Driving Iceland’s Golden Circle
Iceland is obviously a hot destination right now, with good reason! Jill and I flew to Germany and took advantage of WOW‘s (RIP) stop over on our way back to the United States.
We ended up staying in Iceland for four days and absolutely loved it, we plan on coming back to drive the Ring Road, at some point. We wanted to be realistic with the minimal time we had, yet still cover a lot of ground.
While doing online research it seemed the Golden Circle was a great option to get out of Reykjavik (Iceland’s capital city) and see some of the more natural features Iceland is known for.
From a lot of reviews, several people said to skip the Golden Circle for odd reasons, but I highly disagree. Iceland’s Golden Circle was full of majestic scenery, waterfalls (foss in Icelandic), geysers, craters, on and on! The Golden Circle starts right outside of Reykjavik and was not as long as originally expected. Once we got to one of the last known sites, we had enough time to drive the southern road to Skogafoss and even enjoy a Pylsa (Icelandic Hot Dog).
Continuing on in the post, I share our journey and experiences along Iceland’s Golden Circle.
We rented a car at Keflavik Airport (Iceland’s main airport). Prior to the trip we made an auto reservation using rentalcars.com. The rental process was easy and surprisingly cheap, under $400 for 4 days. We got a nice white 4-door Renault.
Navigating around Reykjavik and then driving the Golden Circle was quite easy. Don’t worry driving here is some of the easiest around. There is basically one road you follow, speed limits are low, but do watch out for sheep.
Pay attention to signs that have a looped square on them, kind of looks like a clover leaf, because these refer to attractions. I recommend driving the Golden Circle on your own and not with a tour. This way you can stop whenever and wherever you want. The freedom is nice especially compared to tour buses that are cramped and only give you a certain amount of time per attraction. Having said all of this, lets leave Reykjavik and explore Iceland’s Golden Circle!
From Reykjavik to Thingvellir
Iceland’s Golden Circle in total is about 140 miles (230 km), we recommend starting early and get to Thingvellir before the tours start coming. The entire route is paved, so a 4×4 is not really necessary for this trip.
Like I stated above, the roads are easy driving, little traffic, just watch out for sheep. You will most likely come across sheep and see the famous Icelandic ponies!
The first attraction on our list was a visit to Þingvellir, or Thingvellir for us that can’t spell Icelandic words.
This national park is fascinating due to its geological significance and history. The park lies between two plates, the North American and European tectonic plates. You can literally walk between two continents.
The history here fascinates me, because it was settled by the Norse in 874 AD and was frequently visited by chieftains during times of establishing laws.
There were a few parking areas around Thingvellir, which were relatively cheap and there is no entrance fee to the park. You can simply walk and explore. The walking trails were nicely maintained, a mixture of boardwalks and loose gravel trails. The surrounding views especially of the lake and crystal clear water was just spectacular. We hiked to Thingvellir Church and explored the small cemetery reading historical markers as we went.
If you are brave enough you can snorkel Silfra here which is a well known snorkel and dive site. We opted not to and enjoyed looking through the crystal clear and probably frigid water.
You can spend as much or as little time here at Thingvellir, I do recommend bringing hiking shoes as the weather can be unpredictable and you might encounter some terrain! There was a small gift shop near the parking lot but after about an hour or so here we set forth to the next attraction, Geysir!
Off to Geysir, but First, Ice Cream!!!
Even though Iceland is known for its brutal climate and cold weather, ice cream is just as popular as anywhere else.
Jill and I absolutely love ice cream, and well hey, priorities! Before visiting the geysir thermal activities we were made aware of a local farm en-route that has some of the best ice cream in the whole country. That’s right, we were headed to Efstidalur.
This farm was slightly away from the road, but there were signs pointing to it’s location. We parked, walked inside and were fascinated by this place! There were glass walls where you could see the cows behind you literally making your ice cream, not really but damn close, definitely the freshest ice cream I’ve ever had! The ice cream is all made right there organically. I had caramel and Jill had mint, and it was definitely up there with some of the best ice cream we’ve had. There was a restaurant upstairs serving fresh food, we will have to come back for a burger! You can view the Efstidalur website and see their menu and learn a bit about the farm.
Efstidalur was definitely worth a stop, where were we? Oh yeah, Geysir! Geysir is actually an Icelandic word.
There is a huge parking spot across the street and a gift shop. Once we got to the geysir area, we simply walked around and looked at the bubbling pools and geothermal activity within the area. The main attraction here is Strokkur which is an active geyser, erupting every ten minutes on average. We actually saw it erupt a few times before making our way back to the car, Gulfoss waterfall was next on the list along Iceland’s Golden Circle.
Gullfoss
Just a short drive from Geysir, is Gullfoss. Gullfoss is a massive waterfall fed by the Hvita River. Gullfoss is a powerful waterfall, and to me it looked to be multiple stages of waterfalls carving out the canyon below.
There are two access points and parking lots here, an upper and lower view point. We parked at the upper parking lot and walked down below which is easily do-able and the stairs are safe to walk. You will most likely get wet especially as you get closer to the falls, so be cautious about clothes or expensive camera equipment. The hikes near the waterfall are not far, so I figure an hours at Gullfoss is sufficient.
Kerið
Our last stop along Iceland’s Golden Circle was Kerið or Kerid which is a crater lake.
Kerid is unique because the crater was not formed by a volcanic explosion, instead the cone of the volcano collapsed because of the empty magma chambers, cool! There was an entrance fee of about $4 to access the trail. The crater is not huge, we walked a complete 360° and then took the trail to the bottom of the crater, which was not as impressive as looking down from above.
We Completed Iceland's Famous Golden Circle, Now What?
Well, there is an abundance of options. The Golden Circle did not take us all day, in fact we had plenty of time left to drive a portion of the Ring Road to some of the other famous waterfalls like Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss. You can use the extra time to move slower between attractions, head back to Reykjavik, or just explore on your own!
Below are a few more photos from our trip along Iceland’s Golden Circle.
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