The Golden Circle and Reykjavík
After leaving the Snæfellsness peninsula we headed back south to see the Golden Circle. One of my very few regrets about this trip is that we didn’t really give ourselves enough time to see the Golden Circle, and ended up being rushed (the other regret involves not packing waterproof pants, but more on that later). We did devote an entire day to this area, but we also had to drive down from Snæfellsness first, and according to Google maps the drive from Grundarfjörður to Thingvellir National Park is about 2 hours 30 minutes without stops. The drive around the Golden Circle, not including stops, was probably another 2 hours. And from our last stop it took about an hour to get to our AirBnb in Reykjavík. That’s about 5.5 hours of drive time, which was a lot for us. And we weren’t really in a hurry to pack up and leave that morning either, which didn’t help.
My advice: if you’re going to leave Snæfellsness and see the Golden Circle in the same day- start your day early so you have plenty of time. Also, be mindful of the amount of daylight you have to work with, especially in the fall (days get short quickly that far north). Lastly, know what’s most important to you personally- do you just have to see Geysir? Do you really want to spend a few hours exploring Þingvellir? Do your research and prioritize the sights according to what you want to see and do, that way if you find yourself running out of time, like we did, you’ll know which sights you feel comfortable skipping. For example, Geysir was not high on our list of things to do. So when we knew we were tired and running out of daylight we just skipped it and headed on to Gullfoss.
Þingvellir National Park
Stop one for the day was Þingvellir National Park. It’s a beautiful place, even more so in fall with all of the colorful foliage. There’s plenty to do at Þingvellir, you could spend 20-30 minutes taking a short stroll and checking out the gift shop, or several hours hiking or snorkeling between tectonic plates. Þingvellir is also a place of historical significance as the location of the world’s first parliament was held, so there’s a lot to see involving its history as well.
I’m more into snorkeling in tropical waters, so we spent a couple of hours walking the trails around the park. We parked at the visitor center, visited the observation area, then headed down the main trail from there. There are quite a few intersecting paths, so we wandered around on those and ended up at Öxarárfoss- a pretty waterfall in the park. I think we were both surprised by how long we ended up visiting Þingvellir. I would definitely budget an hour or two to explore if you can.
Cost: free (no entrance fee), there is an exhibit in the visitor center that costs money to view (we didn’t pay to see the exhibit)
Parking: multiple lots throughout the park, all of the lots I saw required you to pay at a kiosk. A small 5 passenger car costs 750 ISK (about $5.88 USD in Februrary 2020), and costs go up from there for larger vehicles
Efstidalur Ice Cream
Our next stop was Efstidalur, a cute little ice cream shop right off the Golden Circle. I had seen it in several blog posts, and I love ice cream, so of course we had to stop. The shop is located on the dairy farm, and there are windows looking into the barn so you can watch the cows while you enjoy your ice cream. It’s a nice little place to take a break from all the driving and have treat!
Gullfoss
Our third stop was Gullfoss, arguably one of the most impressive sights on the Golden Circle. It’s a very large, multi-tiered waterfall that drops into huge canyon. Parking is just off the road, next to the visitor center. You’ll walk past the visitor center-which is definitely worth a visit too!- to the first view point. From there you can contintue down the stairs to a trail that gets you up close and personal with the waterfall. Be aware, especially if you’re visiting during cooler weather, there is a lot of mist that comes off of this waterfall and it’s really windy down in the canyon. I strongly recommend wearing a waterproof jacket if you plan on getting close, and layers if it’s cold out. But it’s worth getting a closer look if you can, it’s even more impressive up close!
Photos really can’t do this waterfall justice. It is tall, but the sheer volume of water is what’s so impressive. After we had a look at the falls, we headed up to the gift shop and cafe. We had a light dinner in the cafe, which was actually good and pretty decently priced. The gift shop was actually really nice, I picked up a few cute gifts and postcards.
Cost: free
Parking: free
Kerið Crater
Our last stop on the Golden Circle was Kerið Crater. We knew we didn’t have much daylight left at this point, and Kerið is right off of the main road, so it was a good choice for a quick visit. Kerið is an extinct volcanic crater with a lake inside the crater. The water is a gorgeous shade of blue, and looks really lovely against the reddish-brown of the crater wall. There’s a trail that goes around the rim of the crater, and another that goes down to the crater lake- both are short, the visit to Kerið may take 15-30 minutes at most. There are some great views of the surrounding area from the rim trail. Definitely a nice place to stop and strech your legs.
Cost: 400 ISK entrance fee per person (about $3 USD at the time of publication)
Reykjavík
We spent one night in Reykjavík, and we didn’t really get to do much while we were there, so I don’t really have much to share. We arrived pretty late, found a place to park next to our AirBnb, and crashed for the night. In the morning we packed up and drove into downtown for breakfast. We ate at the Laundromat Cafe, which was really delicious. Then wandered around downtown Reykjavík for awhile. Unfortunately I had to wear a walking boot on my left foot for the entire trip (severe plantar faciitis), and after our big day on the Golden Circle, and walking around town, my foot was really bothering me, so we cut our sightseeing short. We did stop at Valdís for some tasty ice cream before we left town though! Cody had a Porter (beer) flavored ice cream that he loved. I think I had chocolate. But it was so good we made a stop at their other location in Hvolsvelli (right off of the ring road!).
