I visited 12 out of the 14 locations which make up this fun tWHS in 2022. This tWHS turned out to be a very fun quest/treasure hunt to explore and visit some of the few Icelandic cultural sites on the island. For starters, this quest requires a rental car and a good GPS or Google Maps with Wi-Fi connection (4WD not necessary but make sure you have full insurance cover including windscreen damage which will prove useful throughout your vacation due to the infamous gravel roads).

If you're covering the whole ring road, only 4 of the 14 locations are really close to the actual ring road with little or no gravel roads involved to be able to visit. These are: 1) Árbær - a mere component within another open-air museum close to Reykjavik; I managed to enter for free by entering from a side entrance just next to the small cafeteria, probably I was just lucky that the staff were having their lunch break. As an addition to the other locations, I still enjoyed my visit, especially since the entrance ticket would have cost me an arm and a leg and it was fun to have a better overview of the different architectural styles in Iceland all in one place, but simply as another turf house, it has no value added and actually it would benefit the tWHS if it were left out. 2) Núpsstaður - this is private property and a gate prevents access by car, so I parked my car just a few metres away and walked some 300 metres on an overgrown path which led me to the turf houses and small turf chapel. Although they seem quite authentic, this location needs more restoration and preservation to be considered as one of the best examples of turf structures in Iceland. 3) Hofskirkja - this turf church was just opposite the bed and breakfast I used as my base when visiting the Vatnajokull NP WHS so I saw it on multiple occasions during my trip. When I met up with Philipp I was also lucky enough to be able to have a quick peak at its interior as a couple of locals had choir practice inside. The experience and atmosphere was pleasant but the church interior is quite simple and isn't one of the best. The contemporary cemetery with its multiple grassy mounds make this location stand out and quite photogenic overall. 4) Víðimýrarkirkja - this museum church is the certainly the best turf church and is really top notch inside and outside. I really like its interior carved wood decorations painted in red and green as well as its little altar with a lovely last supper painting above it. If you intend to visit the great Glaumbær location (a must especially for its interior and the great eatery inside), make sure to ask for a reduced combined ticket. These 4 locations together with Glaumbær are on well paved roads just on the ring road but in my opinion offer more of a museum-educational visit than the other far more challenging locations which truly blend with their natural environs.

5) Glaumbær - entrance is quite expensive (as are most Icelandic sites with entrances) but the combined ticket is worthwhile. The exterior is pleasant even though it seems to have no authentic link with its current location. Simply by walking behind the main row of turf houses you can appreciate their unique structure better. The rooms and interior muddy maze beneath the turf are furnished with original objects and pieces of furniture and give you a very good idea of the past living conditions. They are also probably the largest ensemble and the best preserved. The eatery is worth the visit alone, not only for its quaint setting and interior but above all because it serves excellent home-made savoury snacks and sweets.

For the remaining locations, your best bet is to plan ahead through a mix of luck, Google Maps and the helpful Blue Boards along the gravel roads with all the tiny places before and after such locations. The latter are very helpful to make sure you don't skip your intended location or get lost! 6) Austur-Meðalholt - this location will soon no longer require driving on gravel as the nearby roads were being paved during my visit. The caretaker of this location seems to be the owner of the nearby art/agriculture museum dubbed "where nature is part of the house". Nobody was there when I visited, even though I had checked the opening hours. I was quite worried because of the constantly barking dogs guarding the modern house, but I decided to venture on as I noticed that the "turf houses" were left open. It looks like a lot of restoration/renovation efforts were underway as the interior was in quite a good shape, but their exterior was still being rebuilt and temporarily (I hope) lacked their turf roofs.

7) Keldur - I will probably always remember this location, not only because it is the easiest to pronounce correctly but also because it was the very first experience of driving on gravel roads a few hours after arrival. Well, I'm very glad I had paid extra for the windscreen cover as just after a few metres, I met another car and ding, got my first small crack on the rental car windscreen. It is really quite a long way in off the ring road, but nonetheless the most worthwhile detour closest to Reykjavik. The church is still in use and was open when I visited. The turf houses were open too but there was pretty much nothing to see inside them. This location has a great setting close to a small stream.

8) Grænavatn - this location can be easily combined with Myvatn tWHS. Following Nan and his brother, it was fun to literally drive through the narrow passage in a small hill to reach this location. No wonder the bigger petrol stations offer free cleaning services for cars, as driving a low white car meant it changed colour to brown or grey ever time I drove on the muddy and/or volcanic rock gravel roads. The previous or current owners of this location seem to have been or still are fishermen as the turf house had all sorts of fishing gear outside. The main turf house is also perhaps the tallest of the 14 locations.

9) Þverá - another very difficult location to reach and here Google Maps won't help. To reach this location deep in the Laxárdalur valley in North Iceland, on Google Maps it is better to enter Laxárdalur Cabin and follow the entrance to the long gravel road from road 87. They location is a recently restored museum but it is nothing close to the experience in Glaumbaer so you don't gain much by going inside. That said, this is the only location where I was completely overwhelmed by countless flies and insects so my visit outside was quite quick as it was really hard to explore and take decent photos in such conditions.

10) Grenjaðarstaður and 11) Bustarfell are very similar and both are really special museum locations in a breathtaking setting. However, if you only had to choose one entrance, definitely stick to the combined ticket of 4) and 5).

12) Tyrfingsstaðir - with waterfalls and reddish rocks in the distance and a much more rural setting as the turf houses are connected to a farm. This location is also quite hard to get to. To visit Tyrfingsstaðir you need to park your car a few metres away and literally climb over the fence like in Southern Oland, Sweden with special ladders/steps built specifically for this purpose.

I also visited other turf houses which are not mentioned on this tWHS list of components, some of which were in better condition and I struggled quite a bit sometimes to understand or at least appreciate why some of this components deserve to be on the list or whether they provide any added value. I'm positive this will become a WHS some day soon, but I think that a more streamlined list with perhaps around half of the 14 locations would provide a more robust and coherent WHS overall in the future.