Iceland Road Trips

We did two road trips in two days. Day 1 Map and Day 2 Map First we did the golden circle, which was awesome, then we did the super long trip to the glaciers. People recommend not driving to the glaciers from Reykjavík in one day but if you wake up early it’s possible and worth it! Plus you will get to see these Blue Bonnet look alike flowers everywhere and channel your inner sound of music.

The golden circle is about a 3 hour round trip drive from Reykjavík but will take longer depending on how long you want to spend at each location. The best part is most of these sights don’t have entrance fees/times so you can go at any hours of the day. 

First stop was a mountain we found while driving and decided to hike to the top. It’s not really part of the golden circle but was pretty cool to see a view of Iceland from mountain top. 

Next we stopped at the Geysir and geothermal park. This was really cool to see and on a cold morning was a nice way to keep warm. There are tons of small geothermal pools all around and two main geysers. The big one doesn’t erupt much anymore but the little one, Strokkur, did every few minutes. We wished we could have been there when the cafe was open to get their famous gelato but we were a little too early. 

Onto the waterfalls. Fun fact in Iceland you can be driving and there will be tons of cute waterfalls on the side of the road like how we have cows in Texas. The largest one is Gulfoss and it’s huge! We hiked down and got to check out a few different views of this giant waterfall. The original family living on the land built the first staircases and helped preserve the land so it will never be used for profit. The woman who maintained it the longest was Iceland’s first environmental conservationist.

Next is the crater Kerid where I fell. By this point in our drive people were awake but still no tour busses. The park was open and this was our first time we paid for entrance (about 4USD each). This dormant volcano is pretty cool. You can hike along the top or walk below to see the middle. The colors here were beautiful. Wear good shoes...I fell and got some battle wounds here. It started to drizzle when we got to the bottom and people started running for the cars. The rain cleared up before it even started and we had another site to ourselves!

We stopped to see a few things along the way. Random waterfalls, rivers, and some horses with better hair than me.

Onto day two of the road trip with lots of waterfalls, the glaciers, Black Sand beach, and the blue lagoon.

We got on the road by 4am and stared towards the waterfalls. When we arrived it was cold and windy. Seljalandsfoss was sending water in every direction but we stuck it out. You can hike up, behind, and around it to see this one. We got there right before a photo shoot was happening but besides the instagrammers we had the place to ourselves. Cue TLC and enjoy.

Skógafoss was massive!!! It even had a lot of campers out front. One thing we noticed is a lot of places like this offered tent camping on site if you can brave the weather. The heavy winds and water made the tents shake and almost blow over. Props to anyone who can sleep next to this.

Next stop was Reynisfjara, the Black Sand Beach near Vik. It's listed as one of the top black sand beaches in the world and even featured in season 7 of Game of Thrones. Neither of us had seen anything like it. It's a very short walk from the parking lot but is gigantic in length. The sand varied from a dark onyx color to a dark grey and was very coarse. There was a cute cafe but it was still too early.

Next we drove to the glaciers! Jökulsárlón, a Glacier Lagoon, looks like something out of a dream. This was one of our favorite parts of the trip. Once you cross the bridge all you can see are glaciers floating in the water. We parked and walked around to check them out up close. These are huge glaciers and if you stay long enough you might get to see one break off and float down to the ocean. We followed some floating out to the ocean and got to see how big they are below the surface. After walking the aptly named Diamond Beach to touch some of the melting glaciers, we headed back.  There is a small cafe with soups and snacks where I finally got my coffee! 

We headed towards The Blue Lagoon, our final destination before the airport. If you have the time to do puffin watching this is the time. It’s about mid way to Reykjavík (close to Vik) and you must go by ferry. Buy tickets ahead of time because they sell out days in advance.

When we got to the blue lagoon we had 2 and a half hours to closing. We bought our tickets ahead of time because they sell out early as well. With the basic tickets we got entrance, 2 towels, 2 drinks, and 2 mud masks. The locker rooms are some of the nicest I’ve ever seen and super clean. There are little caves you can explore with audio about the history of the blue lagoon, a great swim up bar, and places you can get an in pool massage. Make sure to put in a hair or beard treatment before the lagoon because the water will severely dry you out. This was a great choice before our flight. We were so relaxed and refreshed afterwards!