Golden Circle

The Golden Circle is a popular tourist route in South Iceland, covering about 300 km looping from Reykjavík into central Iceland and back.

The three primary stops on the route are the national park Þingvellir, the waterfall Gullfoss (meaning "golden falls"), and the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Though Geysir has been inactive for a long time, Strokkur, on the other hand, continues to erupt at every 5-10 minutes interval.

Other stops include Kerið volcano crater, Hveragerði greenhouse village, Skálholt church, and the Nesjavellir or Hellisheidarvirkjun geothermal power plant.

  

UNESCO World Heritage site Thingvellir is holy in the eyes of most Icelanders. This is where our parliament, Althingi, was founded in 930 AD.

History aside, the national park is also significant for the fact that it is located where the North American and Eurasian Plates meet, as the Almannagjá rift bears witness to.

The Geysir hot spring area in Haukadalur valley is unique regardless of the season or weather. Geysir, the world’s most famous erupting hot spring—after which all erupting hot springs are named—was active for 600 years, its eruptions reaching a height of up to 60 meters, when it began to lose force at the dawn of the last century. It hardly ever erupts anymore.

But Geysir’s little brother Strokkur has taken over, treating visitors with 15 to 20-meter-high eruptions roughly every ten minutes.

The queen of Iceland’s waterfalls, Gulfoss, plunging down 32 meters, will cast a spell on you any time of the year. Rainbow-kissed and roaringly powerful in summer, frost-bound and timid in winter, Gullfoss is a fairy tale come true.

Posted in: Iceland