Iceland attractions

Gatklettur

Gatklettur is a basalt arch rock on the coast at Arnarstapi, on the south side of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland, where waves have punched a round hole straight through the sea cliff. The name means roughly "rock with a hole," and it is also called the Hellnar Arch because it sits on the coastal path between Arnarstapi and Hellnar. On a rough day you can watch the Atlantic surge through the gap, which is reason enough to stop. Gatklettur in Arnarstapi is about a 2.5-hour drive from Reykjavík, and from the village parking lot the arch is only a few minutes' walk along the cliff top. The trail starts near the big stone statue of Bárður Snæfellsás, the half-troll guardian of the peninsula from the medieval Bárðar saga. Most visitors take a few photos and head back within half an hour. If you have more time, keep going: the Gatklettur hike continues about 2.5 km along the cliffs to Hellnar, past basalt columns, small coves and more arches, and takes roughly an hour each way with photo stops. The coast between the two villages has been a protected nature reserve since 1979, so stay on the path and leave the rock formations alone. Summer is the busiest season on these ledges. Kittiwakes and fulmars nest on the cliffs, and Arctic terns breed in the grassland behind them, diving at anyone who wanders too close. In winter the arch is still worth the stop, but the path can be icy and the wind strong, so wear shoes with good grip and keep well back from the edge.

Svínafellsjökull Glacier

Svínafellsjökull glacier is an outlet tongue of Öræfajökull, the ice-capped volcano on the southern edge of Vatnajökull, ending in a gray meltwater lagoon just east of Skaftafell in Vatnajökull National Park, Southeast Iceland. Few glaciers in Iceland let you stand this close to the ice after a two-minute walk from the car. Its crevassed icefall and dark moraines have stood in for other worlds on screen, including scenes in Interstellar, Batman Begins and the lands beyond the Wall in Game of Thrones. From the Svínafellsjökull viewpoints you see the blue and black bands in the ice up close, along with bare valley walls that show how far the glacier has shrunk in recent decades. You can look, but you cannot walk on it. In 2018, Iceland's Civil Protection advised against all travel on the glacier after cracks were found in the Svínafellsheiði mountainside above it, and it asks visitors to stop only briefly at the viewpoints by the glacier tongue. The Icelandic Met Office's 2025 hazard assessment puts the moving rock at possibly more than 60 million cubic meters, so guided hikes in the area now run on neighboring Falljökull instead. To get there, turn off Route 1 onto a short gravel road a few minutes' drive east of the Skaftafell visitor center, about four and a half hours from Reykjavík. A marked path leads from the small parking lot to the viewpoints in a few minutes, and 20 to 30 minutes is enough for the stop. The viewpoint is reachable all year, though the gravel road can be icy or rutted in winter. Svínafellsjökull fits easily into a day with Svartifoss and the Skaftafell trails, and it is on the way east to Fjallsárlón and Jökulsárlón. For a view from above, helicopter flights from Skaftafell trace Svínafellsjökull and neighboring Skaftafellsjökull below the peaks of Öræfajökull.

Höfði House

Höfði House is a white timber house on the Reykjavík waterfront where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met in October 1986 and came close to a deal on cutting their nuclear arsenals. That meeting is widely seen as the beginning of the end of the Cold War, and inside, the flags of the United States and the Soviet Union still hang crossed to mark it. The building is older than the summit by almost 80 years. It was designed in Norway, shipped to Iceland and put up at Félagstún in 1909 for the French consul, Jean-Paul Brillouin, whose name and the year are lettered in gold on a door inside. The poet and entrepreneur Einar Benediktsson lived here next. From 1938 until the end of World War II, Höfði was the British consulate, a period when both Winston Churchill and Marlene Dietrich visited. Reykjavík bought the house in 1958, restored it, and has used it for official receptions since 1967. In August 1991, Iceland signed its recognition of the restored independence of the Baltic states here. A fire on the house's 100th birthday in 2009 damaged the building but spared its irreplaceable contents, and because Höfði is still a working reception house, most visitors see it from the outside. That makes this a short stop, 15 to 30 minutes on the lawn reading the plaques and looking out over the bay toward Mount Esja. It sits on the shore path about a 10-minute walk east of the Sun Voyager sculpture, and the statue of Einar Benediktsson by Ásmundur Sveinsson stands close by. There's no charge and the grounds are open all year, so it fits easily into a walk between the harbor and Laugardalur.

