Diamond Beach

Blocks of glacier ice lie stranded on black sand at the edge of the surf. Some are clear as glass, some a deep blue, others worn by the waves into rounded, sculpted shapes. The blue belongs to ice that was compacted hard inside the glacier, with the air squeezed out of it. Every piece has floated out of Jökulsárlón, and the sea keeps shifting them, so the beach looks different each day and no visit repeats the last.

Look past the ice at the water too. Seals swim close in, and seabirds work the waves for fish.

• Nothing guarantees big ice: the sea sets down a different spread every day, from large blocks to scattered small pieces.
• Bring water with you. No drinking-water tap stands within 800 m of the beach.
• Free toilets are about 425 m from the beach.

Diamond Beach is a drive-up stop. The car parks sit just behind the shore, and from the nearer one you are on black sand almost as soon as you leave the car. Arriving by bus, you get off at the stop named after the lagoon, Jökulsárlón, and cover the last stretch to the sea on foot. Information boards stand where the beach begins. The river draining the lagoon cuts the shore in two, with ice stranded on either side of its mouth.

Best: around sunset, when low light catches the ice against the black sand.

Avoid: building a whole day around the ice alone.

The spread of ice changes daily, and one visitor on 20 June found only small fragments on a crowded shore, so the low evening sun is the one condition you can plan for.

Diamond Beach lies inside Vatnajökull National Park: in 2017 the park's borders were redrawn to take in Breiðamerkursandur, the plain the beach stands on, together with Jökulsárlón. The sandur is a breeding ground for birds, among them Arctic terns and great skuas, so keep well clear of nesting birds; both defend their nests by diving at people. As everywhere in Iceland, driving off roads and marked tracks is against the law.