One guidebook said it was an exercise in self-torture, but my friends and I were not dissuaded. We had eight days to circumnavigate a country, and we were going to take advantage of long hours of daylight to suck the marrow out of every minute. Starting in Reykjavik, we were going to circle the country of Iceland, from west to south to east to north, along the fabled Ring Road, and during a tumultuous time in the country’s history.

Once among the richest countries in the world, Iceland’s economy has completely collapsed in recent years. While it has wreaked havoc on the populace, for us it meant a favorable exchange rate and a chance to see a country that was formerly cost prohibitive.

Please join us in welcoming renowned travel author David Yeadon to The Window Seat. He is the author of several travel books, including his latest At the Edge of Ireland. His guest blog reveals his top travel tips for Ireland's Beara Peninsula.

If you’ve ever been charmed by twinkle-eyed Irish raconteurs, dreamed of hikes across wild mountains and moors, or imagined yourself at a Guinness-primed ceili in an authentic Irish village pub, then you would love the Beara Peninsula, a remote mountainous finger of land in the southwest corner of Ireland that juts out thirty miles into the Atlantic.

When I was in my mid-20s, my then-boyfriend and I decided to pack up our few belongings and hit the road: California or bust. I grew up in Maryland, and California always held a mystique to me. It represented this far-away fantasyland where surfers rode endlessly into blazing sunsets, artichokes and olives grew plump and rampant, and giant trees with rich, red wood scraped the lower corners of the sky. We were going to drive there, and we gave ourselves two timeless weeks for the journey.

Deep in bluegrass country where horse-studded pastures alternate with woodsy hillsides and the only rest stop for miles around is at Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home, there lies a string of historic bourbon distilleries open for tours. Last weekend, when I was in the region, I stopped in at two of them: Maker’s Mark and Woodford Reserve.

Despite the alcohol in the name, you don’t go to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail to get tipsy. First, there is a lot of driving involved on winding country lanes so a big bourbon buzz is a big no-no. Second, I know it’s a shocker (at least it was to me), but not all the distilleries give tastings. Third, a clear head is needed to navigate the rustic (and largely unmarked) backroads. But that’s part of the fun. Just when my friends and I thought we’d reached the middle of a beautiful nowhere, a sign popped up to show the way to the spirits.

Photo courtesy of IgoUgo member MilwVon.

From Angelina’s tattoos and necklaces to Britney’s possible conversion, the flutter of the heart has caused many a romantic to fall out of the coo-coo’s nest. With Valentine’s Day just over a week away, this makes for some interesting tourism possibilities. Most famous of these is, of course, the Taj Mahal. I’ve never been, but imagine it blows the neon-pink petals off the papier-mâché flower given to me by a well-intended but not particularly artistic ex-boyfriend. In this vein of the love-struck homage is the Coral Castle, which bakes like a beautiful but overheated valentine in the Florida sun just outside Miami.