Iceland for couples and honeymoons: the romantic version that still works

Each month gives a different honeymoon; three stand out.

• September: northern lights are back, the highlands and the Ring Road are still open, the autumn colours in the south and at Mývatn, lower prices and empty car parks. The best all-round month for couples.
• Late February to March: lights, ice caves, snow on everything, ten to twelve hours of light, a quiet South Coast and the lowest prices; a winter honeymoon for people who like weather.
• June: the midnight sun, puffins, the best chance of warm days, the lupins, and every road open; the busiest and dearest of the three, so book early and sleep out of the car-park towns.
• Christmas and New Year in Reykjavík for the fireworks and the lights, with a South Coast day or two, if the dates are fixed.

Iceland’s hotels are mostly plain; a few are the trip. Spend on two of them and stay in good guesthouses for the rest.

• South-east: the glacier-view hotels between Skaftafell and Höfn (Fosshótel Glacier Lagoon, Hótel Skaftafell, the farm hotels at Hali and Hof) put the ice cap outside the window and the lagoon ten minutes away.
• South Coast: Hótel Rangá near Hella (northern-lights wake-up calls, an observatory), Umi Hótel at Hvolsvöllur, the Black Beach Suites at Reynisfjara, Hótel Vík í Mýrdal.
• West: Hótel Búðir on Snæfellsnes, the black church and the beach, and Hótel Húsafell for Langjökull and the Krauma baths.
• North: the Deplar Farm and Torfhús for the splurge-of-the-trip budget; Hótel Laxá or the Fosshótel at Mývatn for a sensible one.
• Reykjavík: the Reykjavík Edition and Hótel Borg for the splurge; Ion City or a Canopy for the rest. Two nights at the start, one at the end.
• Alternatives: the Ion Adventure Hotel above Þingvellir, the Panorama Glass Lodge cabins, and the Buubble transparent domes near Hella, for a night under the lights.

The lagoons are the known quantity; the quieter ones are the romantic ones.

• The Retreat at the Blue Lagoon: a private lagoon and a spa; the honeymoon splurge, on the airport side of the trip.
• The Sky Lagoon ritual at sunset on a Reykjavík evening.
• Hvammsvík on Hvalfjörður: eight pools at the sea’s edge, quiet, an hour from the city.
• The Secret Lagoon at Flúðir after 18:00, the Mývatn Nature Baths at midnight in June, the Forest Lagoon at Akureyri in the trees, the Vök floating pools on Urriðavatn.
• A hotel hot tub under the northern lights, which half the South Coast hotels have; ask for a room near one.

Three or four paid experiences make the trip; the rest is landscape and is free.

• A private Superjeep day to Þórsmörk or Landmannalaugar in summer, or an ice cave in winter.
• A glacier walk from Skaftafell, which is the most Icelandic thing you can do with your own feet.
• A helicopter over the volcanoes or onto a glacier, from Reykjavík, when the weather gives a clear day.
• A boat on the Glacier Lagoon, or a kayak among the icebergs at Fjallsárlón.
• Dinner at Dill, Óx or Moss in Reykjavík, or at the Rangá’s restaurant under the lights, once.

The honeymoon mistake is the Ring Road in a week. Two-night bases, no day over three hours of driving, mornings for the sights and afternoons for the pool, and one day with nothing in it. A seven-day route: two nights in Reykjavík, two near Hella or Vík for the Golden Circle and the South Coast, two near the Glacier Lagoon, and the last night near the airport with the Blue Lagoon on the way. With ten days, add Snæfellsnes and a night at Búðir; with fourteen, the north and Mývatn.

What makes the difference on the day.

• Sunrise at Reynisfjara or Jökulsárlón with nobody else is the best free thing in the country; sleep nearby and set an alarm.
• The northern-lights wake-up call: ask at the hotel; most South Coast hotels do it, and the Rangá has an observatory.
• Book the restaurants in Reykjavík two weeks ahead; outside the city, the hotel restaurant is usually the only one and needs a table.
• A photographer for a session on a black beach or at a waterfall costs about $400 to $600 and books out in summer.
• The weather will cancel something; the spare day and the pool absorb it. A honeymoon with one storm day in a glacier-view hotel is still a honeymoon.