Iceland · A day from Reykjavik
Iceland’s most beloved day route, the Golden Circle loops out from Reykjavik through a trio of natural set-pieces that together tell the story of the island’s geology and history.
At Þingvellir National Park you walk through a rift valley where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates pull visibly apart, the very site where Iceland’s parliament, the world’s oldest, first convened in 930 AD. From there the route reaches the Geysir geothermal field, where the Strokkur spout fires a column of boiling water skyward every few minutes.
The grand finale is Gullfoss, the “Golden Falls,” where the Hvítá river thunders in two great tiers into a rugged canyon. Pair the loop with a soak in a geothermal lagoon, and (in the right season) a night beneath the Northern Lights.
