Puffins, Black Sand Beaches, and a Windy Bluff in Iceland

Our new Iceland guidebook (http://www.ricksteves.com/iceland-book) lists the four best day trips from Reykjavík: the Golden Circle, the Blue Lagoon, the Westman Islands…and the road trip that I’m on right now, a long day of sightseeing on the South Coast.

My friend and local guide, Stefan Valsson of Reykjavík Bike Tours, brought me here today. I just love the luxury of traveling with a local guide. With a local guide, you’ll know where the most dramatic bluffs are and what you’re seeing from them — and you’ll have all your puffin questions answered. In this clip from the top of the windy Dyrhólaey promontory, Stefan gives a good defense of why it’s OK to eat the cute local puffins.

Of course, it’s expensive to hire your own private guide. My work: to take these tours privately, learn what I can, and then distill all the insights and tips I’ve gathered into a guidebook so my readers can enjoy — secondhand but much, much more affordably — the brilliance of a guide like Stefan.

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