Golden Circle – Iceland’s Most Popular Tour

Iceland Golden Circle
Driving the winding Golden Circle

The “Golden Circle” is the very popular 140-mile loop around west central Iceland that offers a sampling of the island’s geology and history, along with some outstanding sights and a stop at one of the country’s more traditional hot springs. With stops for lunch and a couple of hours at the hot spring, usually Secret Lagoon, it’s a full nine hours. Some options include the huge, manmade Blue Lagoon between Keflavik and the airport. If time permits, both hot springs are worth trying out. 

If, like a lot of people, you’re in Iceland on a short layover and only have time for one day tour, this is the Golden Circle tour is the one most people choose.  

Iceland’s history is not the most exciting in the world, which is probably why it is such a nice place to live now. However, it’s home of the world’s first parliament democracy (circa 1000) and the world’s first women’s president, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir from 1980–1996 . The country has always been a trailblazer in women’s equality. Even now, men and women in workforce have equal pay, while they share equal roles in management and corporate leadership. 

The Real þing

Alþing Parliament Building
Alþing Parliament Building

Originally, the government was centered in Þingvellir is an assembly of local leaders called the Alþing (the “þ” is pronounced like “t” that is almost a “th” ). It is a beautiful plain by a river which, like nearly all rivers in Iceland, is likely purer than American tap water. The Alþing took place there because it was equally distant from the participating communities. The Alþing created a national code of law and put it in writing. It was there that the nations leader, a Viking and pagan, decided it would be most prudent to allow the country to continue its conversion to Christianity. He did this, however, under the condition that paganism would always be legal and accepted for those who chose to pursue it. Being legal, it soon faded into oblivion. Iceland today is a stalwart Lutheran nation.

Between two tetonic plates
Between two tetonic plates

A modest hike will take you through one of the narrowest rifts between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The slowly separating plates are about thirty feet from each of your shoulders with their tops about a hundred feet overhead. I found it rather awe-inspiring to be that intimate with a major planetary geological feature. 

Horse Sense

It is likely your tour will stop by one of the horse farms along the road. Several offer parking spots and even dispensers or vending machines with horse treats. Icelandic horses are unique, brought to the country by the Vikings. They’re small, sure-footed, good natured, and can tolerate the country’s cold and windy winters. The laws protecting them from disease are strict. No horses can be brought into the country and once an Icelandic horse leaves, it can never return. With their long mains and demure attitudes, they are incredibly beautiful creatures.

Icelandic horses
Up close and personal with Icelandic horses

Another common stop is the Gullfoss Waterfall. There is a bit of a walk, but the views are spectacular. They are even more so if you are willing to walk further and get rather wet from their spray. The power I felt being close to these falls was indescribable. Unlike our Niagara Falls, it isn’t one large drop, but consists of several tiers of falls, one after the other. Back in the early twentieth century, the locals wisely stopped Britian from tearing them up to build a dam and power plant. Not only would it have destroyed a natural wonder but would have been rendered useless after the advent of geothermal power. 

Steamed Up

Now an industry run by the government, electricity, heat, and hot water are a trivial part of the cost of living there. Many farms and greenhouses are literally off the grid and make use of their own heat and power systems driven by nearby geothermal sources. Looking into the distance while on the tour, you’ll frequently see billows of steam coming from the hills. Sometimes these are geothermal plants. Sometimes they’re just untapped venting steam coming up through the ground. Iceland is like that. Power to spare.

Another example of steam at work that’s on most tours is the Strokkur Geysir. (Our English word “geyser” comes from the Icelandic.) The geyser is a short walk from the road along a path lined by bubbling, steaming, pools and the constant smell of sulfur. The terrain is rocky and bare. The geyser is good for the impatient. It erupts regularly every four to ten minutes. The longer the wait, the grander the spout. You can get quite close, but it’s a good idea to pay attention to the wind direction and where the water is falling. It’s very hot and there’s a lot of it. (The preceding are lessons learned from experience and not a guidebook.)

Hot Springs/Cold Rain

Aside from the warm, scratchy, wool sweaters, Iceland is best known to tourists for its hot springs. There are many totally natural places to bathe, but they’re not on very many tourist maps because they are far off the beaten path. Most need some sort of human intervention because the water that comes up from underground is just too darn hot. Blue Lagoon, not a natural hot spring, makes a point of telling visitors that the water that feeds it is 130º C (266º F). That’s basically steam and a common temperature for underground water. 

Golden Circle tours will stop at either the famous Blue Lagoon or the smaller and somewhat more traditional Secret Lagoon. For those who don’t want to leave town, there’s also the Sky Lagoon, 5 miles from downtown. The springs are open year-round and winter visitors (or at least the tour companies) it’s a wonderful way to view the Northern Lights. I’m not sure if wool hats and earmuffs are permitted in the pools. 

The Blue Lagoon is huge is constantly being expanded. It apparently takes advantage of its down times to do renovations. Not infrequently does the access road get buried by lava from the many fissures in that part of the peninsula. It features a poolside facial station, bar, and steam room.

Most Popular Secret

The Secret Lagoon lacks those amenities and is considerably more intimate, but I find it a lot more pleasant, though my second visit there was in a cold, heavy downpour. Some people didn’t seem to mind that. I can’t claim to be one of them. Being the last stop on the tour, on my first trip I found myself hanging out with some of the people from our small group.  At both places, it was fun to wander around and listen to all the languages being spoken. (Having virtually no photos of either lagoon, I am intentionally keeping this section short.)

It’s truly unfortunate that you need to book and rate local tours through a service like Viator, or a large tour aggregator and not by the tour guide. They are the ones who can make or break a tour. I’ll leave it at that neither my wife nor I were particularly happy with the way our Golden Circle tour went and provide a link to the review that, for now, Viator has published in full (entitled “It’s all about the tour guide”). I’d recommend searching for tours from only Icelandic websites. For Google, use the search string: golden circle site:.is. With DuckDuckGo, select Iceland from the Region pull-down menu at the top before you search. 

Next: Driving Iceland’s South Coast

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