Djúpalónssandur beach

Djúpalónssandur beach is a black pebble cove on the southwest tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, inside Snæfellsjökull National Park in West Iceland. It sits at the end of a short paved side road (Route 572) off Route 574, with the glacier rising behind it and rusted iron from a 1948 shipwreck scattered across the stones. From the parking lot, a path drops through a gap in the lava past two small freshwater ponds, the deep lagoons that give Djúpalónssandur its name. It opens onto a cove of smooth black pebbles framed by jagged rock stacks. The wreckage belongs to the British trawler Epine GY7, which ran aground nearby on March 13, 1948, and it stays on the beach as a memorial, so leave it where it is. Near the start of the beach are four lifting stones that fishermen from the Dritvík station once used to test their strength. They run from Amlóði at 23 kg through Hálfdrættingur (54 kg) and Hálfsterkur (100 kg) to Fullsterkur at 154 kg. Try the small one before you go for the big one. From the beach, a marked trail of about 1 km climbs over the lava to Dritvík, a sheltered cove that was once one of the busiest fishing stations in Iceland. The walk takes 15 to 20 minutes each way. Treat the sea here with real caution. Sneaker waves can run far up the steep beach without warning and the undertow is strong, so stay well back from the waterline and never swim. The national park also asks visitors to leave the pebbles on the beach. You can visit all year, although winter brings short days and icy paths. Allow 45 minutes, or about an hour and a half if you add the Dritvík walk. Arnarstapi and Hellissandur are each about 20 minutes away by car, Reykjavík is close to three hours, and Lóndrangar and Vatnshellir cave are a few minutes along the same road.

The Settlement Exhibition

The Settlement Exhibition is an underground museum at Aðalstræti 16 in central Reykjavík, built around the ruin of a 10th-century Viking Age longhouse. Archaeologists excavated the house in 2001, and it was left exactly where they found it, beneath the city's oldest street. The longhouse walls are the centerpiece, lit in a dark room with the hearth still visible in the middle of the floor. Just north of it runs a fragment of turf wall that is older still, dating from before 871 and among the oldest human traces in Iceland. Screens and models around the ruin show how the first settlers built, heated and furnished a house like this, so it suits anyone curious about the Viking Age who doesn't want a long read. The story continues underground to Aðalstræti 10, a timber house from 1762 that is the oldest surviving building in central Reykjavík. A newer section, opened in May 2022, follows the town from a single farm to a modern capital, and one ticket covers both buildings. The museum shop is at the Aðalstræti 16 entrance. Run by Reykjavík City Museum, the exhibition is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00, which makes it a good plan for a rainy afternoon or a dark winter day. Most visitors spend about an hour inside. The Reykjavík City Card covers entry, and the museum publishes current ticket prices on its rate list. Austurvöllur, the Parliament House and City Hall are all within a two-minute walk.

Hengifoss

Hengifoss waterfall is a 128-meter drop in Fljótsdalur valley, East Iceland, at the inner end of Lake Lagarfljót about 35 km from Egilsstaðir. It's one of the tallest waterfalls in Iceland and the best-known hike in the east, and the red stripes in its gorge are what people remember. Those stripes are thin red layers between dark lava flows, the remains of old soils baked between eruptions millions of years ago. You can drive either shore of the lake to get there, Route 931 on the west side or Route 95 and then Route 931 along the east side through Hallormsstaður forest. Both take roughly 40 minutes, and the parking lot is right by the main road. The Hengifoss trail starts through a gate by the service center and climbs a flight of stairs, then follows a gravel path for about 2 km. It's moderately steep without being difficult, and most people reach the viewpoint in 40 to 60 minutes. Plan on two hours or so for the round trip with stops. About 1.2 km up you pass Litlanesfoss, a smaller fall of roughly 25 to 30 meters framed by unusually tall basalt columns. Many hikers like it as much as the main event. Side paths drop into the canyon below Hengifoss, but they're steep and loose, and the gorge edges are a real fall risk, so keep children close. Summer and early fall are the easiest months, when the path is dry and the light lasts. In winter the upper trail can be icy, so bring microspikes and check the official road-conditions map before driving. Rangers at the service center can tell you how the trail is that day. The parking lot is paid. Check the signs and pay on arrival, since unpaid visits are usually billed later with an added fee. After the hike, Skriðuklaustur and the Snæfellsstofa visitor center are just a few minutes down the road.

