Originally published on July 19, 2016. I’m re-publishing posts I’d had on this blog that, due to some glitch of the internet, got scrubbed. No editing has been done.

Dramatic, sweeping vistas of volcanic rock fill your vision as you hike through the Icelandic hills. You turn a corner to discover the wild luxury of a geothermal spring. People back home are paying thousands for spa weekends, but this pool is natural, free, hot, and all yours. You breathe deep as tension slides away into the depths of the warm water. Tension you didn’t know you had.

After your soak, you can revel at the nearby geysers and waterfalls, you can ride an Icelandic pony, and end your day eating authentic Iceland foods like fermented shark.

Sound like the perfect, idyllic Icelandic experience? That’s the point.

It’s also not how our 3 days in Iceland went down. We experienced Iceland, but what we found was a city – and a country – navigating its surging popularity as a destination.

Every city and country creates a version of itself for others to consume. For many destinations, these versions are already in place after decades (or centuries).

Paris doesn’t have to try to be the “city of love” for the thousands of visitors who crowd the riverwalks or climb the Eiffel Tower. That version is already in place, and the city doesn’t have to do much.

Iceland, on the other hand, is a fairly new country, let alone a new tourist destination. The country only declared full independence in 1944 after years of rule from Norway and Denmark. And over the last decade, this fledgling country* has seen tourism explode into their largest industry, surpassing fishing for the first time ever.

Mike and I weren’t eating shark, reveling at geysers, or riding Icelandic ponies. Our budget and time constraints meant we cooked our own food, walked everywhere, and stole a lot of WIFI from cafes. We were pretty lousy tourists.

Luckily for us, the city didn’t notice: it didn’t have the attention span to notice us at all. Reykjavik was bursting at the seams with a glut of travelers like us.

If we weren’t walking next to our fellow Americans, then we brushed shoulders with the British, the Australian, the Dutch, the Chinese, and the Japanese. Even store employees were foreigners working for their keep.

Some people were on short stopovers en route to Europe, while others had planned weeks-long expeditions into the Icelandic wild. There were families, couples, tour groups, and backpackers everywhere.

The lack of Icelanders was striking, but it wasn’t surprising: there are only 330,000 Icelanders in the entire country, and there will be about 1.6 million tourists visiting this year. 

According to reports from Iceland Bank, Iceland has one of the highest tourist to inhabitant ratios in the world. Every day, each Icelandic person is outnumbered by tourists 4 to 1.

That’s insane.

This boom didn’t happen because millions of travelers suddenly thought, Hey, you know which country sounds cool? Iceland. Tourists are flocking to this isolated Nordic country because of a long-term strategic campaign from both private and public organizations in the country.**

One of the most significant drivers of tourism has been Icelandair. After the volcanic eruption in 2010, the airline partnered with the government to encourage visitors to travel to Iceland again – don’t worry, it’s safe! Totally no other volcanoes here.

For example, the airline recently launched its #MyStopover campaign. Icelandair routes all its transatlantic flights through the Keflavik Airport, and since the 1960s it has offered passengers the chance to stay in Iceland for up to 7 days between flights, for free. But since they launched the campaign, short-term stays in Iceland have increased dramatically.

Cheap flights, an exciting unknown country, and for just a few days before your real trip? It’s an offer millions of people can’t refuse.

The streets of Reykjavik’s city centre are lined with tourist shops. On one city block, you can book an ancient Viking tour, a whale watching expedition, a puffin watching trip, a guided tour around the “Golden Circle” (a circuit of nearby Icelandic landmarks), and a spa weekend at the Blue Lagoon. You can buy Icelandic wool sweaters, quaint landscape paintings, puffin and whale toys, and lots of winter gear.

Every city has its share of souvenir shops and tourist traps, but they’re just an option among many for how you can experience the city. Tourists go to Navy Pier in Chicago or the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and they know they’re doing the touristy thing. In turn, locals avoid these areas and tell their visiting friends to find the “real” city.

We weren’t missing the real or authentic Iceland (I’m an anthropologist and could write for days about how problematic and politicized terms like “real” and “authentic” are).

What makes the city fascinating is that those downtown streets bedecked in “Disneyfied” Icelandic souvenirs and tours are truly Iceland. The country is inundated with tourists, and their economic makeup is shifting drastically. Every hotel is full, and they can’t build more hotels fast enough. Restaurants are in bidding wars for experienced employees because there are so few locals. The capital is flooded with foreigners because transit around the country is limited, and the city is grappling to keep up.

Every brochure about Iceland will send you into the countryside to travel through stunning vistas, to witness geysers and waterfalls, and to marvel at the untouched beauty. But if you asked me, I’d recommend a stopover in Reykjavik. Walk down the city centre streets, grab a hot dog, look at the souvenir shops, and listen to the rumble of American, French, Australian, British, and Chinese voices. This is the “real” Iceland. At least for right now.

* Again, relatively

** Can you tell I’m geeking out?