Five reasons
to stop the car.

In South Iceland, it's surprisingly easy to believe a landscape might be hiding something.

Waterfalls disappear into mist. Rivers cut through enormous stretches of dark earth. Mountains stand behind little farms, looking as though they've been there long enough to know things nobody else remembers.

And according to the old stories, some of them do.

There's a waterfall where a settler supposedly hid a chest of treasure. A river that became part of an argument between two men who preferred magic to swords.

And a hill where someone once heard a woman singing a lullaby, although nobody could quite explain where the voice came from.

Iceland has never been particularly strict about keeping its landscape and its stories separate.

A place name might come with a legend. A rock might have a history. A perfectly ordinary farmhouse might turn out to be associated with someone who is no longer among the living.

Some accounts were written down centuries after the events they describe.

Others belong to old local traditions, passed between generations until someone finally put them on paper.

But not every story here involves treasure, sorcery, or ghosts.

In Vík, a wooden boat survives because an elderly woman decided it belonged back home. Her story is much more recent, and every bit as remarkable in its own way.

That's the pleasure of exploring South Iceland.

The landscape is already extraordinary.

Then someone tells you what happened here, or what people once believed had happened, and a waterfall becomes more than a waterfall. A quiet road acquires a name worth remembering.

Five places offer a closer look at this part of Iceland.

Some stories are beautiful. Some are strange. At least one is rather unpleasant.

And after a while, you may find yourself looking at the hills a little differently.

Just in case one of them has something to say.

You don't need to know what happens before you go. You only need somewhere worth walking toward.

JUNO PORTALS is designed primarily for women traveling alone.

That doesn't mean every experience has to be solitary. It means the product starts from a simple reality: sometimes you're already here, the day is yours, and you'd like a reason to go somewhere you might otherwise have passed.

Read the access note for the portal you choose. Some places are further out than they look on the map, and some are private or working places you only see from outside.

All five portals here are at free, public places.

Curiosity gets you there. Your judgment always comes first.