Kirkjufell

Kirkjufell is a 463-meter mountain on the north shore of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland, standing on its own about 3 km west of Grundarfjörður. Its name means Church Mountain, and from the east its narrow ridge looks like a steeple. The drive from Reykjavík takes about 2 hours and 30 minutes, and you have almost certainly seen its arrowhead shape in photos before you arrive. The postcard view comes from Kirkjufellsfoss, a small, stepped waterfall across Route 54 from the mountain. A short path from the parking lot leads to the falls in a few minutes, and a footbridge crosses the river so you can line Kirkjufell up behind the water. For a quieter angle, drive the shore road around the mountain or look back at it from Grundarfjörður harbor. Timing matters more than usual here. Tour buses crowd the viewpoint around midday, so come early in the morning or in the evening, when the light is lower and warmer. On clear winter nights, Kirkjufell mountain is one of the most photographed northern lights spots in Iceland, and 30 to 45 minutes covers the walk and photos. The lot beside Kirkjufellsfoss charges for parking, with license-plate cameras and payment by app or online, so check the signs for the current rate. There are no services at the site itself. Grundarfjörður, a few minutes east, has gas, a supermarket, cafés, a swimming pool and a campsite. Climbing Mount Kirkjufell is a serious undertaking. The route crosses loose scree and exposed rock with fixed ropes, and several people have died on it. Since 2022 the landowners have closed the mountain to hikers for much of the year, so check the current rules locally, and only attempt it in summer with experience or a local guide.

Seltún Geothermal Area

Seltún is a high-temperature geothermal area in Krýsuvík on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 40 minutes' drive from central Reykjavík. The hillside is a mess of boiling mud pots, hissing steam vents and clay stained yellow, red and green by minerals, and you will smell the sulfur before you open the car door. For a close look at raw geothermal ground without a long drive, the Seltún geothermal area is hard to beat. A boardwalk loop runs straight through the most active part, close enough to feel the heat coming off the pools. From its upper end, a path climbs the slope for a wider view over the field and back toward Kleifarvatn lake. Sulfur was mined at Krýsuvík in past centuries, long before anyone built a boardwalk for visitors. Stay on the boardwalk and marked paths. The crust around the vents can be thin over boiling water and mud, so the Seltún hot springs are for looking at, never for bathing in. In rain and frost the boards and steps get slippery, and shoes with good grip make a real difference in winter. Seltún sits right beside Route 42 between Kleifarvatn and the south coast, and it is open all year. Thirty minutes to an hour covers the boardwalk and the path above it. If you want another short stop, the Grænavatn crater lake is a few minutes down the road. Entry is free, but the parking lot next to the field charges by number-plate recognition: 750 ISK per day for a car with up to five seats and 1,500 ISK for larger vehicles, with stays under 10 minutes free. Pay on site or through the Checkit app; unpaid fees are billed to the vehicle owner, and rental companies may add a handling charge. Toilets and information boards are by the parking lot.

