Edmonds-based travel guide Rick Steves has launched his new Iceland TV special, his first destination-focused program since 2020. It marks the start of the highly anticipated 13th season of Steves’ long-running public television travel series. Rick Steves’ EuropeThe full season, scheduled to be released in fall 2025, will feature destinations from France to Poland and Turkey.
In this new hour-long TV special, Steves and co-host Cameron Hewitt explore Iceland’s majestic landscapes and robust culture. They begin in the capital city of Reykjavík, where Steves samples fermented shark, gains insight into Icelandic culture from a local guide and takes a dip in a thermal pool.
A day trip to the classic Golden Circle offers tectonic gorges, bubbling geysers, roaring waterfalls and surreal landscapes. Icelandic horses, descendants of an ancient Viking breed, roam through bright green pastures. Next, visit the black sand beaches of the south coast, glacial rivers in the lonely valley of Thórsmörk and puffins on the volcanic Westman Islands.
The crew then travels along the Ring Road, which runs 800 miles around Iceland on Highway 1. The journey takes them through a world of glaciers and fjords to the geothermal hotspot of Lake Mývatn and finally to the picturesque Snæfellsnes peninsula. Along the way they pass museums offering insights into Icelandic life, settlements with grass roofs, whale watching and steaming volcanoes.
The one-hour television program shows the best of 16 days of filming in Iceland, a destination that now attracts two million visitors annually. Steves presented the show on August 15 at the National Nordic Museum in Seattle. He donated 100 copies of his signed Rick Steves Island Travel guide and 150 copies of his Scandinavia travel guide for the museum to sell in its gift shop and profit from the proceeds.
To see Rick Steves Island, Check with your local public television station for broadcast dates and times or watch the show as a stream on PBS Passport.
— By Julie Gangler
