Traveling the Golden Circle in Iceland!
- wilsoncreativeco
- Aug 30, 2015
- 2 min read
After spending a couple great days in the Swiss Alps, it was time to head back to Zurich and catch our plane to Reykjavik. We had a late flight and arrived in the not-so-dark Reykjavik around 1 am. We caught a taxi (very expensive) to a Guesthouse about 10 minutes down the road where we slept for the night. In the morning it was time to head back to the airport and catch the FlyBus to the city. We definitely recommend purchasing FlyBus tickets to get to Reykjavik city since it was so much cheaper than other options (and had free wifi).
Waiting for us at the bus terminal was our CampEasy van rental (more to come). Our original plan was to take a campervan around the famous ‘Ring Road’ but unfortunately with only 5 days, that would be pushing it too much for us. We got situated in our comfy campervan, loaded up with some groceries in the city then hit the road!
Golden Circle
Leaving Reykjavik, we headed towards the ‘touristy’ sites first along a route known as the Golden Circle. We stopped first at Þingvellir National Park where you can see the Tectonic Rift where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are slowly drifting away from each other. There is a place close by where you can actually go scuba diving in between these two plates – however we decided to pass it up as it was pretty chilly. We then headed onwards on Route 36 towards the Geysers.
In Haukadalur, there are two geysers here – Strokkur & Geysir (where the word comes from) – and they were magnificent…and a bit smelly like rotten eggs. The original Geysir doesn’t erupt any longer, but you can still see the other, Strokkur, which erupts every 10 minutes or so. It’s pretty sick.
After about an hour walking around the Geysers we jumped back into the van and continued on to our next sight – Gullfoss. It didn’t take us too long to get to the waterfall, although we stopped a couple times to get some pictures of the Icelandic Horses & Sheep (which Jenna loved)!
Gullfoss is a huge waterfall that is fed by the Hvítá river that plunges into a narrow canyon. You can take a short hike along the path to a cool viewing platform either close to the waterfall or from a platform above. It does get a bit misty/windy so bring a jacket!
We jumped back in the campervan and headed back down towards Selfoss where we slept for the first night. All-in-all, this would be a very easy day trip from Reykjavik if you needed to get back for a flight, etc. We probably spent about 4-5 hours seeing the sights.
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