you need to be prepared for all weather on all days when hiking in either country

Hiking Season

The hiking season in both Norway and Iceland is relatively short, running from July to the middle of September. In Norway’s Westfjords it can start a little earlier; depending on the snow cover from the previous winter, you could be hiking in the middle of June. In both countries the days are long and the nights short during summer, making it easier to cover larger distances without being caught out by failing daylight. In Southern Norway, many mountain treks are dependent on summer bridges that can only be put in place after the snowmelt has occurred. In both countries, towards the middle of September services (frequency of buses, availability of lodging or food in remote places) are reduced.

summary:

Not much difference between the two. A little longer in the mountains along the Westfjords in Norway, depending on snow cover.

Hiking Resources (Trails and Tracks, Maps, Navigation)

In Norway, hiking is a national treasure and a popular pastime, and this reflects in the number and diversity of hikes and the supporting infrastructure. Iceland has a much smaller population, and so resources for marking of trails and infrastructure are much more concentrated around national parks and a few mountain areas and sightseeing spots.

The contrasting cultural importance of hiking in the two countries means that each offers a different hiking experience. Not necessarily better or worse, simply different. Let us look at the tracks and trails, how to find your way, and accommodation and food along the trail.

Trails and Tracks

Norway has more than 20,000km (12,400 miles) of marked trails and 550 huts, both of which are managed under the umbrella organisation of the Norwegian Trekking Association (dnt.no). That is more than enough to keep any hiker happy for many years. You can choose from short walks in urban areas to day hikes of all difficulty around the country, and treks that take you into the mountains for a long weekend or a month. The choice is yours. 

There are also, of course, many unmarked trails, and you could make your own way across any unfenced area, if you so wish, provided you have the skills, equipment and fitness levels for your chosen adventure. Excellent navigation skills are essential for your enjoyment and safety. 

Trails and tracks in Norway can be anything from muddy forest floors or wet marches to rocky glacial moraines requiring you to cross boulder or snow fields and go along glaciers and streams. Most of the longer treks have a bit of everything. In general, you will need to watch your step, meaning you need to have your eyes on the track or trail while you walk, and stop when you want to have a proper look around at the landscape and terrain. It is rare that a trail will be so easy-going, flat and wide that you can easily look ahead and enjoy the views while moving. 

Many of the high tops in Norway, including the two highest, are accessible for any hiker with some experience and good physical fitness. The more exposed trails are regularly checked to ensure they are safe and stable – even if they are vertigo-inducing at times. All marked trails are graded by difficulty, from easy to very challenging. Thus, you can plan your hike according to your skills and experience.

Away from the most ‘Instagrammable’ day hikes such as Preikestolen (Lysefjord), Trolltunga (Odda county), the Besseggen ridge (Jotunheimen National Park) and a few others such as in the Lofoten Islands, you will not meet many other hikers. You are unlikely to be hiking alone all day on the more popular routes, especially if you’re hiking at the weekend in peak holiday season in late July. Nevertheless, there are so many areas, hikes and treks to choose from that you can be as solitary as you want – particularly if you are taking your own tent.

As a general rule, you will find very few facilities on a typical day hike in Norway. This is part of Norwegian culture. You go out into the woods and mountains, fjords and lakes to enjoy nature. There are hardly any rubbish bins at trailheads or along the trails, because you are expected to take your rubbish out with you and dispose of it at home. You will find signposts for directions but very few signs telling you what to do, warning you of dangers or prohibiting you from going somewhere. Norwegians consider these things to be personal responsibility and expect hikers to know what they are doing. This is much in contrast to many other countries; on my recent trip to Iceland it seemed there were more warning and forbidding signs than there were hikers. 

Iceland features a few very well-known multi-day treks, such as the Laugavegur and the Fimmvörðuháls in the southwestern highlands. Trail markings on these routes are very good and the number of (international) hikers has increased over the years. These treks see many people in the short hiking season; a fellow hiker advised me to start the day very early to beat the crowds. Given that daylight hours are long, this is a valid option. A newer trek in Kerlingarfjöll (central highlands) opened in 2010 and is now also serviced by two purpose-built huts. Other lesser-visited treks include the Askja caldera trek in the northern highlands, and the Hornstrandir route in the far less visited Westfjords area. 

