Iceland Complete Round Trip: 21 Days

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Reykjavík City

Reykjavík is the capital and biggest city of Iceland with a population of approximately 124,000. It is the northernmost capital in the world. Despite its small size, you can find many attractions and museums, making Reykjavik a popular destination.

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Harpa - Music Hall

Harpa is Reykjavik's concert hall and conference center, sitting on the waterfront at the edge of the Old Harbor. Its glass facade, designed by artist Ólafur Elíasson and Henning Larsen Architects, has made it one of the most photographed buildings in Iceland since it opened in 2011. The public areas are free to enter, and the building is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera.

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Hallgrímskirkja Church

Hallgrímskirkja is Reykjavík's most recognizable building and Iceland's tallest church at 74 meters, dominating the city skyline from its hilltop position above Skólavörðustígur. It is a Lutheran parish church named after the 17th-century Icelandic poet and clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson, author of the Passion Hymns. Designed by state architect Guðjón Samúelsson in 1937, it took 41 years to complete, with construction running from 1945 to 1986. The distinctive stepped concrete facade was directly inspired by the hexagonal basalt column formations found at Svartifoss waterfall and across Iceland's volcanic landscape. A tower elevator open to visitors daily gives panoramic views over Reykjavík and, on clear days, across Faxaflói Bay toward Snæfellsjökull. In front of the church stands a statue of Leif Eiríksson, a gift from the United States in 1930 to mark the Alþingi's 1,000th anniversary.

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Laugavegur Shopping Street

Laugavegur is the main street of central Reykjavik and the busiest in Iceland, running through the historic heart of the city from Hlemmur square to Lækjartorg. It is lined with Icelandic design shops, wool boutiques, restaurants, cafés, galleries, and bars, and forms the spine of Reykjavik's nightlife. The lower section is pedestrianized. The name translates as Wash Road, a reference to the route women once walked to reach the hot springs of Laugardalur with their laundry.

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Gullfoss Waterfall

Gullfoss, meaning Golden Falls, is one of Iceland's most powerful and visited waterfalls, dropping 32 meters in two dramatic tiers into the narrow Gullfossgjúfur canyon on the Golden Circle route. Fed by glacial meltwater from Langjökull glacier, it carries an average of 140 cubic meters of water per second in summer, producing a roar and a cloud of mist that can be heard and felt long before the falls come into view.

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Geysir

The Geysir geothermal area in the Haukadalur valley of South Iceland is one of the three main stops on the Golden Circle and home to the hot spring that gave the English language the word geyser. The Great Geysir has been erupting intermittently for thousands of years and at its peak could blast water up to 70 meters into the air, but it is now largely dormant, erupting unpredictably and rarely. Its neighbor Strokkur, whose name means the Churn, erupts reliably every 5 to 10 minutes to heights of 15 to 40 meters and is the reason visitors gather here. The wider geothermal field contains dozens of hot springs, bubbling mud pools, fumaroles, and smaller geysers, making it worth exploring beyond just waiting for Strokkur. The site is free to visit year-round.

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Þingvellir National Park

Þingvellir National Park is Iceland's first national park and its only UNESCO World Heritage Site, sitting 47 kilometers east of Reykjavik at the first stop on the Golden Circle. It is the site of the Alþingi, Iceland's parliament, which first convened here in 930 AD, making it the oldest continuously operating parliament in the world. The park also straddles the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, one of the few places on earth where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge can be seen and walked above sea level.

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Kerið Crater

Kerið is one of Iceland's most striking volcanic craters, a 6,500-year-old caldera filled with vivid aquamarine water and ringed by steep red and black volcanic rock. It sits right off Route 35 on the Golden Circle route, making it one of the easiest natural wonders in Iceland to add to a day trip.

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Settlement Center in Borgarnes

The Settlement Center in Borgarnes is a museum dedicated to Iceland's Viking-age history, housed in two of the oldest buildings in the town. It contains two audio-guided exhibitions: one on the Age of Settlement covering the first 60 years of Icelandic history from the 870s to the founding of the Alþing parliament in 930 AD, and one on Egil's Saga, telling the story of the legendary Viking poet and warrior Egill Skallagrímsson whose father was among Iceland's earliest settlers.

