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Comment by alistairSH | Hacker News Reader

He argues that the major problem is that the parks are too easy to visit.

This is absolutely true. And not uniquely American. Iceland has the same problem - many of the major sites are right off one of the various major roads (Golden Circle and Route 1/Ring Road). I visited in January and naively thought it would be quiet. Ha! I was so wrong. Reykjavik, Golden Circle, and the southern Ring Road area (out to Vik) were teeming with busloads of tourists. Trash, trampled muddy paths, and idiot tourists ignoring safety signs. We found it best to leave the house well before sunrise to beat the busses to wherever we were going that day.

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That's interesting. I visited Iceland in early September and the Golden Circle tour bus was only about half full. I certainly didn't have the place to myself, but it was quiet enough. At that time of year it was definitely chilly but not awful.

This was 2013. I wonder if a few years made a difference.

Definitely. Since 2013, Iceland has been advertised more as a tourist destination leading to more tourists.

Interesting. I had wanted to go for years, because Icelandair had been promoting "Fly to Europe, lay over in Iceland for a few days" rather than Iceland as a destination unto itself. Sounds like I nabbed it just in time.

I only had time for the touristy stuff in the immediate vicinity of Reykjavik. I would like to go back and see it more intimately.

Some reason HN didn't notify me you replied.

Weird.

Anyways, I hypothesize that some TV shows from taking place in Iceland brought a lot of attention to the landscape which was capitalized on by the Tourism departement.

I'd guess so. We went 4? years ago, in late January.

Every site off the southern side of the ring road had 4-5 tour buses full of tourists, plus assorted individual cars. It wasn't crowded to the point of annoyance, but it was close. What was annoying was poor behavior by many tourists - stepping inside the chains and touching water at Geysir, going into the "caldera" of Kerid Crater, and going near the water at Reynisfjara Beach. All despite many signs in many languages. And poor tour guides chasing the idiots back to safety.

I'd guess if we went north, it would have been relatively quiet, but we only had 4 days, so based out of a flat in Reykjavik.

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