Most of the high tops in Iceland are covered by glaciers, while others are too steep to be easily accessible. Many of the lesser tops, however, have excellent views and are worth hiking up. There is no national grading system for hikes, and the local national parks’ criteria for grading (on their local maps) differ wildly and are not really informative for the experienced hiker. Make sure to read up on the hikes you want to do; get a guidebook if possible, so you feel prepared. 

In order to see as much of the country as possible, I decided to stick with day hikes while in Iceland this summer, hiking every day that the weather allowed, in all parts of the island. The hikes ranged from 2 hours to 7 hours and took in roaring waterfalls, hot springs and mud pools, sheer cliffs and glaciers, scraggy tops and rounded hills. The diversity was incredible.

Quite a few of the most spectacular spots are reachable from the main Ring Road. This national road runs around the island and connects most of the inhabited places. It is almost 1500km (930 miles) long. At popular tourist sights along its route, the walks and hikes tend to be shorter and well marked. Many paths have been adapted to improve accessibility, meaning they can be enjoyed by a wider range of able people. Here trails have been widened and sometimes covered with tarmac. At the same time, these paths lose some of their natural character; they feel more like a misplaced urban footpath than a trail. This was evident in Myvatn in the north, where bulldozers were widening what had been a single-file trail to a 1.5-metre-wide path in an otherwise otherworldly area of bizarre lava formations. 

Outside of the major sights and in other national parks, the quality of Iceland’s tracks varies greatly, just as one might expect given the variety of terrain. Crossing a lava field will feel very different underfoot than walking along a beach or riverbed. There are many trails to choose from, and a good guidebook or other reliable source of information is essential to find the trailhead and follow the trails. Be aware that some of the more difficult treks involve the crossing of glaciers and so are really only suited if you have the equipment and experience to do so. Alternatively, you could join a guided tour (see for example https://www.mountainguides.is). By contrast, some of the easier treks follow dirt tracks or might run close to a road, which might not appeal to all hikers. Reading up and knowing what to expect underfoot and on your way is paramount for an enjoyable and safe experience. 

What is striking in Iceland is the vulnerability of the nature under your feet, wherever you go. If stepping on moss, you’ll very easily displace it and destroy it; it doesn’t spring back like it often does in Norway. Walking in desert-like landscapes, whether the glacial floodplains or volcanic craters, you realise that you will leave a footprint behind which might remain visible for a long time. Awareness that ‘leave no trace’ here means staying on the paths, and disturbing any structure (living or inanimate) as little as possible, is paramount. Sadly, not everybody is conscious of this, and in popular areas the amount of signage reminding us to ‘stay on the path’ can interrupt our connection with the area’s natural beauty. It becomes easy to feel like an intruder. 

summary:

Norway’s 20,000km of marked trails is quite unbeatable, and the ability to roam freely is a special experience. Iceland offers many very beautiful trails through its diverse and spectacular landscapes, but away from the main tourist spots it is more difficult to find your way. Both countries offer fantastic hiking trips, with a wide variety of character and difficulty. The impact of tourism, though visible in both countries, is more pronounced in Iceland.

Finding Your Way – Maps

The Norwegian Mapping Authority does an outstanding job of creating maps of the country. If you are somewhat IT-savvy you can design, download and print your own map (free of charge) from norgeskart.no. If you prefer to buy a sheet map, I’d recommend getting one from Nordeca’s Norway series. This series consists of 195 maps, mostly at a scale of 1:50,000. They are perfect for hikers as they are tear- and water-resistant. There are planning maps, too, at a scale of 1:100,000. All maps are available at www.kartbutikken.no (there is an English site and items are shipped worldwide). There are also other map retailers of course, and you might have your favourite (I don’t receive commission from Kartbutikken!). Note that travel and outdoor stores in Norway have become less reliable in their mapping stock since the data is online and free to the public. 