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Hraunfossar Waterfalls

Hraunfossar, meaning Lava Falls, is one of Iceland's most unusual waterfalls: not a single drop but a 900-meter stretch of small springs that emerge directly from beneath the edge of the Hallmundarhraun lava field and trickle into the turquoise Hvítá River below. The water originates from the Langjökull glacier, filtering through the porous lava rock before appearing at the surface. A short walk upstream leads to Barnafoss, a dramatically different waterfall where the same river forces through a narrow rocky gorge.

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Reykholt

Reykholt is a small village in the Borgarfjördur valley of West Iceland and one of the most historically significant sites in the country. It was the home of Snorri Sturluson, the 13th-century scholar, poet, and chieftain who wrote the Prose Edda, Heimskringla, and Egil's Saga, works that remain foundational texts of Norse mythology and medieval Scandinavian history. Snorri lived and worked here from 1206 until his assassination on the farm in 1241.

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Eldborg Crater

Eldborg is a scoria crater in Hnappadalur valley in West Iceland, widely regarded as one of the most perfectly shaped volcanic craters in the country. Its name translates as Fortress of Fire, and rising 60 meters above the surrounding lava field with a near-oval outline 200 meters across, it does look the part. The crater is believed to have been most active between 5,000 and 8,000 years ago and is the largest along a short volcanic rift in the area. A 6-kilometer return hiking trail from Snorrastaðir farm crosses a lava field to reach the crater base, with chains fitted on the steep upper section to assist the final ascent to the rim. From the top, on clear days, views extend from Snæfellsjökull glacier all the way to the Reykjanes Peninsula.

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Snæfellsjökull Glacier

Snæfellsjökull is a glacier-capped stratovolcano at the westernmost tip of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, rising 1,446 meters above sea level. On clear days it is visible across Faxaflói Bay from Reykjavík, 120 kilometers to the southeast. The volcano is around 700,000 years old and last erupted approximately 1,800 years ago; it is considered dormant but active. A glacier covers the summit crater to a depth of around 200 meters. Jules Verne chose Snæfellsjökull as the entrance to the Earth's interior in his 1864 novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, following research into Icelandic geology. The mountain has inspired a significant body of literature since, including Halldór Laxness's novel Under the Glacier, written at the site and named after it. The glacier has retreated by roughly 15 percent since the Little Ice Age and may disappear within decades without significant climate intervention.

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Kirkjufell Mountain

Kirkjufell is a 463-meter freestanding mountain on the northern coast of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, widely regarded as the most photographed mountain in Iceland. Its distinctive pointed silhouette, shaped by millions of years of glacial erosion, makes it immediately recognizable, and the small triple-tiered Kirkjufellsfoss waterfall sitting at its base creates one of the most iconic compositions in the country.

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Búðakirkja Church

Búðakirkja, the Black Church of Búðir, is a small black timber church standing alone on the edge of the Búðahraun lava field on the southern coast of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, with the Snæfellsjökull glacier visible behind it on clear days. It is one of the most photographed churches in Iceland and a popular wedding venue. Originally built in 1703 by the merchant Bendt Lauridsen, it fell into disrepair when the trading settlement of Búðir declined, was deconsecrated in 1816, and lay abandoned until a local merchant's widow, Steinunn Sveinsdóttir, campaigned persistently for its reconstruction against opposition from the national church authorities. The rebuilt church was completed in 1848. The door ring bears the inscription: "The church was rebuilt in 1848, with no support from the spiritual leaders." Steinunn is buried in the churchyard beside it.

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Stykkishólmur

Stykkishólmur is the largest town on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula with around 1,100 residents, sitting on a promontory above a natural harbor on the northern coast of the peninsula overlooking Breiðafjörður bay. Often called the capital of Snæfellsnes, it has been a trading and fishing center since at least the 16th century. The town is notable for its collection of well-preserved 19th-century timber buildings, the most famous of which is Norska Húsið, the Norwegian House, built in 1832 from materials imported from Norway and now a folk museum. Weather observations have been recorded here continuously since 1845, the longest unbroken meteorological record in Iceland. The Baldur ferry departs from the harbor to Flatey Island and Brjánslækur in the Westfjords, making Stykkishólmur the main connection point between Snæfellsnes and the Westfjords. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty used the town as a filming location for scenes set in Greenland.

