Absorb the Golden Circle Legend | Private Tour

Please note:

Available: All year

Duration: Approx. 10hrs, depending on your time spent at each stop and the duration of any activity added.

Pick-up: From your hotel/accommodation within the Reykjavik Capital Area.

Extra bookable activities: Choose during the check-out process.

Highlights

• Thingvellir National Park
• Geysir hot springs geothermal area
• Gullfoss waterfall

Description

Heading out of the city, you will pass Icelandic farms on the way to the first stop of the tour; Thingvellir National Park. This is the first national park in Iceland and the first UNESCO World Heritage Site in our country. You will start at Hakið lava mesa, a viewpoint that gives you an amazing view over the Thingvellir area and Thingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland (about 83.7 square kilometers and 114 meters at its deepest point). You go down from Hakið into Almannagjá by Thingvallabær rectory, today serving as the Prime Minister's summer house, and Thingvallakirkja, a beautiful wooden church representative for common Icelandic churches. In Almannagjá dwells Öxarárfoss, a 12-meter man-made waterfall from when the Vikings changed the course of the Öxará river to channel into Almannagjá, so they could water their horses and sheep when assembling at Althingi each summer, the Icelandic parliament.

Thingvellir may look familiar to you if you're a Game of Thrones fan, since episodes 1, 5, and 8 of season four were shot here.

Driving through the wooden Thingvellir National Park, passing more beautiful farmsteads, the next stop is the Geysir hot springs geothermal area in Haukadalur valley. This high-temperature area with its colorful hot springs and mud pools is the only place in Europe with hot springs that spout. Geysir is Iceland's most well-known geological phenomenon, giving its collective name geyser to all other hot springs in the world. It is dormant and hasn't spouted since 2016, but its neighbor Strokkur still does every 5-8 minutes, shooting 30 meters of scalding geothermal water into the air. Earthquakes in the area and volcanic activity in our country may cause Geysir to awaken and other hot springs in this geothermal area to show changes.

The last stop is what the Golden Circle derives its name from; Gullfoss waterfall, meaning Golden Falls. This magnificent tiered three-step waterfall is considered the queen of all waterfalls in Iceland, plunging 32 meters into a narrow basaltic gorge. The white glacial river Hvítá, fed by the Langjökull glacier, gives Gullfoss its white and blueish color, and on sunny days its spraying mist forms a spectacular rainbow, sometimes even a double rainbow.

On the way back, you have the option to see the Kerið volcanic crater lake for a small admission fee paid on-site.

Activities

When booking this tour, you can choose from our standard tour (for shorter activities to add) or our extended tour (for longer activities to add). The following are the extra bookable activities available to add to your booking during the check-out process (please only add one activity to your booking):

Available to add to the standard tour:

• SUP Paddle Boarding (available only Apr 15 - Oct 31)
• Geothermal Bakery tour (available all year)
• Horseback riding at Laxnes Horse Farm (available all year)

Available to add to the extended tour:

• Monster Truck to Crystal Ice Cave on Langjökull (available only Thu-Sun, Oct 1 - Mar 31)
• Snowmobile to Crystal Ice Cave on Langjökull (available only Oct 1 - Mar 31)
• Family-Friendly River Rafting down Hvítá river (available only Apr 20 - Oct 10)
• Kayak River Ride down Hvítá river (available only May 13 - Sep 16)
• Laugarvatn Fontana (available all year)
• Secret Lagoon (available all year)
• Hvammsvík Natural Hot Springs (available all year)
• River Rafting down Hvítá river (available only Apr 10 - Oct 10)
• Snowmobile on Langjökull (available all year)
• Snorkeling in Silfra (available all year)