If Iceland is the Wild West Reykjavik is Dodge City an exuberant oasis on the very edge of a largely uninhabitable country

If Iceland is the Wild West, Reykjavik is Dodge City, an exuberant oasis on the very edge of a largely uninhabitable country. When to go The weather is best in summer, when the temperature reaches the upper 50s, sometimes nudging 60F. Now I have been, I can report that the scenery is breathtaking, the people delightful and Reykjavik an endearing small-town capital city that thoroughly deserves to be one of the European cities of culture in 2000. Magnus Magnusson, Björk and that bloke who always wins the World's Strongest Man contest: the sum total of my knowledge of Iceland - before going there, that is. Now I have been, I can report that the scenery is breathtaking, the people delightful and Reykjavik an endearing small-town capital city that thoroughly deserves to be one of the European cities of culture in 2000. Descending into Iceland is like the opening scene in Fargo - swirling snowy tundra that seems to lead nowhere, a car's headlights on the horizon the only hint of civilisation. And in Reykjavik you have the ultimate frontier town, where huge 4WD vehicles rumble into the city for their weekly provisions. "It was completely mad but I have a rose-tinted view of it now," she says wistfully.Hoberman and Lane Fox aren't the Richard Branson kind of travel pioneer, restless to cover every inch of the globe in the most peculiar ways. Last Minute is undoubtedly a boon to any traveller, though.Will they replace travel agents in the future? "I think there'll always be a place for travel agents but they're going to have to change their emphasis and offer a more personalised service, because they won't be able to compete on the range of offers we have," says Hoberman."Right now, all the major travel companies are emphasising individuality and quirkiness, and in a way that is what our website is all about," says Lane Fox "And the market's only going to grow.".

Magnus Magnusson, Björk and that bloke who always wins the World's Strongest Man contest: the sum total of my knowledge of Iceland - before going there, that is. Her father, the archaeologist Robin Lane Fox, is an inveterate overland traveller and used to take the family on expeditions when they were children. "We'd sleep on the floor or in the airport or whatever, because it was the culture that mattered," she recalls.As a student she travelled to Mongolia with a girlfriend, hitching and hiking from Ulan Bator to Kazakhstan, Pakistan and China, one of the most extreme overland journeys in the world, in regions with no public transport. Otherwise, he's working, from eight until midnight on weekdays, midday to 8pm on Saturday and Sunday.Lane Fox has taken no holidays this year In her youth she was a traveller of a different kind. This year, he's been on holiday to Morocco for a week, and on a couple of weekends away to country-house hotels.

Not so much museums as society, seeing how people are different, and in what way. I also like having my friends on holiday, though my fiancee doesn't always agree! The irony is that starting Last Minute means I have no time to do my favourite thing, which is going away for weekend breaks."His favourite short-break destination is the Grand Hotel du Cap, an art deco masterpiece with fabulous Mediterranean views on Cap Ferrat, between Nice and Monaco. "In a way, all that travelling as a child had a reverse effect. It makes me happy sometimes to stay in one place," he says.What are his favourite holidays? "I'm a sun-worshipper," he says. (Martha, sitting above his left shoulder, interrupts: "You also like blonde ladies in bikinis!") "But sunshine," he continues, "has to be combined with things to do. Hoberman was born in Cape Town, and has visited his relatives there almost every year, despite a family life that saw him living as a child in Boston, New York and London. Now, those very same people are sending me their CVs."Both have travel in their blood, but in rather different ways.

A year ago I was approaching airlines and companies to put deals together and they would put the phone down on me. I need to love what I do and you can't help but love a business that helps people to do all these things they weren't able to before."Plus," she adds with a mischievous smile, "I quite like having the ability to go and shake up the travel industry It's fun. "It sounds trite to say it's not about the money when you're going to make multimillions but that's so far away and I know it might all blow up at any time. Hoberman helped found the British internet auction site QXL.