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Látrabjarg Cliff

Látrabjarg is a 14-kilometer sea cliff rising up to 441 meters on the westernmost tip of Iceland's Westfjords, and Europe's largest seabird cliff. Millions of seabirds nest here each summer including puffins, razorbills, guillemots, fulmars, and kittiwakes. The puffins at Látrabjarg are notably unafraid of people, making it one of the best places in Iceland to observe them at close range.

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Patreksfjörður

Patreksfjörður is the largest town in the southern Westfjords, with around 780 people, sitting at the mouth of the fjord it shares its name with. The name means the fjord of St Patrick, a reference to Patrík, a Celtic monk who settled here in the early Christian period following Iceland's conversion around 1000 AD, and is mentioned in Landnámabók. The town is primarily a fishing and fish processing community, and has been a commercial fishing base since the early 20th century when it pioneered trawler fishing in Iceland. For visitors, its main value is as a service hub and overnight base for the southern Westfjords, sitting within reach of Látrabjarg bird cliffs, Rauðasandur beach, and Dynjandi waterfall, three of the most compelling natural sites in the region.

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Dynjandi Waterfall

Dynjandi, also known as Fjallfoss and often called the Jewel of the Westfjords, is a 100-meter waterfall on Arnarfjörður in the remote Westfjords of Iceland, cascading in a distinctive trapezoidal shape that widens from 30 meters at the top to 60 meters at the base. The name means thunderous in Icelandic, and the roar is audible well before the waterfall comes into view. It is the largest waterfall in the Westfjords and forms the uppermost of a series of seven named cascades that descend the same cliff face. A 15-minute hiking trail from the parking lot on Route 60 passes all six of the smaller falls before reaching the foot of Dynjandi itself, making the approach as rewarding as the destination. The whole area was protected as a natural monument in 1981.

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Ísafjörður Municipality

Ísafjörður is the largest town in the Westfjords of Iceland, with around 2,700 people, and serves as the commercial, cultural, and administrative hub for the entire region. It sits on a sand spit deep inside Skutulsfjörður fjord, surrounded by mountains that rise to around 700 meters on all sides, and holds the best-preserved collection of early trading-era timber buildings in Iceland, some dating to 1757. The Neðstikaupstaður district of historic warehouses and merchant houses from the Danish trade monopoly period is considered unique in Iceland. Summer ferries depart from Ísafjörður to Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, the remote uninhabited peninsula to the north and one of the country's most sought-after wilderness hiking destinations. The town is also regarded as the sea kayaking capital of Iceland, with the surrounding network of fjords and inlets offering exceptional conditions.

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Ísafjörður Municipality

Ísafjörður is the largest town in the Westfjords of Iceland, with around 2,700 people, and serves as the commercial, cultural, and administrative hub for the entire region. It sits on a sand spit deep inside Skutulsfjörður fjord, surrounded by mountains that rise to around 700 meters on all sides, and holds the best-preserved collection of early trading-era timber buildings in Iceland, some dating to 1757. The Neðstikaupstaður district of historic warehouses and merchant houses from the Danish trade monopoly period is considered unique in Iceland. Summer ferries depart from Ísafjörður to Hornstrandir Nature Reserve, the remote uninhabited peninsula to the north and one of the country's most sought-after wilderness hiking destinations. The town is also regarded as the sea kayaking capital of Iceland, with the surrounding network of fjords and inlets offering exceptional conditions.

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The Arctic Fox Center

The Arctic Fox Center in Súðavík is a non-profit research institute and exhibition center founded in 2007 in a renovated farmstead in the Westfjords, about 20 minutes from Ísafjörður. It is the only institution in the world dedicated entirely to the Arctic fox, which holds the distinction of being Iceland's sole native land mammal. The center houses a permanent exhibition on the biology, history, and conservation of the species, two rescued live foxes in an outdoor enclosure, and a café open in summer. In the Westfjords, where the foxes are unusually concentrated due to the rich seabird colonies, around 90 percent of the population carries the rare blue morph coloring rather than the white that is most common globally.

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Hvítserkur Basalt Stack

Hvítserkur is a 15-meter basalt sea stack standing in the shallow waters of Húnaflói Bay on the eastern shore of the Vatnsnes Peninsula in Northwest Iceland. Its two arched legs and tapered body have inspired comparisons to a dragon drinking from the sea, a rhinoceros, and an elephant, depending on the viewing angle and the state of the tide. The name means white shirt in Icelandic, a reference to the coating of seabird guano that covers the dark basalt in summer. Icelandic folklore holds that Hvítserkur is a troll from the Westfjords who was turned to stone by the rising sun while hurling rocks at the Þingeyraklaustur monastery, whose bells had driven him to fury.

