We two just got back from 5 days in Iceland, hoping for a great view of the northern lights. After a couple of days in Reykjavik doing the terrific Blue Lagoon and touring the city, we flew to Akureyri, a north-coast town at 66 deg. N. A tour guide met us at the airport and took us out across the frozen tundra to view two famous waterfalls, Dettifoss and Sellfoss. The 20-minute hike from the car was an adventure in itself, in a moon-scape of snow covered lava cones and ancient craters. Bare earth revealed the places where geothermal heat was close enough to the surface to melt the snow and ice. Returning to the car, we then went to a remote natural spa, and got into an outdoor hot pool in -4C (26 F) weather. Our tour guide Gisli was humorously entertaining, telling us about his careers as a race car driver, opera singer and local farmer descended from 4 or 5 generations (sheep and Iceland horses), as well as busy tour guide.
The winter sun only rose a few degrees above the horizon the whole time we were there, but the long twilights extended the length of actual daylight. A midnight bus to a mostly-dark location outside Akureyri was probably the least exciting thing we did. The week we were there was fairly overcast, so we only saw a dim glow in the sky that in someone’s camera (on tripod) WAS green and clearly an aurora, though it was too dim for human eyes to see the color. Unfortunately for us, the morning before we left a huge storm blew through and cleared the skies for the evening just AFTER we had to leave. However, it was lovely just to be that far north, to get a taste of far-north life, talk to wonderful people (everyone speaks English as well as a European language or two, since no one outside Iceland learns Icelandic). Our only caveat is bring money. Everything is expensive, even for the locals. We felt that we got a way better deal by booking our IcelandicAir flights along with hotel and tours. The Iceland Air website gives more info about that.