Springtime arrives in Iceland. Special programme of highland tours of ur member, Reykjavik Excursions will be a success again this year

GPN pistill í apríl 2012

First a howling blizzard woke us,
Then the rain came down to soak us,
And now before the eye can focus –
Crocus.

All over town yellow and purple crocuses are struggling upwards to greet springtime in Iceland. The air temperature in Reykjavík when this is written is 2°C.

This is however not a letter of complaint – at Kynnisferdir – Reykjavik Excursions we are enjoying daylight again and soon all the snow in the surrounding mountains will melt and they will become blue once more. We are optimistic and hope that the summer will be a good one – bringing flocks of tourists to enjoy themselves here in the far north. We have lots of prebooked tours and we are also hopeful that our special programme of highland tours will be a success once again.

The first three months of the year have proved to be fruitful for us. In spite of snowfall, occasional blizzards and icing on streets – we have had no serious accidents or mishaps. Indeed we have had an unbelievable amount of tours, the highlight being evening tours to spot the mysterious and breathtaking Northern Lights. The Northern Lights have been visible almost all winter long, but the tours will stop in mid April due to the light nights we have the good fortune to enjoy all summer and early autumn.

To serve our passengers better Kynnisferdir – Reykjavik Excursions have bought six new VDL Futura 129-365 coaches that seat 53-57 passengers each. These types of coaches are perfect for their intended purpose – bringing travellers to and from Keflavík Airport and on all sorts of sightseeing tours in the capital and in Iceland´s South-West.

In the summertime our coaches can be seen all over Iceland with small and large groups. To serve smaller groups we have also bought three new Mercedes Benz Sprinters 519 Cdi, each seating 19 passengers. All nine vehicles are rated Euro 5 which is the best emission standard available for busses and coaches sold in EU member states. The emission standards are defined in a series of European Union directives staging the progressive introduction of increasingly stringent standards.

Recently a group of Kynnisferdir – Reykjavik Excursions´ drivers participated in a Mobile assisted English course, a novelty that we will certainly see more of in the future. This was a pilot project in Iceland, directed by the Austrian firm BEST, specializing in adult education and life-long learning. Both participants and teachers were equally enthusiastic and even though the course only took five weeks, the skills of the learners improved dramatically.

The ISO-14001 Environmental Management Standard has over the last 12 months been implemented into the daily tasks at Kynnisferdir – Reykjavik Excursions. The standard has been used to minimize how our operation negatively affects the environment, comply with the applicable laws and regulations and continually improve. Kynnisferdir – Reykjavik Excursions has already been through the first of two assessments which are required by the the standard. The second assessment will take place towards the end of April 2012.

We at Kynnisferdir – Reykjavik Excursions wish you all a happy and prosperous summer.