Our biggest news is that one of the founders of GO LOCAL ICELAND initiative is expecting a baby due in February and we´re all looking forward to this new chapter.

This also means that recruiting partners has been going slower than we had originally planned, neverthless we carry on in our pace and simply expect you to get in touch, if you like our philosophy and want to be involved.

Not such a long time ago, we´ve set up a connection as far as Westfjords with one unique place in Flateyri and were really glad to get a feedback on our policies.

Neil would like to see the focus mainly on waste, public transport, environmental understanding / conversation and general reduction in oil use. When it comes to tourists themselves, the message should be: respect nature, rent smaller and more economical cars and support local businesses as much as you can while in Iceland.

We´re glad for this feeback and carry on reflecting on our policies together with our current and future partners and we encourage YOU to join also.

Looking forward to hearing from you and setting up mutually beneficial cooperation.

In the meantime, we´re helping local hiking guides become more visible and are updating the 2012 offer. Should you know of professional local guides, do let us know.

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Yes, we´re proud to announce that we happen to meet and get connected to great people on our journey to support Local Travel Movement in Iceland and spread the idea og GOING LOCAL in Iceland.

Now it´s time to share the overview of those, we´ve got hooked up to and we encourage you to check them all out and let us hear how you like them:

• ADVENTURE TRAVEL
  offering the most comprehensive listing of Adventure Travel Companies (ATCs) in the world, regardless of their size or influence. As they say: it’s not about companies´ flashy websites; it’s about giving you the truth and plenty of choice.
• Great Icelandic MAGAZINE
  dedicated to exploring relationship between us humans and nature and our interaction with it (how we enjoy 'her', get connected to 'her', use 'her', you name it...). We worked on a map listing handpicked places to eat and sleep together and we really love the outcome and want to carry on our mutual cooperation. If you want to know more about the map, contact us directly: lenka.uhrova@gmail.com
• CUP OF LOCAL SUGAR
  Never let another curious Traveller experience a place without meeting and learning from a Local.

And this is just a beginning, as we have some more interesting projects ahead of us, while gathering our providers, and we´ll share the details in due time. Stay tuned.

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We´ve been partnering with like-minded organisations and are proud to say that

Green adventure holidays

is one of them. We´ll keep you posted about the others, we´ve been setting up our cooperation with.

I have a nice piece of news to share that I got to know yesterday:

Among the destinations which received the so-called EDEN Award this year was Stykkishólmur on Snaefellsnes peninsula in west Iceland. EDEN is the acronym for “European Destinations of Excellence”, a European Commission initiative promoting sustainable tourism development models across the 27 European Union member states and candidate countries.

I was lucky enough to be a part of a study visit as an interpreter on exchange of good practices in the environmental protection, where we also visited Stykkishólmur and can only confirm the choice :)

This is great news for Iceland and hopefully Iceland will be able to 'score' next year too, as there are truly many places here that could potentially be awarded.

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Believe it or not,

Icelandic governement officially launched a project called 'Iceland - all year round'.

The first part of the project is called “Íslendingar! Bjódum heim” (“Icelanders! Let’s Open our Doors”), which is based on the idea that locals around the country invite foreign tourists to their homes or invite them to participate in their daily routines.

We, at Go Local Iceland, are extremely glad about this initiative and are curious to see the results of this campaign especially during this winter.

If you feel like getting to know more about the governmental campaign, do click here.

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We´ve been busy over the summer, not only in tourism projects but also educational ones with lots of travels including experiential learning that we want our tourists to experience and enjoy more and more. Looking forward to sharing more about developements in that front soon, so stay tuned.

Now, that the summer is over and here in the North of Iceland  tops of the mountains already have snowcaps, it is obviously the right time for serious planning of the summer of 2012.

We have some great news to start with, for all those who have felt that reaching North Iceland as a tourist destination has been a challenge. There´s some big amount of work being put not only from the side of private companies but also official tourism bodies to make sure that North of Iceland (namely Akureyri) will become an easily reachable destination all year round. And from there, exploration of North Iceland will literally lie by your feet :)

One of the concrete steps is an offer that IcelandAir came up with at the end of August. Read more about it here and let us know whether you like it or not, or simply what you think.

When it comes to other developments, there was a big cluster formed with various stakeholders involved and they had their first working workshop Mastermind September 22nd. I´ll post the report and conclusions and plans as soon as I get to know them - especially the parts that directly influence GO LOCAL ICELAND.

Last but not least, we´ve been gradually enlarging the offer by getting more and more tourism providers on board with us and there are still quite some meetings ahead of us this autumn to enlarge the offer even more.

Should you have tips for more interesting tourism providers who fit our Go Local Iceland profile and apart from thinking about tourism business they also consider the sustainablity part, do let us know or let them have our contacts.

Looking forward to getting your tips and by the next time, I attach some interesting way of enjoying Iceland as a tourist if you´re ready to volunteer - check out more here.

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We´ve received comments from professionals involved in sustainable tourism development and updated our original guidelines that help local tourism providers run their tourism businesses as sustainably as possible.