Camp Egilsstadir and Egilsstadastofa Visitor Center

Camp Egilsstaðir is the town campsite in Egilsstaðir, East Iceland, at Kaupvangur 17 in the town center, and the same building houses Egilsstaðastofa, the local visitor center. Most Ring Road travelers in the east end up here for a night, with the shops, the swimming pool and the Lagarfljót river a short walk away. At Egilsstaðastofa visitor center, staff answer questions about East Iceland and sell drinks, ice cream, souvenirs, stamps and bus tickets, so you can sort out tomorrow's route over coffee before you pitch the tent. The bus to Akureyri stops at the campsite parking lot, as do buses to Seyðisfjörður, Borgarfjörður eystri and Reyðarfjörður. Unlike many Icelandic campsites, this Egilsstaðir campsite is open all year with facilities available around the clock. Inside there are seven showers, toilets including an accessible shower and toilet, a laundry, an indoor kitchen with a kettle and microwave, a sitting area and free Wi-Fi. Outside you'll find a covered dishwashing area and a children's playground. The listed rate is 2,950 ISK per adult aged 13 to 67, showers included, and 2,250 ISK for seniors and disabled guests. Children 12 and under camp free. Electricity is 2,000 ISK per 24 hours, and an overnight tax of 400 ISK per unit is added. In high season, every pitch is booked and paid for online through the official website, and July and August fill up, so reserve ahead. In winter, campers use a marked zone behind the main building and can pay at a self-service card terminal or an honesty box when reception is closed. Egilsstaðastofa keeps seasonal hours: weekdays 9:00 to 15:00 in May and September, and daily 8:00 to 17:00 from June through August. It closes in the low season. If you're camping in Egilsstaðir in winter, check the official road-conditions map and weather warnings before you leave town, because the mountain roads around it can close in storms.

Seljavallalaug Swimming Pool

Seljavallalaug is an outdoor swimming pool fed by a natural hot spring, set against the mountainside in a narrow valley below Eyjafjallajökull on Iceland's South Coast. Local people built it in 1923 so children could learn to swim, and at 25 meters long and 10 meters wide it was the largest pool in Iceland until 1936. The reason to come is the setting more than the swim. You change in a concrete hut, step into warm water with green slopes rising on three sides, and reach it on foot rather than through a turnstile. When Eyjafjallajökull erupted in 2010, ash filled the pool completely, and volunteers dug it out the following summer. The Seljavallalaug swimming pool lies between Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, about 2 hours' drive from Reykjavík. Turn off the Ring Road onto Route 242 (Raufarfellsvegur) and follow it to the small parking lot at the end. From there, an easy path follows the stream up the valley for 15 to 20 minutes, with one or two rocky spots to step across. Expect warm water, not hot. The spring flows in at one corner, which is the warmest spot, and on a cold or windy day the rest of the pool feels closer to cool. Volunteers clean it only about once a year, so by late summer algae coats the walls and floor and makes them slippery. Entry is free, and a donation box helps pay for upkeep. The hut has basic changing rooms, but there are no showers, toilets or lifeguard, so bring a towel and carry out everything you bring in. An hour covers the walk, a swim and a dry-off, and early morning or evening is the time to go if you want the pool mostly to yourself.

Camping Hamrar

Camping Hamrar is the campsite at the Hamrar outdoor center on the southern edge of Akureyri, North Iceland, beside the Kjarnaskógur forest park. Since the old town-center campsite at Þórunnarstræti closed, it is where you pitch a tent in Akureyri, and the center is only a few minutes' drive away. The scout movement runs Hamrar, and the forest trails start right behind the pitches. Tents, caravans, campervans and motorhomes all share the same spacious grounds, with toilets, showers, cooking facilities, a washing machine and dryer, electricity, internet and play equipment. There is also boat rental, and a sleeping loft gives you a roof without paying for a hotel. Hamrar is open all year, so it works for winter campervan trips as well as the summer rush. Booking reserves nights rather than a pitch, and you choose your spot on arrival and check in with the warden. Under-18s need to be with a guardian. From the Hamrar campsite, Goðafoss is about half an hour east and Lake Mývatn a little over an hour. The latest published rates are from 2025: 2,500 ISK per adult per night, or 2,200 ISK a night from the second night when you buy several nights at once. Seniors 67 and over pay 2,100 ISK, children under 18 with their family stay free, and each unit adds 500 ISK including tourist tax. Electricity is 1,500 ISK a night and the sleeping loft 4,400 ISK per person, so check the official website for 2026 prices before you go.

