Visiting another planet may or may not be possible within our lifetimes, so Iceland is the next best thing. The place feels like Earth before Earth finished rendering: glaciers, geysers, black beaches, lava fields and waterfalls dropped across a landscape with almost no visual clutter. Plenty of countries are beautiful. Iceland is different because the scenery keeps changing its mind. One hour you are staring at a waterfall, the next at a glacier, then a beach that looks like it belongs in a dystopian film. And if the aurora shows up at night, the whole trip becomes unfair to everywhere else.