121
curated locations
Hand-selected for photographic merit, not crowdsourced
Open data
Iceland by the Numbers
A breakdown of every photography location in the Iceland Photo Map catalog — by region, category, access, season, and distance from Reykjavík. Built from the same data behind the public CSV dataset. Journalists, photographers, and trip-planners are welcome to cite any of these numbers — just link back.
259 km
median distance from Reykjavík
Half of all locations are within 259 km of the capital
618 km
90th-percentile drive
A tenth of the catalog sits beyond this distance
56
year-round accessible
Reachable in any month given a flexible itinerary
65
summer-only
Highland and F-road sites that close with the first snow
0
need a 4x4
F-roads + gravel approaches the rental insurance asks about
Where the catalog lives
Six regions, 6 of them. South Coast carries the largest share at 30%, while Reykjavik Area holds 5% — a useful reminder that an "Iceland trip" rarely means seeing all of Iceland.
What's in it
Five subject categories make up the catalog. Each ships as a standalone map; the All Maps bundle combines every category at a discount.
How you reach them
Most of the catalog is reachable in a 2WD rental — Iceland's Ring Road is paved and most photography stops sit a few hundred meters off it. The handful of F-road and hike-only sites cluster in the highlands and Westfjords.
When the catalog is shootable
Year-round locations dominate, but a deliberate subset opens only in summer — the highland approaches that close at the first snow. Winter-leaning sites favor ice and aurora foregrounds.
How far is "Iceland"?
Driving distances from Reykjavík across the catalog. Think of these as the spine of any itinerary — the median tells you the typical day, the 90th-percentile tells you what a long one looks like.
155 km
25th percentile
Closer-in spots, ½-day return drives
259 km
Median
A typical Ring Road stop
463 km
75th percentile
Most of a day's driving
618 km
90th percentile
Plan an overnight
704 km
Furthest stop
Westfjords / north-east outliers
Coverage by category and region
A quick read of where each category clusters. Use it to scope a subject-specific trip — Birds skew Westfjords, Churches and Lighthouses sit south, Waterfalls spread everywhere.
| South | Westfj. | North | East | Golden C. | Rvk. | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Landscape | 21 | 9 | 14 | 11 | 2 | 5 | 62 |
| Waterfall | 9 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 10 | · | 38 |
| Lighthouse | 4 | 2 | 1 | · | 4 | 1 | 12 |
| Church | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | · | 9 |
Most remote locations
Furthest from Reykjavík — plan an overnight.
Easiest paved-road access
Closest drive-up shots near Reykjavík.
Use these numbers
Every figure on this page comes from the open Iceland Photo Locations Dataset (CC-BY 4.0). Cite as:
Iceland Photo Locations Dataset, icelandphotomap.com (CC-BY 4.0)
The full coordinates and per-location curation prose live in the paid All Maps bundle.
FAQ
About these numbers
What's counted, how it's collected, and how often it's refreshed.
- Every figure is computed at build time from
src/data/locations.json— the same catalog behind the paid maps and the free public CSV dataset. No external sources, no inflated counts. - No — it's a curated catalog. Iceland has thousands of waterfalls and many more potential photo spots; we list locations chosen for photographic merit, accessibility, and seasonal viability. Volume isn't the goal.
- Every site build pulls the latest catalog from the production API, so this page always matches what's on the rest of the site. New locations get added on a rolling basis as they're vetted.
- Yes. The underlying CC-BY 4.0 dataset is the canonical source. Cite as: "Iceland Photo Locations Dataset, icelandphotomap.com (CC-BY 4.0)" and a link back is appreciated.
- A location is summer-only when its recommended season is "Summer" with no year-round caveat — typically highland and F-road sites that close with the first snow. Year-round, winter-leaning, and shoulder-season locations are tagged separately.
- It tells you where each subject clusters geographically — useful for itinerary planning. If you want puffins, you're going to spend time in the Westfjords. If you want turf churches, you're staying near the south coast. The matrix turns that intuition into a quick read.