Mosskogar Camping

Mosskogar camping is a campsite on a family-run organic farm in Mosfellsdalur, a green valley above the town of Mosfellsbær about 17 kilometers from central Reykjavík. The Icelandic name is Mosskógar, and the pitches sit beside vegetable beds and a tree nursery, with a greenhouse as the cooking area. It is quieter than camping in the city, yet downtown is still around 20 minutes away by car. Tents, caravans and campervans share sheltered grass pitches, and there are toilets, showers, electricity and laundry. The greenhouse doubles as a lounge with stove tops and dishes, which feels like a small luxury on a wet evening. Location is the main selling point. Route 36 runs up the valley toward Þingvellir, so Mosskógar works well as a first or last night of a Golden Circle or Ring Road trip, and the Mount Esja trailhead is about ten minutes away. Lágafellslaug pool and the shops in Mosfellsbær are close for supplies. The campsite does not publish its prices or opening dates. Contact it directly before you arrive to confirm rates and that it is open, especially in spring, late fall or winter.

Árbær Open Air Museum

Árbær Open Air Museum (Árbæjarsafn) is a museum of old houses in Reykjavík's eastern suburbs, about 8 kilometers from downtown, and it's part of Reykjavík City Museum. As the city grew, many of its older buildings were moved here, and walking between them is the easiest way in Iceland to see how townspeople lived before concrete and geothermal heating took over. It's the largest open-air museum of its kind in the country. Many of the houses are furnished for different periods, so you move from turf-roofed farm rooms to tidy merchant parlors in a few steps. There's a small church still used for events, an old-style general store selling sweets and Dillon's café for coffee and hot chocolate. An English guided tour starts every day at 13:00 and runs just over an hour. It skips Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Good Friday and Easter Day, but otherwise it's the best way to get inside the houses with some context. Give yourself about two hours in total. From June to August the museum is open daily 10:00–17:00, and from September to May daily 13:00–17:00. Winter visits are short but worthwhile, especially on the December Sundays when the Christmas program brings Yule Lads, a church service and dancing around the tree. The drive from downtown Reykjavík takes roughly 15 minutes, and Árbæjarlaug pool is just over a kilometer away. Children, disabled visitors and Reykjavík City Card holders get in free. For everyone else, check the current adult ticket price with the museum before you go.

Sundhöllin

Sundhöllin, officially Sundhöll Reykjavíkur, is Reykjavík's oldest swimming hall, a short walk downhill from Hallgrímskirkja at Barónsstígur 45a. It opened in 1937 to a design by state architect Guðjón Samúelsson, the same man behind the church at the top of the hill, and it remains a city-run neighborhood pool rather than a tourist spa. The original indoor hall, with its diving boards, is in daily use. An extension that opened on December 3, 2017 added an outdoor area, and today the Sundhöllin public baths have a 25-meter pool, a children's pool, a wading pool and an accessible pool, plus hot tubs, a whirlpool and a cold tub. There are also a steam room and a sauna, and a rooftop terrace with loungers for the rare sunny afternoon. Laugavegur is a couple of blocks away, so most downtown hotels are within walking distance of the Sundhöllin swimming pool. The water is geothermally heated, so the outdoor pool stays open all year, and a winter evening in the hot tubs is the best way to see how Reykjavík unwinds. Allow an hour or so. Check the hours before you go. Normal weekday opening is 06:30–22:00, but since August 25, 2026, a changing-room renovation has cut weekday public hours, closing the pool for part of the morning and early afternoon on every weekday except Wednesday and limiting it to about 60 guests at a time. The city expects normal hours to return once the work finishes in the fall, and the indoor pool is also reserved for school swimming on weekday mornings. Under the city's fee schedule in force since May 5, 2026, adults pay 1,500 ISK and children aged 10 to 17 pay 400 ISK, while children under 10 swim free with a guardian. Towel rental is 860 ISK and swimsuit rental 1,270 ISK. As at every Icelandic pool, you shower without a swimsuit before getting in.

