Advice on where to visit after Iceland

My "easy" suggestions are Scotland or Ireland. There are direct flights on Icelandair to Glasgow and Dublin. I've flown both routes.

Hi Frank... Is your suggestion to visit Scotland/Ireland based on more photographic opportunities in Scotland/Ireland, or weather can be bad during my time in Norway, than in other options?

From Iceland, there are convenient flights to Oslo, Bergen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dublin, Heathrow and almost very close price, so that is not considerable factor.

It's so easy to travel to London that it wouldn't be my top priority here.

I am not a meteorologist, but I've done some research on weather before each of my recent trips to Europe in an effort to pick the right destinations for the time of year I'm dealing with. In general, the western edge of Europe (Bergen in Norway, western Scotland, etc.) is wetter than places farther east. So Oslo is likely to have less rain than Bergen, and Edinburgh less rain than Glasgow. Unfortunately, some of the most dramatic scenery in Norway and Scotland is in the west. Few people would read a guide to Scotland and choose to see only Edinburgh, or a guide to Norway and choose to see only Oslo. It's clear from your post that you'll want to spend a great deal of time outdoors.

The Wikipedia articles for most cities include a climate-summary chart. You may have to click on "Show" in the "Climate" section to see it. That chart usually includes some useful statistics related to precipitation. I like to compare that data for cities I'm considering to each other and also to the same information for my hometown. Perhaps that will help you make a decision.

For example, Bergen gets an average of over 10 inches of rain per month in September and October, with rain falling on an average of 17 days in September and 19 days in October.

There's a lot less total rain in Glasgow (3.9 inches and 5.2 inches), but there are still an average of 13.9 rainy days in September and 16.2 in October.

That far north, days will be getting noticeably shorter by the time you leave Iceland, no matter how the weather turns out.

There's a real possibility of weather chilly enough that it wouldn't be fun to get soaked to the skin. You'll see that the average low temperatures for September and October are down in the 40s(F). My trips to Norway and Scotland were in June and July. I dealt with my hatred of chilly, wet weather by packing merino wool long johns and nylon slacks that shed water fairly well--in addition to a waterproof jacket. The trips were long and not expected to be wet throughout, so I didn't want to go so far as to take rain pants. That's something I would do if traveling only to Iceland+Scotland or Iceland+Norway in the early fall. But I am a weather wimp.

I have done no research on Ireland but suspect the same caveats apply there as to Scotland.

I assume you have already considered this, but if your goal is scenery, I would just stay in Iceland for 2 weeks. All of the other places you mentioned are beautiful, but after experiencing the extreme landscape of Iceland, they might be a letdown. I spen 15 days in Iceland and didn't get bored.

Our first trip to Iceland was as a 3 night stopover enroute to Copenhagen. That was mid October. After a week there we went to Norway for a few days. We had great weather during the entire trip.

Our most recent trip to Iceland (our 4th) was this past October/November and again we lucked out I regards to weather. We had a half day of rain up in Vik, but clear weather the rest of the time.

I hope this helps ease your mind in regards to weather. I am not saying you will have the same, but just sharing that good weather that time of year does happen

Thanks for very helpful reviews.

@acraven : With your details, it looks like I should not pay much attention to weather. If it comes, then comes :-)

@vandrabrud : You are correct, my goal is scenery. I still have not booked the flight tickets and considing, how should I plan. So, I am not ruling out option to spend all time in Iceland as well. I am traveling with family and my wife's opinion is, Iceland can't be beaten from scenic prospective, will Scotland/Norway give similar feeling? Still thinking and gathering opinions from different blogs/posts :-)

@mikliz97 : You visited Iceland as well as Norway, in almost-winter season, so I guess you an give me a good comparison between them. If I keep weather factor aside and assume that we also will see good weather, how is comparison of both countries, i.e. Iceland and Norway? As vandrabrud suggested that, once I see Iceland other places will give me impression of a bit let down, in case of Norway or Scotland. That was one reason, I was keeping London/UK and Turkey too in options. Still in confusion state.

I have been to Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Turkiye.

Norway is a beautiful country and I would keep it on your list of places to visit. Personally, I wouldn't do it back to back with Iceland. Mikliz97 has spent a lot of time in Iceland and enjoyed their back to back trip, so different experiences.

I loved Turkiye, but I wouldn't travel that far for a one week visit. The flight back to the states is loooong. But I think it would pair nicely with a trip to Iceland. On one hand you have the wild beauty of nature and on the other hand the beauty of old civilization.

I haven't been to London, but I think that a city trip would be nice paired with a wilderness trip.

The good news is, you can't really go wrong whatever you choose.

I note that Aigas Nature Center in Scotland runs their photography workshop as late as mid-October, so they must not view the weather at that time as posing a problem. Unfortunately their September photography workshop dates do not line up with yours.

https://www.aigas.co.uk/programmes/programmes-by-date/

And I see that HF Holidays, our go-to provider for nature spots outdoor adventure in the UK, does not hold back from offering their guided and unguided walking programs in the Scottish Highlands in late September and through October. Here is an example of the 4-night program offered beginning 26 September:

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/4-night-scottish-highlands-guided-walking-holiday?format=pdf&vid=3475

They offer the same time period unguided if you prefer to explore on your own. They also offer similar programs at their country house locations in the Lake District, Northumberland, Peak District, and North York Moors in the north, as well as Cornwall and Exmoor in the south, all in the last week of September. The latter two can be easily reached from London.

