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Our Story

Why do we do what we do? We enjoy it.

We get to meet fantastic people from a variety of backgrounds and we take them on a journey through our beautiful country. Our guides don’t try to impress you with their superhuman qualities (not even our superhuman guides).

Instead, they want to show you the real Iceland – the serene, the thunderous, the quaint, and the surreal.

We don’t take shortcuts.

Instead, we follow the winding road to the places others don’t go. Sure, sometimes we hang out at a popular spot but when we do, we make an effort to be there during ‘quiet’ times.

We also feel there is no better way to explore than under your own steam, which is why we choose to hike, kayak, and hop around. That’s what makes our trips different – we are a small group of like-minded individuals exploring the vast wilderness that makes Iceland unique.

Everyone is involved in the trip.

Mutual work, mutual respect, mutual help; it’s just the icy way of doing things.

It’s important to enjoy your job because it shapes who you are. We count ourselves among the lucky ones. We deal with people from all around the world and a day at work, whether guiding, talking on the phone, helping out with problems, or painting a trailer orange, makes us happy.

And it shows.

 Greater good, we are constantly involved in local nature preservation and in 2010 we arranged the Art Exhibition “Whaling is lack of imagination” in Reykjavik.

We are a small company and we like it that way.

Our story Jonas Freydal started ITS Copenhagen in the mid-1990s after 23 years of traveling Freydal returned to Iceland in 2005 and starting Goecco or Go Green, Goecco. Arriving on the high of Icelandic economical bubble, he came to the conclusion that a large marketing research was needed in Iceland and started the Free Tour of Reykjavik with the goal to meet as many travelers as possible and get a clear idea of where Icelandic tourism is going. Following the Free Tour he started The Haunted Walk of Reykjavik, from the start Freydal walked with over 60.000 guests before getting the overall image of the local market.

Since those early days in Iceland, he has hiked, climbed, and cycled throughout Iceland and in many exotic locations worldwide.

Based on down to earth slow travel safaris, the trips were designed to take small groups into the remote backcountry of Iceland.

These safaris have been modified over time and new trips added as the Hiking Viking has evolved. Nowadays, we still have a small office and try to most things from home, together we run a dedicated customer support team, very simple guide schedules, and trips all over Iceland. We still have the same set of simple values as we did back in 1994. It’s the icy way of doing things.

Lastly a huge thank you
To the team who have done this major facelift on the website (completed October 2010). Siggi Sigga Láka for his massive work hours on both the original site and this one, Jonas for the tricky CSS stuff, Helga for the php submission pages (and face-saving observant comments way beyond her brief), Ali for most of the content and tireless management, Tara for the main edit and tongue-biting at the low standard of English in things I wrote, Robert for his fab design as always, Bertelsen who kindly let us use for free a few of her photos, Frikki for rescuing us when no one else could on those astounding ie7 bugs (talk about a timely new friend!), and finally to Egill who was the source of many of those fantastic quotes (I still haven't collected some for you mate - sorry).

You guys are all stars, thanks for helping us way beyond what you thought you were in for

Jonas Freydal