iceland was lovely when i went even in a very rural area it was still possible to access necessary goods and get around, etc. and really beautiful (i was on the northwestern coast in a tiny town near akureyri) & if you are in reykjavik the public transit there is very good and you can get around the city quite easily. both the city and the rest of iceland are incredibly beautiful

wrt cost of living, when i was there in 2022 all the other residents said it was very expensive. coming from canada i genuinely did not notice much of a difference in the cost of food or anything else, esp because the icelandic krona is generally on par with the canadian dollar so it was easy for me to tell when something was more expensive than i would expect in canada. the prices were basically the same. i don’t know how this has changed in the last 4 yrs, but i would say that yes the cost of living is very high, but no higher than it is in toronto. so i think it really depends on the value of your currency compared to the krona and what you are used to paying in your home country. someone in my cohort was from colombia and she said she found the prices insanely expensive

i will say it was extremely white there, but not as white as you may think. i found an asian grocery store in reykjavik and was able to buy sambal and ingredients to make daal lol, and went to a punjabi restaurant once run by icelandic punjabis who received me really warmly. it also depends on where you are and the time of year as the capital region in iceland is familiar with having tourists from around the world, including visibly nonwhite people, but when you are there outside of the tourism season or in rural areas even looking mediterranean visibly sets you apart from most people lol. i wasn’t used to that and it felt very jarring and strange, and i was stared at openly on public transit and in other places but no one was hostile or said anything weird to me. i do not know if the same could be said if someone had darker skin than me, was visibly asian in some way, muslim, etc. the only other person of colour in my cohort was chinese american and she told me she dealt with some strange comments. i think it’s something you’d have to decide for yourself if you aren’t white, and i don’t know what the experience would be like if you are black