They also offer a week of island-hopping on and around Orkney, beginning 24 September:

https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/orkney-guided-island-hopping-holiday?format=pdf&vid=2999

As for Norway, I have been there in May four times, and love that month there—- the long daylight hours, the cool but sunny weather, and the 17 May national holiday celebrations, especially in Bergen. My one August visit was filled with rain and even snow at one point. And November was cold, dark, and grey.

I have no experience with Norway in late September. But based on my own time there, Insuggest you save Norway for a time when you can visit in mid-May.
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Every place has scenery....

Of the places you mention I say Norway (fjords) or Scotland (highlands).

Forget the weather. No one can predict the weather. Not even the professionals.

Thanks all for your suggestion. Let me figure more with help of your suggestions and I will come back with more questions.

What if, instead of trying to predict the weather, you just assume there are going to be a certain number of cloudy/rainy/ foggy days and imagine how you will feel about that. My own feeling would be, Norway with the peaks and glaciers obscured by clouds and fog would be bleak, especially on the fjords. But the fall colors of the Scottish Highlands under a cloudy sky or shrouded in fog will still look beautiful, even mystical (especially near streams or waterfalls—- I have seen photos of this).

My opinion is somewhat influenced by the fact that I used to live in Fairbanks, Alaska, at a latitude close to northern Scotland and Bergman, Norway, but higher than both. The terrain would be more similar to Scotland than Norway. Late September was my favorite time of year for scenery, even on a cloudy or foggy day. The saturated reds and golds of the tundra and dwarf birches were even more beautiful than on a sunny day.

But the one time in September that we were on the coast at Seward, with terrain like that around Bergen, I hated it. Something to do with that huge expanse of steel- grey water—- it looked so cold, forbidding, and dangerous.

I have some wonderful photographs of wildlife and scenery in and around Denali NP from our autumn visits, most from cloudy or even snowy days. But I have no photos from the days we spent on the coast—- I was not inspired to take any.

Thanks Lola, for your opinion and started to getting agree on it.

Wizz flies out of Iceland, so if you want to take a longer detour it doesnt have to cost much. Non-stop to Budapest for instance, starts at about $100 (but its 4.5 hours). Go to googleflights put in Reykjavík to Europe / non-stop / one way and see what pops up.

It is not on your list, but I will just say for future trips, that the most scenic and beautiful place I know, with good weather in late September, is the Dolomites. My husband was arranging books today and pulled out the photo book he made for me from our trip there last September. He turned page after page and said “It is impossible to take a bad picture there”.

Have you considered the Faroe Islands? You can easily fly there from Reykjavik. The scenery is amazing, although you should account for the fact that some days are so fogged in you can't see it. Iceland and the Faroe Islands are similar enough (although definitely not the same) in terms of landscape and culture that some people wouldn't want to combine them in one trip while others would find putting them together fascinating.

@Lola : We visited Dolomites in past, along with Switzerland, some part of Italy, Austria, Prague. Amazing places. Sorry, should have mentioned in initial post :-)
For now Scotland is looking a very nice option. If I add some more days in present 7 days, it can give us some good loops in/around Scotland.

@HK : Faroe Islands looks stunning, but probably will similar kind of scenery as Iceland.

I will just add that the Scots are the friendliest and most welcoming people we have met in all our travels. Seldom, outside of Scotland , have we had the people at the next table in a dinner restaurant start a conversation when they heard our American accents. But in Scotland that happened several times within a week. On one occasion we ended up pulling tables together to keep it going, and exchanging contact information (they were from Glasgow). And when we parted there were hugs, and I was “kissed by a Glaswegian”. All perhaps facilitated by a bit of whisky, but it was lots of fun.

Norwegians, on the other hand, are much more reserved.

We have also visited Iceland in the dead of winter, the first week of February. That is drastically different than September, or even our October trips there.

I liked Norway, and the fjords were beautiful, but being from OR/WA we all commented that we felt like we were on a boat in the Columbia River Gorge, or going up to Stehekin. So ithat area was not all that different from here.

I personally am not enamored with London. We have been a handful of times and it just doesn't draw me in like other places.

We loved Scotland. We were there in late February and were up in the highlands and yes, had a blizzard. It was full on winter, but we loved it! People looked at us like we were nuts as we were the only outsiders there at the time.

How many days do you have in Iceland? I ask because you could easily do an entire trip there and trust me, you will have more photo opportunities there than you can even imagine. Plus a good time for the northern lights. Just a thought. We head back for another 17 days this summer and know this will not be our last trip.

@mikliz97 : We are also in WA. We will have 8 days in Iceland, excluding travel dates. I thought of adding one more place with Iceland, to honor family wish too that they would just not see all nature only, but will see city too, apart from my photographic passion.
We will fly between 20-25 September. In total we will have 15 days.