Iceland Wilderness Center is where the past comes to life

I recently visited the Iceland Wilderness Center in the East of Iceland, founded in 2016. It is close to the iconic Stuðlagil Canyon, the Hengifoss waterfall, and the cozy Vök Baths. The Wilderness Center features a beautiful exhibition on how life was in the region in the past. It is also nestled on the edge of the stunningly beautiful northeastern highlands. The exhibition is partly based on the life and times of the family that originally lived on the farm. It also gives you insights into the life and times of legendary mountaineers and outlaws with connections to the region. The Iceland Wilderness Center is at the edge of Northern Europe’s largest wilderness. It offers an authentic retreat with cozy accommodations, delectable traditional cuisine, and many activities.

How to get to the Iceland Wilderness Center

Getting to the Iceland Wilderness Center is part of the adventure. You can choose to include it in your road trip to Iceland. Alternatively, you can take a one-hour domestic flight from Reykjavik to Egilsstaðir. You then have a scenic hour-long drive to this remote oasis.

The Wilderness Center transports you back in time while providing modern comforts. Sleep in 19th-century-styled rooms with 21st-century amenities, savor locally sourced traditional dishes like freshly-baked rye bread and lamb soup and engage in activities ranging from horseback riding, soaking in a hot tub, going to the sauna, to mountain biking. Each experience is designed to offer a glimpse into Iceland’s rich cultural heritage. My favorite part was getting freshly baked Icelandic Kleina made precisely as my dear grandmother made them. I also tasted rhubarb soda made by a local entrepreneur we met by chance. To my surprise and delight, I found the soda delicious.

Open all year around

The Iceland Wilderness Center welcomes guests year-round. Summer visitors can enjoy pleasant weather and various outdoor activities, while winter guests may witness the enchanting Northern Lights and multi-day skiing trips, among other winter tours. The on-site exhibition, open from May 15th to September 15th, adds an educational dimension to your stay and showcases Iceland’s storied past. If you visit the Iceland Wilderness Center during this time, attend the exhibition. It illustrates the realities of life in this area of Iceland in the past.

The Iceland Wilderness Center’s managing director is Finnish-born Ella Saurén, whom I briefly met during my visit. Ella and her team do a fantastic job of immersing their visitors in the history and culture of Iceland’s rugged and remote area.

Hello Ella. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Please give my readers a little background on you. For example, what brought you to Iceland and the Iceland Wilderness Center?

As you saw on your visit, there is no place quite like it. I love outdoor activities and have a great passion for the hospitality industry. I came here through a Finnish friend who was taking care of the founder’s horses at the time, and when she told me about the Wilderness Center, I could not help but take an interest and contact the owner. I was hired for work, and when I came here and experienced the place, I realized I didn’t want to leave. I was highly impressed by the stories of the area and the surrounding wilderness. The founder’s passion and vision for the company were highly contagious, and I felt good about joining the journey to develop it in the right direction.

What guides you and your team in operating the Iceland Wilderness Center?

We are a mixture of people from different backgrounds. Some come from Iceland, and some from Europe, who have found a communal passion for the location and its history. We are proud to share the experience. There is an extended work community of local people who drop by for different kinds of work when needed. It’s an ambitious project, and the team that stays here demonstrates excellent alignment. Since we offer various services and welcome multiple customers, the job usually doesn’t get boring. Still, we can keep facing a healthy amount of challenges.

Can you share a memorable story or experience from your time managing the Wilderness Center?

One of the best experiences was the correspondence we received for our storytelling event ‘’Snorravaka’’ that we hosted last year. Uppbyggingarsjoður Austurlands funded the event. We hosted around 60 people for the evening at our museum, where we had a selection of people contributing material to a part of our exhibition. Seeing the local interest amount and how many people would contribute to the project. I was impressed to see how many Icelanders tend to know their area’s history so well and how valuable stories and knowledge are passed down through generations. We were happy to document the old and new information for our museum, and I was very proud of our team at the center, which made the event happen.

How do you ensure the Iceland Wilderness Center maintains its authenticity while offering modern comfort?

The place was founded by a film director and historian, who built visually authentic facilities together while implementing historical accuracy and knick-knacks. Most modern objects are well hidden or welded onto the picture. In the Baðstofa, for example, the electric sockets next to the wooden beds are hidden under little wooden covers, and some of the electric lights are installed in old empty oil lamps. We want to provide as much comfort as possible with amenities like electricity outlets, water kettles, and modern water systems. Still, every room has many authentic details to compensate for it. I doubt we will ever have TVs in the rooms!

Bringing stories to life with exciting visuals

Our stories are brought to life with exciting visuals in our exhibition space, so it’s a very impactful way of storytelling. We keep the history of the place alive and try to cherish the stories the best we can. With the help of locals, we are building a more substantial base for documenting information for our museum. Local people work with us over the seasons. We brief our employees well so that we will always have the resources to provide a memorable chat with the guests about past occurrences. We use some of the old family recipes in our restaurant.

No overcrowding

Furthermore, we carefully manage the flow of people so as not to crowd the old house. Luckily, the guests love sharing the big dinner tables. It’s great to notice connections between guests from all over the world during dinner. We don’t want to grow the facilities too much out of scale when they start feeling less homey and authentic.

