Iceland
Hveravellir
A geothermal oasis between glaciers where outlaws once hid among bubbling sky-blue pools.
The hot pool sits in a circle of volcanic rock, steaming against a highland plateau that stretches flat in every direction to the edge of two glaciers. Hveravellir in Iceland's central highlands is an oasis in the truest sense — warmth and water in a desert where 18th-century outlaws hid for twenty years because no one would look for them here.
Hveravellir is a geothermal area on the Kjölur highland route, roughly midway between the Langjökull and Hofsjökull ice caps. The natural hot pools, ranging from 30°C to 40°C, are fed by the same geothermal system that produces the surrounding landscape of silica deposits, fumaroles, and blue-tinged springs. The most famous residents of Hveravellir were Fjalla-Eyvindur and his wife Halla, an 18th-century outlaw couple who survived here for roughly 20 years by stealing sheep from lowland farms and bathing in the hot springs. A staffed mountain hut provides year-round accommodation, though the highland road access is limited to summer months. The surrounding plateau is one of Iceland's most exposed landscapes — flat, windswept, and visually dominated by the two glaciers on either side.
Solo
Soaking in an outlaw's hot pool midway between two glaciers, with nothing but highland desert in every direction — Hveravellir is solitude distilled to its most elemental.
Friends
The highland road trip, the outlaw backstory, and the hot pool soaks after a day on the Kjölur route make Hveravellir a group adventure with built-in recovery.
- A geothermal oasis on the Kjölur highland route, midway between Langjökull and Hofsjökull glaciers.
- The famous outlaw couple Fjalla-Eyvindur and Halla hid here for 20 years in the 18th century.
- Natural hot pools range from 30-40°C, with views of the highland desert in every direction.
- A staffed mountain hut provides year-round accommodation in this otherwise uninhabited wilderness.
Traditional 'Outlaw Lamb Stew' slow-simmered at the remote highland lodge.
Bread rolls baked in the steaming vents of the lava field, served with mountain herbs.
Millennium Cave
Vanuatu
Scramble through jungle and wade chest-deep rivers to a cave you enter walking and exit floating.
Maryang-ri
South Korea
A five-hundred-year-old forest of camellia trees bleeding red flowers against the grey winter sea.
Phong Nha
Vietnam
Hidden jungle portals opening into subterranean river systems and limestone caverns.
Cuc Phuong National Park
Vietnam
Millennium-old trees rising above a jungle floor swarming with millions of white butterflies each spring.
Seyðisfjörður
Iceland
A rainbow-paved path leading to a pale blue church beneath snow-streaked fjord walls.
Húsavík
Iceland
Wooden sailing ships chasing the exhales of blue whales in a sapphire northern bay.
Stuðlagil Canyon
Iceland
A turquoise glacial river surging through geometric towers of perfectly hexagonal basalt.
Heimaey
Iceland
An island where houses remain half-buried in volcanic ash beside millions of nesting puffins.