About Jóna Tours

I have specially designed a tour for first time visitors to Iceland, covering the North, East and Southern areas of the country. There are several such tours all with the same itineraries, but different dates, all offering Farm House Hotels, all of them brimming over with exciting visits each day, I hope one of them interests you.

At various exhibitions, visitors always comment on my great enthusiasm and passion for Iceland, my mother’s homeland. I am very proud of the fact that I have been organising and conducting these special tours for over 27 years, with now over 57% of people I take, returning with me for another tour, seeing a different area of the country. In fact some members have returned 7 times with me. Advertising is not necessary, and I only attend one or two exhibitions a year and the people I meet there, plus recommendations and members returning, are enough to keep the small number of tours every year successfully full.

Many tour operators arrange holidays in large groups, some having between 54 to 72 members on one coach, my groups vary between 16 to 20, with a maximum of 20 members. Being a one-man band, I organise absolutely everything, down to designing my own postcards, which give full information on the holidays using my own photos. The company is small and easily managed by just one person, the emphasis for me is on the personal contact with my members, who often become good friends over the years. News updates are given each year, so you are kept informed of new holidays and new ideas, and how everything is progressing with the company and me. Once you have been on holiday with me, thereafter you receive a £50 reduction, for any other holiday you join. Personal organising is so important to me, down to special dietary needs, teaming up single ladies who wish to share, handing out daily notes of where we have been with spelling of place names, organising a present for a member who is celebrating a birthday during the holiday, arranging competitions for finding things on the beaches, reading snippets from the Saga’s and some famous Icelandic books, even singing to you! Each member after the holiday receives a selection of photo’s from me of the group. Care is taken in your accommodation and food. In fact I’m known to some as Mother Hen, but that is what’s foremost in my thoughts, that I am providing you with the best holiday to Iceland you will ever experience and it may also be your one and only visit, but hopefully you will want to return, the country has a very strong magnet to some people. You have absolutely nothing to think about everything is organised and arranged for you! Each member receives a hand made brooch pin, especially made by my sister who is a silversmith, and with special distinctive luggage labels, these both help you to recognise the other group members at the airport.

Besides all this, Iceland is a very interesting country both geographically and historically, a unique land of contrasts and with only a population of 300,000 mostly in towns, Reykjavik to the south and Akureyri on the north, the landscape is void of humans with some places we visit, hardly a tourist in sight. The mountains and numerous waterfalls and rivers that criss cross the countryside are breathtaking and everywhere we are reminded of the tremendous force of nature, with lava fields stretching to the horizon, sleeping volcanoes and massive glaciers towering above us. Iceland sits astride the continental rift and is being slowly pulled apart. Most of northern Europe’s birds fly to Iceland for the summer, and the varieties of lichens and flowers are always a surprise to the visitor. This summer I came to the conclusion that every place in Iceland is stunningly beautiful and so contrasting.

Like the rest of Scandinavia, it is a costly place to visit, so I therefore try and fill the itinerary with as many interesting visits as possible, there is so much to show you, and with each year I discover a new unusual facet of Iceland to add to the already brimming itinerary. Before each walk, I explain how long it will take and then you can decide whether or not to come along or just sit on the coach and relax and admire the view.

Well I hope this gives you some idea of how I organise these tours, and it may well help you to decide on a holiday with me, I do hope so, any queries please do not hesitate to contact me.

All best wishes Jona Sparey.