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Hofsós Swimming Pool

The Hofsos swimming pool is a 25-meter geothermal pool built into a hillside above Skagafjördur fjord in North Iceland, with uninterrupted views across the water to the volcanic island of Drangey. It has the feel of an infinity pool merging with the sea, and is consistently rated one of the most beautifully situated pools in the country.

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Siglufjörður

Siglufjörður is Iceland's northernmost town, squeezed between steep mountains at the head of a fjord on the Tröllaskagi Peninsula in North Iceland, about an hour from Akureyri. It has around 1,200 residents today, but at the height of the herring boom in the 1940s and 1950s the population swelled to over 3,000 and the town was the largest and wealthiest in Iceland, processing more than 20 percent of the country's total exports. The herring collapsed in the late 1960s and the town contracted rapidly, but the legacy survives in the award-winning Herring Era Museum and in the colorful, well-preserved harbor buildings and wooden houses that give Siglufjörður its distinctive character. The town is also the setting for the Dark Iceland crime novel series by Ragnar Jónasson.

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The Herring Museum

The Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörður is Iceland's largest maritime museum, spread across three original harbor buildings from 1907 to the 1950s. Winner of the European Museum Award in 2004. Open June to August daily, admission charged.

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Akureyri

Akureyri is Iceland's second-largest town and the undisputed capital of North Iceland, with a population of around 20,000 people sitting at the innermost point of Eyjafjörður, Iceland's longest fjord, about 100 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. Despite its modest size, it functions as a fully equipped city with a university, hospital, airport with domestic and international connections, a botanical garden that is one of the northernmost in the world, a ski resort on the mountain directly above the town, a geothermal spa, and a thriving restaurant and café scene. The town is perhaps best known internationally for its heart-shaped traffic lights, changed from the usual round shape during an economic downturn in 2008 as a gesture of optimism and never changed back. It serves as the natural base for exploring the Diamond Circle route, which connects Mývatn, Goðafoss, Dettifoss, Ásbyrgi, and Húsavík.

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Akureyri Art Museum

The Akureyri Art Museum is the main contemporary art institution in North Iceland, located on Listagil, the street known as Art Street, in the center of Akureyri. Founded in 1993, it hosts a rolling program of exhibitions featuring Icelandic and international artists working across painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, and installation. The exhibitions change throughout the year and the museum emphasizes emerging and mid-career artists alongside more established names. It sits alongside several other small galleries and studios on the same street, making Listagil a compact cultural quarter that can be explored in an afternoon. The museum's café has views over the town and is open during museum hours.

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Akureyrarkirkja Church

Akureyrarkirkja is the Lutheran church that defines the Akureyri skyline, sitting on a hill above the town with twin spires visible from across the Eyjafjördur fjord. Designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, Iceland's first state architect and the designer of Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik, it was consecrated in 1940 and remains the most visited church in North Iceland. Entry is free.

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Akureyri Botanical Garden

The Akureyri Botanical Garden, known in Icelandic as Lystigarðurinn, is one of the world's northernmost botanical gardens, sitting just 50 kilometers from the Arctic Circle. It covers 3.6 hectares on a hillside above Akureyri, with views across Eyjafjördur fjord, and is home to over 7,000 plant species including around 430 native Icelandic flora. Entry is free throughout the summer season.

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Goðafoss

Goðafoss, meaning Waterfall of the Gods, is one of North Iceland's most celebrated waterfalls, sitting directly off the Ring Road about 50 kilometers east of Akureyri on the Skjálfandafljót river. It is 12 meters high and 30 meters wide, split into two horseshoe-shaped cascades by an island called Hrútey in the river above. The name comes from an event in the year 1000 AD when Iceland's Lawspeaker, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoði, decided that Iceland would convert from paganism to Christianity rather than risk a civil war between the two faiths. On returning home from the Althing, he is said to have thrown his statues of the Norse gods into this waterfall, symbolically marking the end of Iceland's pagan era. The waterfall is free to visit, accessible from both banks of the river, and open year-round.

