Iceland is an amazing place and the tour around the south west of the island takes in many spectacular sights - from geysers to glaciers. For anyone with even a passing interest in geography, this tour is a dream come true. The activites were geat fun and the various stops were fascinating.

However, the time allowed to move from one site to the next is often inadequate. In particular, the day spent moving from the first "hotel" to the second involves a very long journey, which doesn't leave much time at the stops en-route (a great pity as they include the geysers and some awsome waterfalls).

On the tour we took, the company used a campsite, with accommodation in chalets and a central shower block and "restaurant"; an aparthotel, with adjoining restaurant; and a business hotel, under process of renovation and 45 minutes outside Reyjavik, as their "hotels". None of these had anything wrong with them in themselves - food at the campsite was basic but plentiful, the restaurant at the aparthotel was very good and the hotel in Haftnarfjordir was very well appointed indeed. However, they were not what we'd expected from the brochure or the intinerary descriptions. Icelandic prices are extremely high and I can well believe that the company have to take cheaper places wherever they can find them or the tour price would be so high it wouldn't sell. However, customers should be aware that the designations of "hotel", "guesthouse" etc are grossly misleading.

I must stress that the company did use local amenities well and that the excursions they arranged were with extremely competent local providers. Since they cannot sell their agricultural produce on the world market (prices too high), Iceland will depend more and more on tourism (especially as fishing becomes more regulated). This company use smaller outlets for accomodation which I probably wouldn't have found for myself.

I would advise people travelling to Iceland to be ready for higher than the highest London prices and that most places take credit cards (something else the company didn't make clear - there's really no need to take travellers cheques as they suggest).

All in all, a very enjoyable holiday - lots of stories to tell and, yes, we'd recommend it to others.

Read the operator's response here:

We note Ms Tate's comments regarding the hotels on her trip. Given the variety of accommodation we use at many of our nightstops, our classification must be a rudimentary one and is not intended to give a specific indication of the facilities that will be available at each hotel. In this respect, H suggests that the hotel will usually have twin bedded rooms, although some three or four bedded rooms may be used, and will normally have shared facilities. The hotel will have a local grading of 1, 2, or 3 star.

In our brochure, we state that our aim is to stay at small, locally owned establishments, not only to allow greater contact and insight into the areas being visited, but also to try and be of greater assistance to the local economy, which will often see little financial reward from tourists who stay in the larger, internationally owned hotels.

For the majority of customers, this has proved to be a highlight of the tour. We do try and prepare our customers for the basic conditions by highlighting this fact in our trip dossier ("We stay in generally simple twin rooms with shared facilities...occassionally...dorm style rooms will be used") and would again hope that this would be something that customers would bear in mind when deciding on their preferred choice of trip.