The questions and the content is ever evolving, so we encourage all involved to share thoughts, ideas and suggestions so that we can all continuosly contribute to make it even better.

Questions and details  are to be found in the PDF document below

Enviro_guidelines_providers.pdf Download this file

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Yeah, and we checked it out the other day on the Peninsula of Trolls with a great local guide Trausti and we loved it.

It has it all: a great place to stay where you feel like at home, excellent food, professional guide and beautiful nature.

The hike lasted all in all 4 hours and the first bit was spiced up by a kayak surprise with a beautiful view all the way to the sea (check the picture that says it all).  After that, we were climbing up a peak around 700 metres high (don´t forget that we start at the sea level) full of adventure and even really steep and nicely challenging top. As soon as we came down, the food was waiting for us - professionally made by Sibba - and her warm smile and warm welcome.

I truly recommend the trips with Trausti full of sagas and adventure, be it family oriented or simply peaks oriented.

Sorry for having been silent for a while, as sickness and holidays and some interesting life surprises crossed our paths. We are here and we carry on with the support of all who enjoy Going LOCAL. Keep on following and let us hear about your adventures, thoughts and experience.

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Yes, we´re back from our travels in Finland and Denmark and are carrying on with connecting local tourism providers of Iceland with mindful tourists ready to explore them.

We´ll post more news later this week regarding the latest developments, and in the meantime we´re giving you update regarding the latest geo activity close to actove volcano KATLA.

Check out more here.

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While we´ve been working on enlarging our list of GO LOCAL ICELAND providers, another article Lenka wrote got published on the travel portal called Your Travel Choice (uniting conservation, communities and sustainable travel).

You can read it here and please do share your thoughts, comments, ideas at lenka.uhrova@gmail.com.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

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GO LOCAL ICELAND is about both, local tourism providers and travellers. We´ve already published 5 principles of local tourism to help travellers get oriented and decide.
Today, we´d like to share 5 questions, we have ready, for local tourism providers. When we select our local tourism providers, we put a lot of stress on handpicking the operations and interviewing the staff. WHY? Because we want to ensure that the chosen ones are committed to principles of sustainability and are ready to keep on working on constant improvement.

So, not only that they have already been working in that direction but have ideas and plans for the future. Naturally, during the interview, we ask them about what they are already doing, and what they are going to do next and how can we help them and support them.

By uniting them under one common brand, we help them generate more business at lower costs and save them time and money on marketing and they, in return, have more space and energy for further improvements in their sustainable operations.

The questions and the content is ever evolving, so we encourage all involved to share thoughts, ideas and suggestions so that we can all contribute to make it even better.

Questions and details  are to be found in the PDF document - do check it out.

Go_local_Iceland_enviro_guidelines_providers.pdf Download this file

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Welcome on board Birna and we´re looking forward to our mutual cooperation.

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Even-though eruptions and volcanoes in Iceland seem to be 'on hold' for now, we´re glad to share a video reminding us that NATURE is, indeed, stronger than us human beings.

The video has been put together recently and is made of material recorded during the recent eruption in Grimsvatn and depicts an ash cloud moving. Enjoy it here.

GO LOCAL ICELAND is proud to help with spreading the word about a unique art and culture event taking place in the North of Iceland. Our good friends, having been involved in eco-kindergartens and outdoor playgrounds projects are running workshops and art exhibitions on beautiful peninsula LANGANES hidden in far north east of Iceland this week.

They´ve been of immense help when it comes to tips on local tourism providers fitting well into GO LOCAL ICELAND project and we´re looking forward to getting many of those who were recommended by them 'on board'.

If you happen to be in Iceland this week and feel like taking part in this ARTSPHERE WEEK, click here for more info.

Last but not least, great news is that we´re meeting a few new providers this week interested in GO LOCAL ICELAND and I´ll let you know about them and their operations next week, stay tuned.

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Not such a long time ago, we were invited to co-operate on a unique project organized by a renowned Icelandic magazine dedicated to nature and thoughts on connection between us humans and nature.

The project aims to map unique places to stay, all over Iceland, that have special atmosphere, exceptionally hospitable hosts and/or run their operations in a sustainable manner.

It´s been real pleasure to be a part of this together with a very inspiring editor of the magazine Guðbjörg Gissuradóttir and we at GO LOCAL ICELAND are truly glad getting to know very inspiring places to stay 'off the beaten track'.

This means, for our future tourists, that in the summer of 2011 they will be able to find a map in info centers and other tourist exposed areas for free and use it to find their unique places to stay and explore and enjoy and share their findings with us.

This also means that many of those providers might end up joining our GO LOCAL ICELAND platform - we´ve already have some on board - and thus enlarge the offer that we want to bring to you out there.

We will keep you updated and posted, so stay tuned.

PS: For those, being in Prague these days - Icelandic day is taking place June 4th - check the details out here

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We´ve been busy meeting people involved in tourism the past few days and even had a visit from a German Travel Agency focusing on Iceland that we will soon cooperate with.

Amongst other things, we´ve been told that many returning clients who decide to go to Iceland again, usually decide to focus their exploration on a certain region.