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Húsavík

Húsavík is a coastal town of around 2,300 people on Skjálfandi Bay in northeast Iceland, about an hour north of Akureyri, and Iceland's most established whale watching base. Tours have operated from the harbor since 1995, and the nutrient-rich shallow waters of the bay attract humpback, minke, and blue whales alongside white-beaked dolphins and harbor porpoises through the summer months. The town also has a well-preserved early 20th-century harbor district, a distinctive 1907 church with a red roof overlooking the bay, the Húsavík Whale Museum, the GeoSea geothermal sea baths, and a place in film history as the setting for the 2020 Will Ferrell comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga.

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Ásbyrgi Canyon

Ásbyrgi is a horseshoe-shaped canyon in northeast Iceland, about 3.5 kilometers long with cliff walls rising to 100 meters. Its sheltered floor is carpeted in birch and willow woodland, which is a genuinely rare sight in Iceland, and Norse mythology holds that the canyon was formed by the hoofprint of Sleipnir, Odin's eight-legged horse.

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Dettifoss Waterfall

Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Europe, dropping 44 meters over a 100-meter wide basalt lip on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river in northeast Iceland, within Vatnajökull National Park. Its average discharge of 193 cubic meters of water per second creates a roar that can be heard from several kilometers away and a vibration that can be felt through the rock beneath your feet when you stand at the edge. The water is gray-brown with glacial sediment from Vatnajökull, giving the falls a raw, almost industrial character quite unlike the clear-water cascades of Iceland's south. Dettifoss was the opening location of Ridley Scott's 2012 science fiction film Prometheus, chosen for its alien and primordial appearance. It is accessible from both banks of the river and free to enter.

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Lake Mývatn

Lake Mývatn is a shallow volcanic lake in northeast Iceland, about an hour east of Akureyri on the Ring Road, covering 37 square kilometers with an average depth of just 2.5 meters. Its name means Midge Lake, a reference to the vast swarms of non-biting midges that hatch from the lake each summer and form the base of an extraordinarily rich food chain. The lake supports more species of breeding ducks than anywhere else in the world, with 13 species confirmed including the Barrow's goldeneye, tufted duck, harlequin duck, wigeon, and scaup. The surrounding landscape is one of the most geologically varied in Iceland, combining pseudocraters, lava formations, geothermal mud pools, active volcanic craters, and a geothermal bathing facility within a short circuit of the lake. Mývatn is a central stop on the Diamond Circle scenic route and one of the most visited natural areas in North Iceland.

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Askja Caldera

Askja is a large active volcano and caldera complex in the central highlands of Iceland, sitting within Vatnajökull National Park at around 1,100 meters elevation. The name means box or casket in Icelandic, a reference to the nested structure of calderas within the surrounding Dyngjufjöll mountains. At its center lies Öskjuvatn, Iceland's deepest lake at 217 meters, formed after a catastrophic eruption in 1875 that sent ash across eastern Iceland and as far as mainland Europe. Beside it sits Víti, a smaller explosion crater filled with milky-blue geothermal water at around 25 degrees Celsius, into which bathing is sometimes permitted subject to ranger conditions on the day. Before the Apollo moon landings, NASA used the lunar-like landscape around Askja to train astronauts for surface operations.

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Dimmuborgir

Dimmuborgir, meaning "dark castles" in Icelandic, is a sprawling field of ancient lava formations near Lake Myvatn in North Iceland. Towers, caves, arches, and jagged pillars of solidified lava create a landscape that feels genuinely unlike anything else in the country, with well-marked walking trails threading through the formations in every direction.

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Námafjall Geothermal Area

Námafjall is a geothermal mountain east of Lake Myvatn in North Iceland, and Hverir is the active geothermal field at its base, also known as Hverarönd. The site features boiling mud pots, hissing steam vents, and slopes stained yellow, orange, and red by mineral deposits, all driven by the Krafla volcanic system whose magma chamber sits just 3 to 5 kilometers underground. It is one of the most visually intense and accessible geothermal areas in Iceland, sitting directly off Route 1.

