Hour by hour
A Golden Circle itinerary is really a timing problem. The three stops take about two and a half hours between them and the driving takes three and a half, which leaves the day with plenty of slack — and then everybody uses that slack in exactly the same hours, in exactly the same order, in a convoy. This is the day laid out hour by hour, in the order that puts you either in front of that convoy or behind it.
Quick answer
The short answer. Leave Reykjavík at seven, be at Þingvellir by eight, Geysir by ten, Gullfoss by eleven-thirty, and you will have had all three largely to yourself. Then do Kerið and a hot pool on the way back. Home by six. The alternative is leaving at two and running it clockwise into the evening.
The early start
The version we would do, in summer, with a hire car.
Route 36 east. Forty-five minutes, and you will meet almost nothing on the road. Coffee in the city first; there is nothing open on the way.
Park at the upper car park, pay the 1,000 ISK by plate, and walk down Almannagjá. Forty-five minutes, and at this hour you will share the rift with a handful of people rather than four coaches.
Forty minutes across on 365 and 37. Stay for three eruptions of Strokkur: the first surprises you, the second you photograph, the third you watch. Do not wait at the Great Geysir — it has been asleep since 2003.
Ten minutes up Route 35, and parking is free. Do the upper viewpoint first for the length of the canyon, then the lower path towards the lip. You are still ahead of the convoy.
Back south on 35. Friðheimar’s tomato greenhouse needs booking and does lunch; Faxi is free, five minutes off the road, and almost always empty.
700 ISK each. Walk the rim, take the steps down, half an hour, and it is the only colour on the whole route.
Or Laugarvatn Fontana earlier in the day if you prefer. Ninety minutes in water that has been coming out of the ground here since the pool opened in 1891.
Route 35 to Selfoss then Route 1 west. Ten and a half hours door to door with everything included, or seven if you skip the pool and the greenhouse.
The afternoon version
In summer the afternoon loop is better than the morning one. In winter it does not exist.
If you cannot face a seven o’clock start — and in summer, with daylight until midnight, there is no reason you should — run the loop backwards from two in the afternoon.
Kerið first, then Gullfoss around four, Geysir at five, and Þingvellir last at around seven. You meet the coach convoy head-on all day rather than queueing behind it, and every car park empties out in front of you as the tours head home.
The payoff is Þingvellir in low evening light with the rift walls lit from the side, which is the best that site ever looks. In June you will still have four or five hours of daylight left when you get back to the car.
This does not work in winter. From November to February there is not enough light for an afternoon start, and that is the month to take the tour and let somebody else do the timing.
Every road number and every car park fee, for the self-drive version.
Route and directions→Book direct
Four tours that run this day for you, cheapest first.
★ 4.8 · 27200 reviews
★ 4.8 · 6446 reviews
★ 4.7 · 205 reviews
★ 4.9 · 6006 reviews
Common questions
Leave Reykjavík at seven, Þingvellir at 07:45 for forty-five minutes, Geysir at 09:15 for thirty, Gullfoss at 10:15 for forty-five, then Kerið and a geothermal pool on the way back. Home by half past five, having been ahead of the coaches all day.
Yes, comfortably. The driving is three and a half hours and the three stops take about two and a half between them. It is the standard first day out of Reykjavík for exactly that reason.
Seven, or two. The coach convoy leaves between eight and nine and travels the loop together, so an eight o’clock start puts you in the middle of it at every stop.
Anticlockwise if you leave early — Þingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss. Clockwise if you leave after lunch, because you meet the coaches head-on rather than following them, and you get Þingvellir in evening light.
Forty-five minutes at Þingvellir, thirty at Geysir for two or three eruptions of Strokkur, and thirty to forty-five at Gullfoss. Kerið adds another half hour.
Yes, and it makes an eleven-hour day. It is easier as a guided tour than as a self-drive, because the lagoon needs a timed booking and you cannot judge your arrival that precisely from the loop.
Go deeper
The three headline sites and the six worth adding, with what each one costs.
GullfossTwo drops, 32 metres, 141 cubic metres a second, and the woman who saved it.
Kerið270 metres across, 55 deep, and the only stop on the route with a gate fee.
The other twoA rift between two continents, and the geyser that is asleep next to the one that is not.
Route230 km, which roads, which direction, and every car park with its fee.
PricesTwelve tours priced against each other and against driving it yourself.
3-Day Golden Circle & South Coast
★ 4.9 · 646 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h