This was great to hear and tells us that visiting Iceland is one of those great examples of understanding the difference between fast travel around the island in the contrast to taking your time when exploring a smaller region.

Well, quite some articles written by us have already been published since we started working on the initiative and I want to share the links here for those who felt like taking their time and reading more on the topic.

ENJOY and let us know about your travels and also what you think about mindful travel in general.

Stay tuned and click for more reading on the following portals:

YOUR TRAVEL CHOICE - article on Hiking on Troll Peninsula

 LOCAL TRAVEL MOVEMENT  - article on GO LOCAL Iceland initiative

LOCAL TRAVEL MOVEMENT - article on a new tunnel opened in Iceland

soon, there will be anotehr article published on YOUR TRAVEL CHOICE and we´ll keep you posted, so keep on checking us here.

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Apart from being involved in tourism and putting a lot into GO LOCAL ICELAND project, I´ve also been working as a freelance trainer in a non-formal education setting. This means that we work a lot with supporting people on their way to becoming a so called Self-directed learner.

This is a lot about the learner deciding himself/herself about what is it that I want to learn and how do I want to learn it.

Last week, I was responsible for a training where European volunteers from various hosting organisations in Iceland tested and tried self-directed learning in practice. Apart from other things, they could also learn and discover things related to travelling in Iceland, as many of them are going to spend up to one year volunteering here. An example of volunteering in Iceland is to be found here, but bear in mind that are many other options that you can check here.

I was the one who held a workhop on travelling in Iceland and felt really priviliged to share my experience related to travelling around Iceland in a few days in contrast to using the same amount of time in order to explore smaller region closely.

This is quite a challenge in Iceland as many tourists feel the urge to follow overpromoted highlights trying to 'catch them' in a few-day trip driving around ring road number 1. It might be satisfying for many, but I encourage all those who are ready for a different experience to focus on 'What is that I love doing while on holidays? What is important for me, especially when I cannot follow my beautifully planned itinerary due to everchanging weather conditions?

Most of the volunteers who attended my workshop are going to spend their summer in Iceland travelling around teh country and leading 2-week workcamps, helping local community. This is an excellent way how to get to know local culture and local nature.

I honestly can´t wait to meet those travelling volunteers after the summer and hear about their way of experiencing Iceland and their tourism discoveries.

All of you who feel like sharing your thoughts and commenting, please do.

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On Tuesday, we attended the last meeting for those involved in tourism in the North Iceland before the season kicks off.

There are a few interesting projects going on here that are worth sharing:

1, There is an initiative mapping possibilities for tourists with disabilities in Iceland. It is not only about mapping but also about advise to tourism providers so that they can reach out to new target groups.

Basic info in English is to be found here: http://godadgang.dk/gb/main.asp

and much more comprehensive and detailed information is in Icelandic here: http://www.gottadgengi.is/

2, We´ve heard some interesting conclusions about visitors to North Iceland based on to statistics from 2009 and 2010.

Apparently, there are more Icelanders than foreigners staying in the North of Iceland. The top 4 nationalities that visited Iceland in 2009 and 2010 were: Brits, Germans, Americans and French. However, very few Brits make it all the way to the North and that´s definitely something for providers to work with in the future.

3, Great things are going on locally in the northmost village of Siglufjordur, which is preparing for the summer and aims to be one of those unique and calm fishing villages with strong harbour culture. If you ever make it to Iceland and are interested in slow tourism and exploring things locally, Siglufjordur is definitely one of the places to visit.

4, Last but not least, there is this great NORDIC COAST CULTURAL FESTIVAL coming up and will take place in July between 16th -23rd  in Iceland. Check out: www.sailhusavik.is for more details

We were glad to hear about these important ongoing initiatives and projects and were grateful that we could also inform those concerned about our initiative GO LOCAL ICELAND: www.golocaliceland.com

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We believe in ethical standards of tourism that contribute to nature protection and encourage a tourist to travel in a way that helps sustain natural habitats, heritage sites and local culture. As the result of this, we´ve joined a Local Travel Movement that connects other like-minded people and organisations that want to make a difference in tourism.

It is about both, local tourism provider on one side and a tourist on the other side, who have to play their part.
So, how can a tourist make a difference?
There are five principles we encourage you to follow when you travel:

•    Connect with local people, ideally before and during your trip.
•    Travel in a manner that is sensitive to the environment and helps protect it.
•    Respect local heritage and culture.
•    Spend your money locally.
•    Be open to learn from your travelling experience.

And here are a few questions that might help you in discovering your unique ‚Go local‘ way:

1, What are the best ways to discover how locals really think?
2, What are the actions you can take to preserve environment for the future?
3, How can you learn about and enjoy activities that locals like doing and thus share experiences together?
4, What can help you in ensuring that the money you spend locally benefits the right people?

There are more questions and definitely more principles that we can keep on finding together. This is an organic initiative that will grow and change as we´ll exchange our toughts and experiences and reflect on how things develop. By working together, we can give locals a real voice, engage travellers more and contribute to  an dialogue within the travel industry.

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