Best Places You've Never Heard Of: Heimaey, Iceland

Best Places You've Never Heard Of: Heimaey, Iceland
The Traveler: Andrew Zimmern, host of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern, a Travel Channel series devoted to exploring local cuisines that keeps Zimmern globe trotting for about 30 weeks each year.

The Place: When your specialty is bizarre food, your travels take you well beyond the world's slick capitals and posh restaurants. It's the off-the-beaten- path spots that hold the most promise for Zimmern. One of his recent favorites is the Westman Islands, off the south coast of Iceland. "Most people who go to Iceland stay in Reykjavík, and if they leave, it's to do a one-day excursion somewhere north of the city," he says. So naturally, when he set out to shoot a recent TV episode, Zimmern took his crew south. "I wanted to connect with the real Iceland," he says. When he landed on Heimaey, the only inhabited island in the wild volcanic archipelago, the first thing Zimmern noticed was the locals. "They look like they just stepped off a Norse boat!" he says. In fact, the 15 islands are named not for the Norse settlers but for the Irish they enslaved; the Norse referred to the Irish as Vestmenn, or Westmen. Heimaey's roughly 5,000 inhabitants are still mostly a mix of Norse and Celtic descendants.