Iceland is becoming more and more popular and the flights there are getting more affordable, therefore more tourists decide to visit the Country of Fire and Ice for a shorter period of time, often only as a stopover. If you are thinking about visiting Iceland for only few days, you shouldn’t miss the opportunity to explore the Golden Circle. golden circle trip Iceland
However, let’s not mistake the Golden Circle and the Ring Road. Ring Road wraps around the entire country and you will need few days to drive around. On the other hand, Golden Circle is only about 300 km long, one-day-doable loop from Reykjavik that offers you some of the country’s most famous and popular landmarks. It’s also very easy to drive it yourself, you don’t have to go on a tour. In this article I will present you the best stops to make along the way. golden circle trip Iceland
Pingvellir National Park
Our first stop on the Golden Circle was Pingvellir National Park. This place is not only interesting for its natural uniqueness, but also for its amazing cultural and historical significance. golden circle trip iceland
Pingevellir is the place of the first democratic Parliament on Iceland from 930 AD. You would hardly find any historic building though, the meetings were conducted outside, where Logberg people could step out and speak publicly about important matters. The Vikings chose a really epic site for their gatherings, because this is the only place in the world where you can see two continental plates (North-American and Euro-Asian) meet and thus create really impressive rift valley.
For the Game of Thrones fans – Pingvellir could be often seen in season 4 as the pass to the impenetrable Eyrie.
Geysir
Next stop approximately 60 km from Pingvellir is Haukadalur geothermal area, where you can find the world’s famous Geysir, after which all other geysers were named. Don’t wait for it to erupt though, an earthquake shut it down years ago. Luckily for all the visitors, geyser Strokkur is quite reliable and explodes with scalding water every 10 minutes or so into impressive 15 – 30m height. golden circle trip iceland
I loved Haukadalur simply because I’ve never seen a geyser before. When you see it, you realize only then how powerful our Earth is! It was amazing to see the steam coming from little lakes spread around the vast area and the column of water smashing up in the air. I was speechless at first and then happy as a little kid!
Gullfoss Waterfall
Foss means waterfall in Icelandic language and Gullfoss is probably the most famous, the most powerful and the most visited foss on all of Iceland. Sitting on Hvita River, the waterfall double cascades 32 m down with amazing strength and speed, creating colorful rainbows and spraying its visitors with thick mist (even if it doesn’t rain). We tried to take a nice photo with my friend Zuzana but we were constantly getting prayed right into our faces and we were so wet that we decided to take photos of this amazing place from a bit further. golden circle trip iceland
Gullfoss is quite remote, located off the main road, so you’ll have to drive back a little to continue the Golden Circle route, but it is worth the extra kilometres.
Crater Kerid
Our final stop on the Golden Circle was Kerid Crater Lake, not as famous as the rest of the sites, but if you have time it is surely worth the quick stop. Once it used to be a classic cone-shaped volcano, however the top collapsed in an underground magma chamber, creating a small lake inside. Because of the minerals in the soil, the lake has got really vivid blue color. You can do a loop around the crater, as well as go down to the lake. The crater is also famous for its acoustics and many concerts are organized in summer (I’d love to see it!). golden circle trip iceland
Golden Circle is definitely worth visiting, however, if you cannot stand crowds and you plan to spend in Iceland more than a week (and travel all around), maybe you could consider skipping it. Many people visit Iceland only for few days and basically visit only Golden Circle, Rejkyavik and Blue Lagoon. During our trip to the Golden Circle the weather wasn’t great so it wasn’t too crowded but at certain spots we could really feel the pressure from large amounts of people. My favorite stops along the Golden Circle were Strokkur geyser and Pingvellir. At Strokkur, there were many people, but on the other hand, in Pingvellir we were almost alone.
Iceland will forever belong to one of my favorite trips – we stayed in the Land of Fire and Ice for 8 days in total and I summed our experiences in several articles. Read about our visit to Blue Lagoon here, you can find our complete itinerary here and let’s not forget about the travel tips and advice here.
What about you? Is Iceland on your bucket list, or have you already visited this country?
