Iceland has become increasingly more popular with Europe-bound travelers who are jumping on the opportunity to take advantage of “Iceland stopovers,” offered by several European airlines. Iceland is absolutely a destination in and of itself, but one of its most alluring qualities is how cheap it is to get there, making it a perfect place to spend a long weekend or a few days in between flights.
If you have a lot of time and are looking to do Iceland right, I would, obviously, recommend taking as much time as possible and driving along the entire coast at a nice, leisurely pace. The Ring Road is chock-full of goodies and I hear it is a fantastic, once-in-a-lifetime thing to do. But what about if you don’t have two weeks and are flying into Iceland for just a few days, four nights at a hotel in Reykjavik booked and awaiting your arrival? I get it, work is beckoning and your boss isn’t keen on the idea of you taking off for weeks on end to explore every nook and cranny of Iceland. Something I also get: maybe you’re a planner and don’t want to miss out on anything cool because you failed to make plans for a short trip. I got you. Here are a few day trips you can take from Reykjavik to ensure you’re making the absolute most of your limited stay in Iceland.
The Golden Circle
The Golden Circle is incredibly popular amongst visitors in Iceland, and it is a good alternative to the Ring Road for those who have less time and still want to see some of Iceland’s most exciting attractions.
Total Drive Time: 3 hours, 10 minutes & 230 kilometers
Winter Road Conditions: Being one of Iceland’s top and most frequently tread tourist attractions, the roads are usually perfectly safe any time of the year (but be sure to check road.is before heading out, just in case).
Hveragerði
Hveragerði is a small town with only 3,000 inhabitants, about 45 minutes outside of Reykjavik. The town was built on top of a geothermally active volcanic chamber, so the town, while experiencing the occasional minor earthquake, has also thrived in becoming the pioneer in greenhouse horticulture. The utilization of hot springs is how the Icelandic people do farming. There are seriously more greenhouses than residential houses in this town. The greenhouses use the hot steam and water from the ground to provide warmth for the plants, usually flowers, cucumbers, or tomatoes, allowing for produce output year-round. That is really cool. Talk about resourceful.
While you’re exploring this town and grabbing a cup of coffee to begin your day, also take note that there is a giant 50-meter outdoor thermal pool called Sundlaugin Laugaskarði if you want to take the time to relax and experience a thermal pool as the locals do, outside of the world-famous tourist magnet, Blue Lagoon.
Strokkur & Geysir
Be warned: this stop on the Golden Circle is stanky. The water churning up inside the earth smells like rotten eggs, a result of the sulphur in the geothermal water that is so prevalent throughout this entire country. So expect to be inhaling some rancid air, especially around these geysers. Geysir and Strokkur are both located along the Golden Circle route, but Strokkur is the only one that is still active, and it is incredibly reliable, erupting 100 feet of hot water high into the air every 5-10 minutes. It is really a site to see. There is a cafeteria and gift shop right across the street for getting a cup of coffee and a sandwich to warm yourself up afterwards.
Gullfoss
About ten minutes from Strokkur is Gullfoss, one of the most popular tourist attractions in the country. The waterfall is tiered, plummeting in multiple different directions, sometimes where it goes impossible to tell, and a couple sets of stairs allow you to view the falls from two levels. It is such a massively powerful waterfall that it was considered for generating electricity in the 20th century; the initiative was unsuccessful, and it is now a nationally protected landmark.
It isn’t clear from this picture, but the cold and wet made this one of the most miserable hours of my life. Stay prepared by bringing waterproof everything, especially on days when the weather isn’t so kind to you. And if you only have a short amount of time in Iceland, you can’t be picky about the weather.
Thingvellir National Park
One of my favorite places during my whole 4-day trip: Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the exact spot where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates collide. The Almannagjá canyon allows you to see continental drift in a concrete, visual form, and the Silfra Fissure is the only place on Earth where you can scuba dive between two continental plates (if you’re into scuba diving, this is actually a popular spot for it). Seriously, this place is unreal.
Besides its unique geology, Thingvellir is also where the oldest existing parliament in the world (the national parliament of Iceland) first assembled in 930 AD.
South Coast
This was my personal favorite trip (it helped that the rain held off for the day, and I actually got to see a bit of the sun poking through at sunset). The south coast has a ridiculous number of things to see and is home to one of the coolest places I’ve been over the course of my entire existence, Reynisfjara Beach.
Total Drive Time: To Vik and back: 4 hours, 30 minutes & 363 kilometers; to Jökulsárlón and back: 9 hours, 7 minutes & 748 kilometers (only recommended in summer months as a day trip, because winter months only offer 5 hours of daylight)
Winter Road Conditions: Generally okay, but there is a risk of sandstorms along the south coast, and subsequently really, really expensive sand damage to your car. Check road.is before you go!
Seljalandsfoss
Seljalandsfoss is one of the best known waterfalls in Iceland, only an hour and a half outside of Reykjavik along Route 1. It is easily accessible off the main road, with lots of signs to point you in the right direction (THANK JESUS since I am hopeless when it comes to having a sense of direction), and a large parking lot to safely park your rental car.
This waterfall is incredible. Seljalandsfoss allows you to get a 360 degree view of the falls, as long as you have appropriate shoes to brave the slippery rocks and waterproof clothing, because trust me, you will be getting drenched if you decide to view this baby from behind. It really gives you the chance to experience the beauty and power of it up close and personal.
Skógafoss
Another big one and also right off Route 1, meaning no hiking and hoisting yourself over icy rocks, Skógafoss. It makes for a perfect photo op, whether you decide to get up close to the base of it, or climb all the way to the top to see over the falls.
