Description
Summary
Description
Explore Iceland’s most famous sightseeing route at your own pace on this private Golden Circle tour from Reykjavik with Kerid Volcanic Crater. This minibus day tour suits families, history lovers, and private groups of up to 19 who want the Golden Circle without the hassle of crowded tour buses while traveling.
Private booking means one guide and one vehicle for your group alone. The price covers hotel pickup and drop-off in Reykjavik, an English-speaking guide, free Wi-Fi on board, and all parking and entrance fees. The day runs 8 hours from a morning start.
Your Golden Circle day tour starts with pickup from your Reykjavik accommodation. The minibus heads inland out of the city, and the drive to the first stop takes around 45 minutes. Your guide uses that time to set up the history and geology ahead.
The first stop is Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the place where the Althingi, Iceland’s parliament, first met around the year 930. It kept convening there until 1798. Your guide will take you to the Logberg, the law rock, where the lawspeaker once recited the law aloud to anyone who came to listen.
The park is also the clearest place on earth to stand inside the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The North American and Eurasian plates pull apart across the valley floor, and the rift walls make that movement visible. The Oxara River cuts through the middle and drops into the gorge at Oxararfoss Waterfall.
At the Haukadalur Geothermal Field, Geysir gave its name to every geyser in the world but rarely erupts now. Its neighbor Strokkur Geyser does the work instead, firing a column averaging at a height of 66 feet (20 meters) every few minutes. The field has been active for roughly 10,000 years.
Gullfoss Waterfall, the third highlight of the Golden Circle, is another stop. It drops in two stages into a narrow canyon on the Hvita River, fed by meltwater from Langjokull Glacier. Flow averages around 4,900 cubic feet (140 cubic meters) per second in summer and 3,850 cubic feet (109 cubic meters) in winter. On bright days, the spray throws a rainbow across the lower platform.
Kerid Volcanic Crater is the stop most group tours drive straight past. The bowl formed about 6,500 years ago, measures 180 feet (55 meters) deep and 558 feet (170 meters) across, and carries a rim path of 886 feet (270 meters). Rust-red walls drop to a lake that shifts between green and blue with the light.
In addition to the Golden Circle, your guide can add the Secret Lagoon at no extra cost for the tour itself, with admission paid separately. A Blue Lagoon transfer can also be arranged for an added fee.
The order of stops shifts with the weather and the crowds, which is how your guide times Strokkur Geyser so you are not watching it over somebody’s shoulder. Food is not included, so the group stops at a cafe along the route. You return to your Reykjavik accommodation at the end of the day.
Make the most of a private Golden Circle tour with Kerid Volcanic Crater, shaped entirely around your group’s pace. Check availability now by choosing a date.