Unfortunately, the sourcing of accurate and up-to-date hiking maps (ideally at a scale of 1:50,000) for Iceland is more difficult. The Icelandic mapping authority offers maps for free online (kortasja.lmi.is), but they don’t consistently include hiking trails. There are some hard-copy hiking maps, sold by mapoficeland.com for example, but their scale is not particularly useful. Sometimes you can get (free) maps issued by local national parks and visitor centres. My experience of maps from tourist offices, bookstores and outdoor stores was frustrating. Either the scale was too large, or the maps turned out to be dated or incomplete. Free maps from visitor centres were often better, but also at times not reflective of the latest changes in marked paths on the ground. For this reason, preparation and planning for hiking in Iceland is extremely important. Consider buying a guidebook with associated GPS tracks – this worked well for me. I used this (German) guidebook.

summary:

Norway wins here without a doubt. The Nordeca series is up-to-date, at the right scale and easy to buy. Maps for Iceland are difficult to procure, not many are available at the 1:50,000 scale that is best for hiking, and some that are sold at tourist offices near national parks may be outdated and inaccurate.

Finding Your Way - Navigation

In Norway, when you are on a marked path, unless the path is being redeveloped, you can be confident that the markings will be seen throughout – on rocks, poles or around trees. They are positioned in such a way that you’ll see them even in conditions where visibility is poor. In general, you can see at least the next marking when standing near or at the previous one. 

Markings in Norway are well positioned, regardless of the direction in which you are hiking. At major crossroads, signage indicates the destination of each path and often the distance, too. The colour of the sign relates to the difficulty of the path, increasing in difficulty from green to blue, red and black. Volunteers are busy throughout any hiking season renewing these markings, having taken a course to learn how to properly position and paint them. There is more to painting a ’T’ than meets the eye! Their efforts ensure that all of us, regardless of the length of our walk, hike or trek, find our way and can enjoy the surroundings safely. 

Carrying a map and knowing where you are at any given point is still important, because there are many unmarked trails as well as trails made by animals such as sheep or even moose, and you could inadvertently find yourself off-route. Pre-recorded GPS tracks are a nice-to-have, but not really necessary if you stay on the marked trails.

My experience on marked day hikes in Iceland was very mixed in comparison. Marking seemed haphazard at times, inconsistent at others; it was sometimes very good, sometimes non-existent – even when the map suggested there was a marked path. This was the case in many parts of the country, particularly when venturing outside of the main tourist areas or national parks. It often seemed to be the case that the hiker is left to pick the path they think is best. This can be fine, of course, but it can also lead to unnecessary erosion and increases the chance of getting lost. Additionally, marking sometimes stops unexpectedly, which affects confidence in the marking system as a whole. Therefore, being able to read a map and locate yourself is particularly important when hiking in Iceland, and pre-recorded GPS tracks are more useful than they might be in Norway – but make sure you can trust your source data. A popular hiking app in Iceland (recommended by the local tourist office) is Wapp, although some of its GPS tracks seemed to lead away from marked trails into unmarked territory. Without good maps, this could be extremely uncomfortable.

I did not do the longer Laugavegur and Fimmvörðuháls treks, but I believe they are very well marked, as are other trails in the surrounding areas. This seems to be the case for the Askja caldera trek as well. By contrast, the remote Hornstrandir trek in the Westfjords is said to be poorly signed.

summary:

Finding your way on the trail is easier in Norway, with far more consistent marking. Iceland trails appear to be more hit and miss, so there is greater need for good map-reading and orientation skills when hiking a trail of similar difficulty in Iceland. Trustworthy pre-recorded GPS tracks may come in useful in Iceland, though you should never rely on them as your only navigation aid.

This comprehensive guide and comparison review aims to provide the information to issues that matter most to hikers that want to choose between these two fantastic destinations. The landscape and countries are going to thrill anyone, there is no doubt. But there are also many other things to consider that are unique to each hiker, such as activity level and skill, endurance and the need to access services. I definitely hope that this guide helps hikers make their choice of destination. Part One covered the landscapes, climate, hiking season and hiking resources available in both countries.

See Part Two for information on Accommodation, Food on the trail, Getting Around, Dangers and Pests, Mobile Coverage and more.

Photo credits: all photos apart from the map of Norway (from Kantverket) are the author’s own.