Arctic Adventures Silfra Fissure

The Silfra fissure is a flooded crack in Þingvellir National Park, about 45 minutes' drive from Reykjavík, in the rift between the North American and Eurasian plates. Its glacial water is so clear that snorkelers can often see the far walls of the fissure from the surface. The water starts as meltwater from the Langjökull ice cap, then filters for decades through porous lava about 50 kilometers underground before it seeps into the fissure. It holds at 2–4°C all year. Snorkelers drift through the narrow Big Crack, over the boulders of Silfra Hall and past the deep blue Silfra Cathedral before finishing in the shallow lagoon. Silfra snorkeling in Iceland needs no experience, but you can't just jump in. Park rules require full cold-water protection (a dry suit, or a thick wetsuit for snorkelers, plus hood, gloves and neoprene boots), and nobody enters alone. Most people go with a guided operator, who handles the gear, briefing and permit, and operators typically set a minimum age of 12 along with height and weight limits. Silfra fissure diving is stricter. Divers need an Open Water certificate and a dry suit certificate, or written proof of 10 logged dry suit dives in the past two years. The maximum depth is 18 meters, and caves or overhead areas are off-limits. The fissure is beside the P5 (Valhöll) parking lot near Þingvellir Church. Parking for a car with up to five seats costs 1,000 ISK for the day, payable at the machines or online. Tours usually include the national park's Silfra fee but not parking. Trips run year-round because the water temperature barely changes. Snorkelers usually spend 30 to 40 minutes in the water, and the whole visit takes roughly two and a half to four hours. Winter air is the real challenge, so bring thermal layers and wool socks, and afterward walk over to Peningagjá and the Almannagjá gorge.

Brimketill Lava Rock Pool

The Brimketill lava rock pool is a round basin the sea has worn into the black lava shelf on the south coast of the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 9 kilometers west of Grindavík. On a day with a big swell, the Atlantic pours over the edge, fills the bowl and drains out again before the next wave, and watching that happen is the whole point of the stop. Forget any idea of a dip. The water is cold, churning seawater, the site isn't supervised, and waves can wash across the surrounding rocks with no warning. Getting into the pool or the sea here can be life-threatening, so stay on the platform and hold on to children. Local legend says the pool once belonged to a giantess named Oddný, who came here to bathe. Brimketill sits on the ocean side of Road 425, roughly 30 minutes' drive from Keflavík Airport. A short set of stairs runs from the parking lot down to an extended viewing platform, which means it isn't wheelchair accessible. It's free to visit, there are no facilities, and 15 to 20 minutes is usually enough. Come when the sea is rough if you want drama, and bring a waterproof jacket, because spray can reach almost to the parking lot. Calmer days are the time to see into the pool itself. The Bridge Between Continents and the Reykjanes lighthouse are a short drive west, so Brimketill fits easily into a loop of the Reykjanes Peninsula. This corner of Iceland is volcanically active, and the area around Grindavík has seen repeated eruptions and road closures since 2023. Check the official safety and road-conditions updates on the day you plan to go, stay on marked paths, and respect any closure signs.

Reykjavík Park and Zoo

The Reykjavík Park and Zoo is a family park and small zoo in the Laugardalur valley, a few kilometers east of downtown Reykjavík. Called Fjölskyldu- og húsdýragarðurinn in Icelandic, it pairs a barn full of Icelandic farm animals with seals, Arctic foxes, play areas and summer rides, and it keeps small children busy for hours. The zoo half focuses on Icelandic animals, from farmyard regulars like goats to seals and Arctic foxes, with a few exotic species from elsewhere. A daily schedule of feeding and animal activities is posted at the entrance, and plenty of the farm animals can be petted. On the family park side you'll find play areas, rides and a cafeteria that's open every day. The Reykjavík zoo is open every day of the year, 10:00 to 18:00 from June 1 to August 31 and 10:00 to 17:00 the rest of the year. Summer is the time to come with kids, because the staffed rides run daily from June 1 to August 18 and otherwise only on weekends in spring and fall, weather permitting. The animals are out year-round, so a winter visit still works if you just want the zoo side. Admission is 2,800 ISK for adults and 1,600 ISK for children aged 6 to 17, while children 5 and under and people with disabilities enter free. Pets aren't allowed except on set days for dogs, and bikes, scooters and skateboards stay outside the gates. Allow two to three hours. The park is at Múlavegur 2, with free parking shared with the Skautahöllin ice rink, and buses 2, 5, 15 and 17 stop at Laugardalshöll nearby. Next door is the Botanic Garden, and Laugardalslaug, the city's largest pool, is a short walk away. Between them, it's easy to fill a whole family day without getting back in the car.

