One of the most popular things to do near Reykjavik is the Golden circle route. There are quite a few attractions along this 200 mile loop and we intended to cover most of them in 1 day. We started our morning drive from our Reykjavik hotel (Center Hotels Klopp) to Þingvellir National Park.
All attractions in Iceland have parking lots near it and in most of them you can pay for parking at kiosks located on site. For the few, where there are no kiosks, there are signs to pay for the parking through online apps like Parka. Our first stop was Öxarárfoss falls.
Next we drove towards Drekkingarhylur – Iceland’s drowning pool, an attraction with a dark past. Its about a 30 minute easy hike from the parking lot to the pool where women convicted of certain crimes were drowned.
Next we walked to Silfra fissure. The Silfra fissure and Drekkingarhylur all share same parking lot as these 2 attractions only about 15 minutes walking distance. Silfra fissure is where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. The water is extremely clear and plenty of folks snorkel or dive in the fissure. We were of course there just to see the location. 🙂
After seeing Silfra, we drove 40 km to our next attraction, the Kerid crater. It is a volcanic crater lake known for its vivid colors. The sky was heavily cloudy and unfortunately we did not get to see the bright colors.
We walked the whole path around the crater. We saw quite a few people down by the lake.
From Kerid crater, we drove 55 km to one of the largest waterfalls in Iceland, the Gullfoss waterfalls.
By this time it was late afternoon and we were hungry. Luckily there is a big cafeteria (Gullfoss Café) inside the Gullfoss visitor center next to the falls. Here we tried the local delicacy, Icelandic Lamb soup for our first and only time. It was actually delicious with tender pieces of lamb with cabbage, carrots in a tasty broth.
After lunch we drove from Gullfoss to Haukdalur Geothermal Valley, land of geysirs.
The most popular attraction in the area is the active Strokkur geyser that erupts reliably every 10-15 minutes. Because of the short duration between eruptions, we were able to see Strokkur erupt a few times during our visit.
Next to Strokkur lies Geysir, the dormant geyser.
Also nearby Strokkur and Geysir, lies Blesi – a hot spring that feeds another pool next to it. The cold pool is blue while the hot spring is transparent pool.
After seeing Strokkur erupt a few times, next we drove 20km to Bruarfoss waterfalls. The road turns from route 37 to a pebble road (but still easily drivable) that leads to the parking lot. From there it is a short walk to the falls.
I have never seen a watefall with such bright blue colors against dark rocks.
With Bruarfoss we were done for the day and had managed to see most of the popular attractions on the Golden circle. We drove to our hotel (Hotel Laugarvatn) next.
Later in the evening we drove a couple of minutes from our hotel to Restaurant Lindin Bistro Cafe for dinner.
