Unconfirmed springs
Lists copy each other. Springs appear that nobody has been to in years — some are gone, drained, fenced, built over, or were never bathable in the first place.
Every hot spring in Iceland. Visited, photographed, verified.
Most hot-spring information about Iceland is second-hand: unconfirmed locations, borrowed photographs, springs that no longer exist. We are driving, trekking and camping our way across the country to document them in person — and publishing what we find as an archive, two books and a public website.
Join the waitlistFund the expedition
- Hot-spring records to verify
- 123
- Springs in the carry-on guide
- 99
- How we reach them
- 4×4 + trek
- Expedition funding target
- $115,960
The problem we are solving
There is no shortage of Icelandic hot-spring content. There is a shortage of content anyone can trust.
Wrong images
The same handful of stock photographs are reused across dozens of springs. Travellers arrive expecting one place and find another.
Wrong locations
Coordinates drift between sources. In the highlands, a pin that is off by a few kilometres is not an inconvenience — it is a safety problem.
So we go there. All of it, by 4×4 camper and on foot.
The expedition lives out of a 4×4 camper van and treks in to the springs a vehicle cannot reach. Every site gets the same treatment: photographed, filmed, described, dated, and its access and condition recorded as we found it. Where a spring sits on private land, we ask the landowner for permission before we go — and we record the answer either way.
Along the way we sit down with the people who live beside these places and record the stories and legends attached to them, before those go unrecorded too.
- 123
- Hot-spring records to verify
- ~14,000 km
- Driving across eight regions
- ~90
- Field days in season one
- 0
- Springs published unvisited
What the fieldwork produces
One body of documented evidence from the hot-spring survey, published three ways.
The complete field record
A 10x10 square hardcover covering the full documented set of Icelandic hot springs — the complete field record, with original photography.
Print run and fulfilment$18,200
The 99 carry-on guide
A softcover, carry-on-sized guide to a selected 99 springs: the ones worth planning a trip around, with honest access, condition and etiquette notes.
Imaging and data capture$28,380
The public archive
A full website carrying the photography, video, interviews and site records for every spring visited — the reference that currently does not exist.
Basecamps and lodging$13,500
Published every day from the field
This is not a project you hear about once it is finished. Every day of the expedition produces something public — photographs, a written dispatch, or video from that day's springs.
Pictures
Original stills from the springs visited that day, credited and dated.
Narratives
What the drive, the walk-in and the spring were actually like — including the ones that do not make the book.
Video
Footage from the ground and from the road, plus recorded conversations with locals.
What we are raising for
Every figure below is for the hot-spring expedition only. Funding covers the cost of reaching springs and documenting them properly: the vehicle and fuel, the field kit, the permits and permissions, the imaging, and the publishing at the end. It never buys editorial judgement, placement, or a safety finding.
Hot-spring expedition target
$115,960
Costed line by line across ten published needs. Sponsors can cover a whole line or a part of one; every allocation is shown on the funding page.
01 · N-001 · N-002 · N-010
Vehicle, fuel and remote access
$32,760Details →
02 · N-003 · N-004
Imaging and Data
$24,380Details →
03 · N-004
Clothing and Safety Kit
$9,400Details →
04 · N-005 · N-007 · N-008
Permits, guides and Icelandic research
$17,720Details →
05 · N-006
Lodging and regional basecamps
$13,500Details →
06 · N-009
Printing and fulfilment
$18,200Details →
Partners, permits and organisations
We work with government bodies and local authorities for the permits the route requires, with landowners for access, and with organisations who want their work visible alongside a documented national survey. Partners get real exposure: credited placement across the books, the site, the video and the daily field updates.
Future expeditions — after the hot springs
The figures above cover the hot springs only. These are separate, later expeditions with their own budgets and their own funding rounds; the record counts below are catalogue inventories waiting to be verified in the field, not work already done.
- 717
- Named waterfalls catalogued — future expedition
- 418
- Church and chapel records — future expedition
- 99
- Entries selected per future title
- Not yet funded
- Status of these expeditions
99 Crazy Things to Do in Iceland
Ninety-nine genuinely surprising things a traveller can do in Iceland, checked rather than repeated.
99 entries planned7 regions
Not yet public
99 Most Romantic Things You Can Do in Iceland
An atmospheric, couples-oriented companion to the same country, with its own standards of evidence.
99 entries planned8 regions
Not yet public
99 Churches in Iceland
Ninety-nine churches, chapels and church sites drawn from a documented national inventory, with architecture, access and setting recorded on the ground.
99 entries planned
Not yet public
99 Waterfalls in Iceland
Ninety-nine waterfalls selected from a named national catalog, with river, access, seasonality and coordinate status recorded rather than repeated.
99 entries planned
Not yet public
Other sites in this network
Each site covers a different strand of the same fieldwork, run to the same editorial standard.
uniquelyiceland.com
Uniquely Iceland
The publishing home for the field guides — editorial standards, titles in progress, and how the work is verified.
icelandicgin.com
Icelandic Gin
Iceland's distilling scene, documented the same way: producers visited, botanicals recorded, nothing taken from a press kit.
hotspringsiceland.com
Hot Springs Iceland
The public face of the geothermal field expedition — progress by region, never point-level locations.
icelandicyulelads.com
Icelandic Yule Lads
The thirteen Yule Lads and the folklore around them, sourced and dated like every other entry we publish.
Certified Inspired by Iceland Specialist
A professional tourism credential held by 123 Iceland. It does not indicate that Promote Iceland or Visit Iceland sponsors, funds, approves or endorses this project.
Get the field dispatch
Short updates from the road while the survey is running: springs measured, access won or lost, weather, corrections and what the next leg costs. No selling, and you can leave at any time.
This survey runs on funded mileage.
Sponsors cover getting to sites, permissions and verified documentation. Editorial judgement and safety findings are never for sale.