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Egilsstaðir

Egilsstaðir is the largest town in East Iceland, with a population of around 2,500 people, and serves as the main service, transport, and administrative hub for the entire region. It sits on the banks of the Lagarfljót river in the Fljótsdalshérað valley, directly on the Ring Road, and has its own domestic airport with connections to Reykjavík. Founded only in 1947, it is one of Iceland's newer towns, but its central location makes it the natural base for exploring the Eastfjords, Hallormsstaður forest, Hengifoss waterfall, and Lake Lagarfljót, whose resident serpent Lagarfljótsormur has been Iceland's answer to the Loch Ness Monster since the 14th century.

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Seyðisfjörður

Seyðisfjörður is a small town of around 700 people at the innermost point of a steep-sided fjord in East Iceland, reached by the winding mountain pass road over Fjarðarheiði from Egilsstaðir. It is unlike almost anywhere else in Iceland: a compact, architecturally distinctive town with Norwegian-influenced timber buildings in multiple colors, a rainbow-painted street leading to the blue Bláa Kirkjan church, and a cultural scene built around artist residencies, the annual LungA art festival, and weekly summer concerts. It is also Iceland's only port with a direct ferry connection to mainland Europe, via the Norræna ferry service from Denmark and the Faroe Islands.

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Lagarfljót River

Lagarfljót is a glacial lake in the Fljótsdalur valley of East Iceland, 25 kilometers long and up to 112 meters deep. It is fed by meltwater from Vatnajökull, giving it a characteristic gray-green color. The lake is best known as the legendary home of the Lagarfljótsormur, a many-humped serpent-like creature that has been reported in Icelandic records since 1345, earning it the nickname Iceland's Loch Ness monster. The lake sits beside Egilsstaðir, the largest town in East Iceland.

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Fáskrúðsfjörður

Fáskrúðsfjörður is a village of around 700 people in the heart of Iceland's East Fjords, widely known as the French Town of Iceland. From 1880 until 1935 it served as the main operational base for French cod fishermen, primarily from Brittany and Normandy, who came annually to fish Icelandic waters. The legacy is visible throughout the village: street signs are posted in both Icelandic and French, 49 French and Belgian sailors are buried in a graveyard just outside town, and the centerpiece of the village is a beautifully restored 1903 French hospital that now houses a hotel and the French Museum.

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Petra’s Stone Collection

Petra's Stone Collection in Stöðvarfjörður is one of the most distinctive attractions on Iceland's Ring Road: a private home and garden filled with hundreds of thousands of rocks, minerals, and geological specimens collected from the East Iceland countryside by Ljósbjörg Petra María Sveinsdóttir over more than six decades. Petra began collecting stones as a child in 1946 and opened her home to visitors in 1974. She passed away in 2012, and the collection is now maintained by her family.

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The Eggs of Merry Bay

The Eggs of Merry Bay (Eggin í Gleðivík) is an outdoor sculpture installation along the old harbor at Djúpivogur in East Iceland, consisting of 34 oversized granite eggs, each representing one of the 34 bird species that nest in the area. Created in 2009 by Icelandic artist Sigurður Guðmundsson, the eggs are mounted on concrete pedestals along a 900-meter coastal path, with signs identifying each species in both Icelandic and Latin.

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Höfn

Höfn í Hornafirði is a fishing town of around 2,500 people on Iceland's southeast coast, sitting on a low peninsula where the Ring Road rounds the corner between the South Coast and the Eastfjords. Known throughout Iceland as the Lobster Capital, it is the primary landing point for langoustine caught in the cold, clean waters of the southeast, and several of the town's restaurants have built their entire menus around the local catch. The name Höfn simply means harbor in Icelandic, and the working harbor framed by the Vatnajökull ice cap on the skyline gives the town a character that is both practical and unexpectedly dramatic.

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Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon

Jökulsárlón is a glacier lagoon in southeast Iceland at the foot of Breiðamerkurjökull, an outlet glacier of Vatnajökull. It only came into existence in the 1930s when the glacier began retreating, and has grown rapidly since, making it Iceland's deepest lake at 248 meters and covering an area of around 25 square kilometers. Icebergs calved from the glacier drift slowly across the lagoon before flowing out through a short channel to the sea, passing Diamond Beach on the south side of the Ring Road as they go. The lagoon holds seals year-round, who hunt fish in the cold, clear water among the icebergs. Boat tours operate from May to October on both amphibian vehicles and zodiac inflatable boats. The lagoon has appeared in two James Bond films, Tomb Raider, and Batman Begins, among other productions.