The Geothermal Exhibition

The Geothermal Exhibition is a visitor center inside the Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Plant (Hellisheiðarvirkjun), run by ON Power on the slopes of Mount Hengill about 25 km east of Reykjavík. The plant is one of the largest geothermal plants in the world, and the exhibition shows where the hot water in every Reykjavík shower comes from. You'll find it just off Route 1, about 30 km west of Selfoss, so the drive takes roughly 25 minutes from the capital. That puts it right on the way to Hveragerði, the South Coast and the Golden Circle, and the steam plumes you see from the highway are your landmark. Inside, a self-guided audio tour in English or Icelandic takes about 45 to 60 minutes. It explains how steam and hot water are pulled from deep underground and turned into electricity and district heating for the capital area. You can't enter the Hellisheiði power plant itself, but viewing decks look into the turbine halls and over the working areas, and 3D models of the turbines and heat exchangers fill in the rest. Science communicators on the floor are happy to answer questions, which is where many visitors get the most out of the stop. Groups can book guided tours, including Carbfix tours that cover the carbon-storage project at the plant and can include a visit to an injection site. The Geothermal Exhibition in Iceland is open every day, from 9:00 to 17:00 between April 1 and October 31 and from 9:00 to 16:00 between November 1 and March 31. It closes on some holidays, so check the official website before you go. Tickets are booked online, and the price shows at checkout. Parking is free, and almost all of the exhibition is wheelchair accessible, with elevators to every level except the third-floor balconies. The Kaffi Orka café sells coffee, pastries and beer brewed with geothermal power. On a wet or windy day it makes a sensible indoor stop, and it pairs well with the hot river at Reykjadalur, about 15 minutes farther east.

Reykjavík Maritime Museum

The Reykjavík Maritime Museum is a maritime museum on the Old Harbour in Reykjavík, housed in a former fish processing plant at Grandagarður 8 in the Grandi district. Known in Icelandic as Sjóminjasafnið, it tells the story of the fishing industry that built modern Iceland, and it includes a guided tour of a Cod Wars coast guard ship moored outside. The museum is one of the sites run by the Reykjavík City Museum. Its permanent exhibition, Fish & Folk: 150 Years of Fisheries, follows the trade from open rowing boats to modern trawlers through photos, objects and hands-on displays. A second exhibition, A View of the North, covers how the loss of a French naval vessel became part of Icelandic history. At the pier outside sits the coast guard vessel Óðinn, which served in the Cod Wars with Britain and in many rescues at sea before it joined the museum in 2008. Guided tours on board run daily at 13:00, 14:00 and 15:00 from March 1 to October 31. The museum notes that the ship isn't suited to visitors with reduced mobility or claustrophobia. The Iceland Maritime Museum is open daily from 10:00 to 17:00, all year. Adult admission is 2,550 ISK, the Óðinn tour alone is 1,940 ISK, and a combined museum and ship ticket is 3,850 ISK. Children under 18 and Reykjavík City Card holders get in free. From downtown Reykjavík it's about a 15-minute walk along the harbor. Give it about 90 minutes with the ship tour, which makes it an easy pairing with a whale-watching trip from the same harbor or with Whales of Iceland a few minutes' walk away.

Tjaldsvæðið í Svínafelli

Svínafell camping is the farm campsite at Svínafell in Öræfi, Southeast Iceland, directly below the ice of Vatnajökull and about 7 kilometers east of Skaftafell along the Ring Road. Svínafell Tourist Service runs Tjaldsvæðið í Svínafelli, with room for tents, campervans and caravans plus a handful of huts. It is the quieter alternative to the big national park campground at Skaftafell, close enough that the trailheads are a few minutes away. Everything happens in Skáli, the service building, which has shared toilets and showers, small electric stoves, a refrigerator, hot water for washing up and tables for about 80 people. Pots and utensils are not provided, so bring your own. There is also no electricity for campervans or caravans, which matters if you rely on a hook-up. The campsite, huts and Skáli are open from May 1 to September 30. For 2026, camping costs 2,300 ISK per person plus taxes, and children up to 13 stay free. Pitches cannot be reserved, so in July and August aim to arrive by late afternoon. Plan on two nights if you want to walk in Skaftafell, where the trail to Svartifoss starts. The Svínafellsjökull glacier tongue is about 3 kilometers from the farm, and the Fjallsárlón and Jökulsárlón glacier lagoons are within an hour's drive east. Reykjavík is roughly four and a half hours away by car.

