Faroe Islands

Why go

Eighteen islands sit halfway between Norway and Iceland, and they are the strangest green you will ever see. Grass grows over the roofs of houses. Waterfalls fall off cliffs into open ocean because there is no beach for them to land on. Drive an hour and the weather changes three times. Walk out to Gasadalur where a single waterfall drops straight into the Atlantic, take the boat under the bird cliffs at Vestmanna, then sit in Torshavn, the smallest capital in Europe, where the parliament buildings are turf-roofed and painted red. This is somewhere you go to feel far away. Almost nobody you know has been.

Good to know

• Fly into Vagar (FAE), usually via Copenhagen
• Five nights, and hire a car, the tunnels between islands make it easy
• Torshavn as a base, or a village if you want the quiet
• Pack for rain and wind in any month, it changes hourly

Best May to September.