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Skaftafell

Skaftafell is a nature reserve and popular hiking area within Vatnajökull National Park in Southeast Iceland, sitting at the foot of Europe's largest glacier by volume. Once a national park in its own right before being absorbed into the larger Vatnajökull park in 2008, it remains one of the most visited outdoor destinations in Iceland, combining accessible glacier hiking, a network of well-marked trails through birch woodland and volcanic landscapes, and the famous Svartifoss waterfall with its dramatic basalt column backdrop. The area is also the departure point for guided glacier hikes on Skaftafellsjökull and Svínafellsjökull, and for ascents of Hvannadalshnúkur, Iceland's highest peak at 2,110 meters.

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Svartifoss Waterfall

Svartifoss, meaning Black Falls, is a 20-meter waterfall in the Skaftafell area of Vatnajökull National Park on Iceland's South Coast, framed by a sweeping wall of dark hexagonal basalt columns that form a natural amphitheater around the cascade. The columns are the same geological formation found at Reynisfjara and elsewhere in Iceland, where lava cools slowly into polygonal shapes, but here their arrangement around a single waterfall is particularly theatrical. The design of Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík's most recognizable church, is widely attributed to this basalt column formation, making Svartifoss one of the more architecturally significant natural sites in the country. A 3-kilometer return hike from the Skaftafell visitor center leads to the falls through birch woodland, passing two smaller waterfalls along the way.

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The "Church Floor"

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Reynisfjara - Black Sand Beach

Reynisfjara is Iceland's most famous black sand beach, sitting on the South Coast just west of the village of Vík í Mýrdal, about 180 kilometers from Reykjavik. The beach is framed by a wall of hexagonal basalt columns and the three offshore Reynisdrangar sea stacks, which folklore says are trolls turned to stone by the rising sun. It is regularly cited as one of the most dramatic non-tropical beaches in the world, and is equally well known for its powerful and unpredictable sneaker waves, which can surge far up the beach without warning.

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Skógafoss

Skógafoss is one of Iceland's largest and most visited waterfalls, dropping 60 meters over a 25-meter wide curtain of water on the South Coast near the village of Skógar. The sheer volume of spray it produces means that on clear days, single and double rainbows are almost guaranteed, making it one of the most photogenic spots in the country.

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Skógar Folk Museum

Skógar Museum (Skógasafn) is one of Iceland's most celebrated regional museums, sitting directly beside Skógafoss waterfall on the South Coast. It holds over 18,000 artifacts spread across three sections: a folk museum, an open-air village of reconstructed turf houses and historical buildings, and a technical museum covering transport and communication. The collection was built over decades by local historian Þórður Tómasson, who founded the museum in 1949 and curated it until his passing in 2022 at the age of 100.

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Seljalandsfoss

Seljalandsfoss is a 60-meter waterfall on Iceland's South Coast, fed by meltwater from Eyjafjallajökull glacier flowing down the Seljalandsá river. It is one of the first major waterfalls visitors encounter heading east from Reykjavík along the Ring Road, about 120 kilometers from the capital. What makes it unusual among Iceland's waterfalls is a path that runs around the base of the cliff and directly behind the falls, allowing visitors to stand inside the curtain of water and look back out through it. The walk takes about 10 minutes and the cavern behind the falls is large enough to move around comfortably, though the path becomes extremely slippery and is closed in winter when ice makes it dangerous. The waterfall faces west and catches sunset light particularly well in the late afternoon. A second waterfall, Gljúfrabúi, is hidden inside a narrow gorge two minutes drive east and is worth the small detour.

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Landmannalaugar

Landmannalaugar, meaning the People's Pools, is the most visited destination in the Icelandic Highlands, sitting at around 600 meters elevation in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve in South Iceland. It is most immediately striking for its rhyolite mountains, where oxidized iron and mineral variation produce hills in shades of pink, rust red, yellow, green, and purple that look unlike any other landscape in Iceland and, for many visitors, unlike anything they have seen anywhere. A natural geothermal pool sits beside the main campsite and hut, where hot spring water mixes with a cool mountain stream to create a bathing temperature of around 36 to 40 degrees Celsius. The area is also the northern trailhead for the Laugavegur, Iceland's most famous multi-day hiking trail, which runs 55 kilometers south to Þórsmörk.