Vik
So it’s no secret that this beach was my favorite place of all the places I got the privilege to see, and I think it’s easy to understand exactly why (and quite a few people agree with me, since it was ranked in 1991 as one of the top ten most beautiful non-tropical beaches in the world). It is just so UNIQUE! The beach’s name, Reynisfjara, comes from the basalt sea stacks called Reynisdrangar, which are positioned under the Reynisfjall mountain right on the beach.
Being on this beach made me feel smaller than I’ve ever felt in my life. The beach is quiet except for the waves, which are inconceivably powerful, making walking too close is almost frightening. Looking off into the sunset makes you really feel that you are literally standing on the very edge of the world, on a tiny island in the middle of the ocean, with no other land within hundreds of miles in any direction. As if a wave could crash into you and pull you into nowhere. It may not make sense, since hello Robin, ALL beaches are at the very edge of a piece of land with nothing for hundreds of miles, but something about this particular beach made it feel extra eerie (but in the best possible way).
The village of Vik is a short drive from the beach, and it is a good place to fill up on gas if necessary and grab a quick snack.
Jökulsárlón
If you’re feeling extra ambitious (and, frankly, if it is the summer months, because driving for over 9 hours, while also having the luxury of taking your time and enjoying the sites, when there is only 5 hours of daylight is barely doable), head on up to Jökulsárlón, or as it’s affectionately known, Glacier Lagoon. This is still on my Icelandic bucket list (as is a glacier walk and an ice cave tour…UGH, there is only so much time in a long weekend!), and is the deepest lake in all of Iceland as well as one of the country’s most photogenic landmarks.
Icelandic horses
Part of the Icelandic experience is interacting with not only the country’s large forces of nature, like its waterfalls, mountains, and lakes, but also with its small forces of nature, like the adorable, fluffy Icelandic horses that are ubiquitous throughout the country. They are smaller than the average horse, but are hardier than the average horse too, comfortable in Iceland’s long winters and able to cross rough terrain easily. FUN FACT: the Icelandic language includes more than 100 names for the colors and color patterns of the Icelandic horse (wtf).
This is as close as I dared to get, because as much as I try to be fearless and live life as it comes, touching a stranger’s potentially temperamental gigantic mammal is not, and never will be, on my to-do list. Sorry.
North of Reykjavik
Expect a good amount of time on the road with this trip. It doesn’t look particularly sensical, but I almost insist that you take the time to visit Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, even though they are a bit out of the way.
Total Drive Time: 5 hours, 50 minutes & 464 kilometers
Winter Road Conditions: Moderate. Expect quite a bit of driving on gravel roads, which is usually easier to do in a car with a higher chassis. There’s also some narrow and windy roads along the way, which could be icy in the winter time. As always, check road.is before taking off on your day trip.
Akranes
Akranes is a port town that is less than an hour outside of Reykjavik to the north. It is a small town, population less than 7,000, but has several attractions to draw in travelers. The town itself is adorable (if you can look beyond the industrial buildings and enjoy the colorful houses and tiny churches) with several great bakeries and restaurants (catch a soccer game Vitakaffi and grab a burger and a beer; seriously, their special burger sauce is to die for), museums, and the lighthouses at the shore, which I found to be one of the coolest views in Iceland (plus, the larger lighthouse is now open to the public to go inside and climb to the top).
Hraunfossar & Barnafoss
These are probably my favorite waterfalls that I got to see on my trip, which is good, because it makes up for all the stressing and crying through the miles and miles of gravel road, and the fresh tears that poured into my lap every time my teeny, tiny car hit a pothole and stalled as I imagined the $10,000 bill I was going to be slapped with when I returned it to the rental company (turns out my anxiety, per usual, was unwarranted, because there was no damage to the car whatsoever. Just go slow on those roads and you’ll be fine).
Hraunfossar isn’t a waterfall so much as a series of waterfalls, dubbed the “lava waterfalls” due to the fact that they were formed by water seeping through the earth over a lava field. Right near Hraunfossar is Barnafoss, or “children’s waterfall,” named for one of Iceland’s many creeps-inducing legends. This particular legend tells the story of two children who went exploring while their parents were at church and disappeared. Their mother found footprints that they had left leading up to the stone bridge over the falls, and was so distraught at the loss of her children that she had the stone arch destroyed to make sure that no other children could cross the falls.
You could spend hours exploring and photographing the area, so charge that camera up good. There are tons of walking paths and bridges, which helps you get the best views from all angles. It is truly a gem, and less well-known than some of the waterfalls on the Golden Circle or south coast routes, so it is less likely to be packed with other travelers.
Kirkjufellsfoss
This one is a bit far out on the Snæfellsness peninsula, so if you want to hit it all three of these places in one day I’d recommend leaving early, especially because the drive-time estimate is probably a bit too generous when taking gravel roads into account (somehow the speed limit on those is 80 kph, but I don’t think I went over 40 the entire time).
Kirkjufellsfoss is a waterfall with the Kirkjufell mountain as its backdrop. The falls are only about five meters tall and flow in several levels out of three different spouts, but the real draw of this site is the combination of the falls and the pyramid-shaped mountain behind it: a photographer and nature lover’s dream. And from what I’ve heard, this is a prime spot from which to watch the Northern Lights (not that I would know, because Mother Nature jipped me out of seeing them this time around). Overall, definitely worth a stop.
I completely understand the frustration you feel after leaving a new country when it dawns on you just how much you missed out on due to time constraints. I feel this way after literally every place I go, but Iceland was especially bad because it has so many unique sites and activities to offer and doing all of them in one short trip is 100% impossible. Be sure to plan so that you can make optimal use of your time. And remember, anything you can’t fit in just serves as an automatic excuse to book another flight back to Iceland…asap.
