ActivitySouth Iceland, Iceland
The Golden Circle in a Day
Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss without the coach tours
The classic loop from Reykjavík is busy for good reason. Drive it yourself, in the right order, and you will have the best of it to yourself.
Three sights, one long afternoon
The Golden Circle is a 230 km loop east of Reykjavík that strings together three of Iceland's most famous sights. Þingvellir is where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart and where Iceland's parliament met in the open air from 930 AD. Geysir gave every geyser its name; it rarely erupts now, but its neighbour Strokkur fires a column of boiling water twenty metres into the air every few minutes. Gullfoss drops the river Hvítá in two steps into a narrow canyon, and on a sunny day the spray throws rainbows across the gorge.
Coach tours run the loop clockwise from mid-morning. Drive it anticlockwise, or simply leave Reykjavík after lunch: in summer the light lasts until midnight and the car parks empty out after five.
Stops in our order
- Gullfoss, late afternoon
- Geysir and Strokkur, early evening
- Friðheimar tomato greenhouse for soup, if they still have a table
- Þingvellir and the Almannagjá gorge at sunset
Snorkel the rift
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Ethan NorthwindAuthor
Northwind ToursPublisher
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