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Geothermal area in Seltún

Seltún is a striking geothermal field within the Krýsuvík volcanic zone on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 40 minutes from Reykjavik. Boiling mud pots, hissing steam vents, and hillsides painted yellow, orange, and red by mineral deposits create a landscape that looks genuinely otherworldly, and a boardwalk trail makes it accessible and safe to explore up close.

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The Bridge Between the Continents

The Bridge Between the Continents is a 15-meter footbridge on the Reykjanes Peninsula that spans the rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. It is one of the very few places on Earth where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rises above sea level, making it possible to walk between two continents in a matter of seconds. Entry is free and it is about 25 minutes from Keflavik International Airport.

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The Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is Iceland's most visited tourist attraction and one of the most recognizable geothermal spas in the world, set in a black lava field on the Reykjanes Peninsula about 20 minutes from Keflavík International Airport and 45 minutes from Reykjavík. Its milky-blue color comes from silica dissolved in the geothermal water, which precipitates to the surface as the water cools and scatters light in the blue wavelengths. The water is maintained at 37 to 39 degrees Celsius year-round and is rich in silica, sulfur, and algae. The lagoon was not designed. It formed accidentally in 1976 when wastewater from the adjacent Svartsengi geothermal power plant began flooding a nearby lava field. A power plant employee with psoriasis bathed in it and found it relieved his condition; word spread, and by 1987 the site had been developed for public bathing. The formal spa facilities opened in 1999.

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Gunnuhver geothermal area

Gunnuhver is Iceland's largest boiling mud pool, a highly active geothermal field on the southwestern tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula within the Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark. Steam vents, bubbling mud pots, and fumaroles cover the landscape, with mineral deposits turning the surrounding rock vivid shades of yellow, orange, and red. It is one of the most dramatic and accessible geothermal areas in the country, just 20 minutes from Keflavik International Airport.

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Reykjavík Old Harbour

The Old Harbor is Reykjavik's most characterful waterfront neighborhood, where converted fishing warehouses now house restaurants, museums, and galleries alongside working boats that still come and go from the pier. Whale watching tours, puffin cruises, and northern lights boat trips all depart from here, making it both a destination and a gateway to the sea.

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Laugavegur Shopping Street

Laugavegur is the main street of central Reykjavik and the busiest in Iceland, running through the historic heart of the city from Hlemmur square to Lækjartorg. It is lined with Icelandic design shops, wool boutiques, restaurants, cafés, galleries, and bars, and forms the spine of Reykjavik's nightlife. The lower section is pedestrianized. The name translates as Wash Road, a reference to the route women once walked to reach the hot springs of Laugardalur with their laundry.

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Sun Voyager - The Solfar Sculpture

The Sun Voyager, known in Icelandic as Sólfar, is a polished steel sculpture on the Reykjavik waterfront that has become one of the most recognizable images of Iceland. Often mistaken for a Viking ship, it was actually described by its creator as a dreamboat, representing the promise of undiscovered territory and the freedom to explore.

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Harpa - Music Hall

Harpa is Reykjavik's concert hall and conference center, sitting on the waterfront at the edge of the Old Harbor. Its glass facade, designed by artist Ólafur Elíasson and Henning Larsen Architects, has made it one of the most photographed buildings in Iceland since it opened in 2011. The public areas are free to enter, and the building is home to the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera.

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Reykjavík City

Reykjavík is the capital and biggest city of Iceland with a population of approximately 124,000. It is the northernmost capital in the world. Despite its small size, you can find many attractions and museums, making Reykjavik a popular destination.

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Sky Lagoon

Sky Lagoon is a geothermal spa on the Kársnes peninsula in Kópavogur, about 6 kilometers south of central Reykjavík, sitting on a cliff edge above Faxaflói Bay. Opened in 2021, it is the newest major geothermal bathing attraction near the capital and the closest to the city with direct ocean views. The main feature is a 70-meter infinity-edge lagoon maintained at around 38 to 40 degrees Celsius, where the water appears to merge with the North Atlantic horizon. The spa also offers the Skjól ritual, a seven-stage wellness sequence that moves between the geothermal lagoon, a cold plunge, an oceanview sauna, a mist room, a sea salt scrub, a steam room, and a crowberry elixir. The architecture draws on traditional Icelandic turf house design, with dark volcanic stone and grass-covered rooflines.