So, the key is to keep the old farmhouse style alive on the outside, introduce the guests to the stories, and not grow the place out of its propositions while subtly implementing some modern necessities into the space for comfort and safety.

What role does sustainability play in the operations of the Iceland Wilderness Center?

We aim to balance environmental, social, and economic sustainability. When it comes to environmental sustainability, we have two main approaches. The first one is maintaining standard procedures that every hospitality company should follow. These are sustainable supply sourcing, monitoring energy sufficiency in hotel operations, food waste in restaurants, and recycling well. Recycling can sometimes be difficult due to our isolated location. Still, the municipality has made significant efforts lately to better the recycling system in the local area. That makes us very happy. The second approach is more educational, using the historical family occupying this farm as an excellent example of recreational and creative sustainable behavior. They were known to be extremely clever and came to stay as self-sufficient as possible. The stories of the family live on in our exhibition and spark inspiration for this topic to all of the people visiting the museum.

Social sustainability at the Iceland Wilderness Center

We implement a ‘’room for all’’ culture and create positive environments and connections for the people working in the company and locals. I am happy to notice that most of the employees want to come back summer after summer to bring effort and value to the company, grow our company culture, and, at the same time, create lasting connections and friendships. We try to keep interacting with locals, creating jobs in the area, supporting local businesses, and creating impactful events. We do our best to participate in community matters and are grateful for all our connections.

People keep coming back.

To my delight, the locals welcomed everyone hired at the Wilderness Center into the community with open arms. That’s a great way to understand the culture and their belonging here. This motivates them to cherish the area and its projects. Conversely, we bring value to the community by importing people with different skill sets and connections.

Our economic sustainability standard is relatively straightforward. Without growth in profitability, we cannot fund a protocol that does not negatively impact the previously mentioned points. We need some help with the location and logistics while maintaining a competitive price set and market share in the developing area. Still, we believe in the center’s progress and that we can keep growing as a company while maintaining a peaceful and exclusionary environment and atmosphere.

How do you incorporate local community and culture into the activities and experiences offered at the Iceland Wilderness Center?

Incorporating the community into our services is a two-way street. We allow the locals to connect with us in collaborations and free-time events. On the other hand, we get to include the possibilities and resources provided by the community in our tours and catering. We will always encourage travelers visiting East Iceland to spend quality time with us and get to know the area as more than a one-day stop. There is more to see here than what meets the eye at first glance, and our effort to showcase the local culture and possibilities will remain.

How does the Iceland Wilderness Center adapt its offerings for different seasons?

The seasons do have a significant impact on our operations.  The summer traffic is lively, but the winter season gets significantly slower. In the summer, we are up to a team of 20 people and mainly focus on accommodation, museum groups, catering, horse riding tours, and hikes. From June to September, we also run operations in the highlands at Laugarfell Hut. So far, we have been determined to stay open in the winter with a minor team and make an effort to lighten up the winter activities in the area. We are running highland ski tours from February until May and are trying to start our new winter yoga tours. We get group bookings from companies to organize Christmas parties, buffets, and other events.

Nevertheless, business is tricky here in wintertime. Many individual travelers don’t want to take the risk of their trip getting interrupted due to road closures and bad weather. Still, often, the conditions might be painted worse than they are. The roads here are open and in excellent condition most of the winter. Admittedly, the highland roads leading in from the South and North are causing some trouble now and then. It’s sad to see how affected we are by the roads and their bad reputation. However, we try to reach our target audience and be flexible about our winter activities.

Can you describe the collaboration process with local entrepreneurs?

We support local businesses by selecting supplies for our restaurant. We employ local professional guides and purchase supplies for our tours locally. The bond between all companies in the area is strong, and they have mutual support. Austurbrú is doing a great job bringing companies together in the whole East of Iceland, and the cluster here in Upphérað takes it to a more local level. We cherish the connections between the local entrepreneurs by staying consistent in using and promoting each other’s services and maintaining personal connections with the people running the companies. There are always new ideas brewing between the companies for bettering services in the constantly improving area.

What are your favorite places and activities in Iceland?

Great question! I am very fond of the East of Iceland.  It offers many hidden gems you can enjoy without a massive crowd of people around (for now, at least). I especially appreciate the highlands. The mountains and canyons around Mt. Snaefell are beautiful for hiking in the summertime and skiing in the winter. I like visiting the hot waterfall in Laugavallalaug and enjoy staying in the well-maintained huts around the highlands for a bit of primitive emotion. I am also fond of Siglufjörður in the north; it’s nice to go Kayaking there. In general, I enjoy slow travel and unique experiences.

What are your recommendations for those visiting Iceland for the first time?

I hear the same from many first-time travelers. They regret not booking enough time for their stops, skipping activities, and working through a rushed travel itinerary. I would book multiple nights at your stops to enjoy your activities without rushing. Leave space for activities you will inevitably discover. Many of the travelers I meet daily have been to Iceland before. Some once, some twice, some six times. They all confirm the same thing.  Every time they come to Iceland with a travel itinerary, they leave with a new one already waiting.

So choose your must-see activities for your schedule, but leave room for extra!