Our Values
Midgard was founded in 2010. At first it was a one-man-show with Siggi driving guests around in a rental jeep, showing them the amazing countryside where he grew up. Since then Midgard has evolved into Midgard Adventure, Midgard Base Camp and Midgard Restaurant. The growth happened slowly step-by-step and somewhat organically. We are a proud family owned and operated business with a team of between 30-40 family/staff members.
From the start our values have been our guiding light. Every decision, both big and small, is taken after considering our values. So here you go, our way of doing things, our priorities: our values.
Fun
You are visiting us during your favorite time of the year – the vacation! You have been saving up, planning ahead, packing way too much and getting excited for weeks, maybe months or even years. You are in for a treat, for sure, having fun visiting one of the most beautiful places in the world, “our” Iceland.
And this is such a privilege for us working here. We basically surround ourselves with visitors and guests that are already happy, having fun and are just in a good place. You arrive at Midgard after a fun filled day and that makes our job easy, listening to your adventure stories of the day and sharing your excitement.
Midgard Base Camp is designed with that fun in mind – colorful, playful, unique and giving lots of space to relax, cozy up, play, share stories and have fun. On our tours, our guests are experiencing a true adventure, sometimes out of their comfort zone, always in spectacular locations, with local guides full of stories – in short, having fun.
While we not only make sure that our guests are having fun, it’s also important to take care of ourselves. We ask ourselves regularly what we can do to improve and make our job more fun. We encourage all staff members to join any tour or activity during their days off and we meet up for yoga or cross fit classes during work or we go out for an adventure together hiking up one of the nearby mountains, hills, canyons, or whatever we feel like discovering. When hiring new staff members we are looking for people that want to join us for the right reasons: for the adventure, the experience, the fun.
Sustainability
Midgard would not work without the environment or the community we live in. Nature is the base for all our tours and we have to operate our activities in cooperation with nature and do our very best to protect it. We are all nature lovers and we see it ourselves as role models that need to inform on our tours how to behave in nature, such as through the principle of leaving no trace. When traveling in nature, we always make sure that we leave a place cleaner than we found it – if some trash is flying off with the wind, we make some effort to collect it.
For us sustainability has also to do with respect. Respect for ourselves, the people that surround us, the guests that visit us and respect towards the environment and nature that we are so lucky to live in. We are a part of nature and the community we live in. We want to give back both to nature and the community. We pay our taxes to the local community, support it by providing all year round jobs, host events for the locals, support the local rescue team and buy our supplies locally.
To continue doing what we love doing, we need to be smart and think sustainably in every aspect: socially, environmentally and economically. We take this seriously and question each big decision we take if it is sustainable in that matter. Click here to read our Environmental & Sustainability Policy.
Family
We are a family owned and operated business and a lot of staff is related to each other and if not has been integrated into the family. Here is a small insight into the family tree: Addi, Midgard’s lead guide, is married to Hildur, who takes care of the travel agency; Addi’s mother Björg is our CEO, uncle Kalle is the head chef; aunty Harpa works in the travel agency, brother Mummi and father Markús are guides, Stefan the brother of another mother is taking care of Base Camp and the sons Kristján and Markús are the future guides. So obviously family is pretty important to us. A lot of our staff members have worked with us for a long period and therefore have definitely gained their own spot in this Icelandic patchwork family.
Families are our priority. Families with kids should feel like staying at home or at a friend’s house and never as a burden. They can come and be like they are. We have board games, swing chairs, a kids-guest kitchen, kids menus to draw, etc. Teenagers are just as welcomed and our guides know how to show them a good time on our adventures.
Our goal is that Midgard plays the role of a “happy place”, a place that every family will leave with very fond and special memories that will remain with them forever.
Flexibility
We are working in a people business in Iceland with rapidly changing extreme weather. This alone already asks for a lot of flexibility – the daily routine demands from us to always have a Plan A, B, C and P in our pockets. You, our guests, are visitors to Iceland and all we want is that you have the best possible experience on our island and even more so at Midgard.
We are proud to be located in one of the most beautiful countries in the world, we love our culture and want to share only the best from what Iceland has to offer with you. We truly want to make you leave with the best possible memories that will last a lifetime. For doing so, we will always remain flexible, don’t stick too hard to a schedule or a bucket list but work around and make sure that you do get the most out of your time with us.
For us working in that environment means that often we come to work and don’t know what the day brings and react to what needs to be done. This is exciting at times, can be exhausting at other times, but it’s definitely never boring. We ask for a certain degree of flexibility from our staff, but they can also expect the same from us towards them at all times.
