We visited the very edge of Vatnajökull National Park in the summer of 2013 during our lap of the Iceland ring road.  We arrived at the Jökulsarlon Ice Lagoon early in the morning driving from Hofn, after accidentally flirting with danger on the infamous Road 939 in our rickety Toyota Yaris the evening before.

We had booked a 1 hour rib boat tour, but unfortunately when we arrived, a deep fog had descended. This meant we couldn’t see the glacial lake and that the tour couldn’t go up to the glacier edge, but it did add an ethereal mystical quality to floating among the multicoloured or even clear icebergs (our first such experience).

The boats went every 30-60 minutes, although I note the price has almost doubled in the near-decade since our trip. The experience may be more worthwhile for the glacier-novice than the glacier-enthusiast.

Afterwards, we drove past the Fjallsarlon Lagoon on our way to Vik, where we snapped a photo that, subsequently, we had blown up and now is pride of place in our living room. I’m not sure a glacier can be good-looking, but the beauty of the glacier overspilling here has an pleasingly almost-symmetrical quality to it that, in my view, tops the various other glaciers we have seen on our travels.

We visited but a fraction of the site, so it is debatable whether one could even comment on its universal value, but the whole park’s uniqueness seems unquestionable. On a non-WHS side note, we thoroughly enjoyed the visceral video representations of the interaction between fire and ice represented by this World Heritage Site at the Eyjafjallajokull Visitor Centre and also at the Volcano House in Reykjavik.