Snæfellsnes

The 463-metre cone above Grundarfjörður, photographed more than any other mountain in Iceland, with the small waterfall in front of it that makes the picture work. The car park charges. The summit is a scramble with fatal exposure and has killed people — do not go up without a guide.

A cove of black pebbles below the lava field, with the rusted ribs of an English trawler wrecked in 1948 left where they lie, and four lifting stones the local crews used to grade themselves. Sneaker waves run right to the top of this beach; stay off the wet sand.

About two and a half kilometres of coastal path between two tiny harbours, over a basalt arch, past blowholes and a stone-carved troll, with fulmars going by at eye level. The best short walk on the peninsula and it is flat.

An eight-thousand-year-old lava tube inside Snæfellsjökull National Park, entered down a spiral steel staircase on a guided tour only: 45 minutes, 5,900 ISK for adults, minimum age five, helmets and torches handed out at the top. Departures through the day.

A beach on the south side with a resident harbour seal colony hauled out on the rocks, best around low tide in summer. Free, and one of the few places in Iceland where the wildlife is more or less guaranteed.

The tunnel under Hvalfjörður puts Borgarnes at about 75 minutes and the peninsula at roughly two. The road around it is paved the whole way and any hire car will manage it.

The full circuit out from Reykjavik and back is around 350 kilometres. It goes in a long day, but a night in Grundarfjörður, Stykkishólmur or Hellnar turns a checklist into a place.

The Baldur car ferry crosses Breiðafjörður from Stykkishólmur to Brjánslækur via Flatey, which makes the peninsula a shortcut into the southern Westfjords rather than a dead end. Two sailings a day from mid-June to late August, fewer in winter, and book ahead if you are taking a car.

May to September for open roads, seals at Ytri Tunga and enough light to do the whole loop in a day.

September and early May: better light, no coaches, and rooms in Grundarfjörður at half the July rate.

July and August, plus any clear winter weekend when half the photographers in Reykjavik drive out for Kirkjufell under the aurora.

Up through Borgarnes and along the south shore. Ytri Tunga for the seals, then Búðakirkja, a black timber church standing alone in a lava field.

The Arnarstapi to Hellnar cliff path, out and back, with the arch and the blowholes on the way.

Hellnar or Arnarstapi. Each has one café and both close early out of season, so do not gamble on a third option.

Round the tip of the peninsula: Vatnshellir underground, Djúpalónssandur, and the steps up Saxhóll crater for the whole thing at once.

Kirkjufell in low light from the waterfall car park, then dinner in Grundarfjörður or on into Stykkishólmur.

A harbour town of painted timber houses on the north coast, with island cruises out into Breiðafjörður, Roni Horn's Library of Water in the old library, and the Baldur ferry to the Westfjords.

On the way home: Hraunfossar, where a river runs out of the edge of a lava field along a kilometre of its face, Barnafoss beside it, and Deildartunguhver, the highest-flowing hot spring in Europe.