Þórufoss

Þórufoss is a waterfall on the Laxá í Kjós river in the Kjós district, roughly 45 minutes' drive from Reykjavík on the slow road toward Þingvellir. The river drops about 18 meters over a curved ledge into a small canyon of dark rock and moss, and on most days you share the viewpoint with a handful of people at most. From Route 36, the main road toward Þingvellir, turn onto Route 48 (Kjósarskarðsvegur) and follow it for about 5.6 kilometers to a small parking lot beside the road. It is a short, easy walk from there to the canyon rim. The Þórufoss waterfall had few visitors until it appeared as a filming location in HBO's Game of Thrones. Fans still come for that, but the real draw is the width of the curtain after rain or snowmelt, when the river runs full. In a dry spell the flow drops noticeably, and in winter the falls often freeze into a wall of ice. Parking is free and there are no facilities, so plan on 20 to 30 minutes and bring what you need. Summer gives the easiest driving; outside it, check the official road-conditions map and weather warnings before you go. Keep well back from the canyon edge, which gets slippery when wet or icy. Most people pair Þórufoss with Þingvellir National Park, about 15 minutes further on. With a longer day, continue around Hvalfjörður to the trailhead for Glymur, one of the tallest waterfalls in Iceland.

Glymur Waterfall

Glymur waterfall is a 198-meter waterfall on the Botnsá river at the head of Hvalfjörður in West Iceland, the second-tallest in the country. It falls as a thin white ribbon into a deep, moss-lined canyon, and the only way to see it properly is a steep half-day hike along the rim. The trail starts at a gravel parking lot at the end of the road in Botnsdalur, about an hour's drive north of Reykjavík via Route 1 and Route 47 around the fjord. The full Glymur waterfall hike is a loop of about 7 kilometers with roughly 400 meters of climbing, and most people need three to four hours. Early on you pass through Þvottahellir, a small cave, then cross the Botnsá on a log with a guide rope before the path climbs to a series of viewpoints facing the falls. That upper trail is why the hike suits fit, sure-footed walkers. Ground along the canyon edge is loose in places, the drops are sheer and unfenced, and closing the loop means wading the shallow river above the falls. If that sounds like too much, turning back at the cave still gives you a good feel for the Glymur canyon, or you can walk up one side and return the same way. Summer is the season for Glymur. The log crossing is seasonal, so check its status before you go if you plan the full loop, and skip the hike entirely when there is snow, ice or thawing ground. Bring water, food and a windproof layer, since you'll find no services at the trailhead. Arrive early on summer weekends to get a parking space, then rest your legs with a soak at Hvammsvík on the southern shore of Hvalfjörður, about 30 minutes back toward Reykjavík. Guided tours from the city can combine the two.

Gerðuberg Cliffs

The Gerðuberg cliffs are a long wall of basalt columns on the western edge of the Hnappadalur valley, just off Route 54 at the start of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland. On a road trip into the peninsula they make one of the easiest first stops, and from Route 54 they look like a row of giant pencils stacked along the hillside. Up close the regularity is almost hard to believe. Most columns stand 7 to 14 meters high and 1 to 1.5 meters across, pressed side by side like organ pipes. Unlike the basalt columns at Reynisfjara or Svartifoss, Gerðuberg rarely draws a crowd, and you can walk the whole length of the wall in peace. Gerðuberg sits about 46 km north of Borgarnes, roughly 35 minutes away, and about an hour and three quarters from Reykjavík. A gravel side road of about 1 km leads from Route 54 to a small parking area at the foot of the cliff, and there is no entrance fee. Give it 30 to 45 minutes, or longer if you climb the slope beside the columns for a view across the lava plain toward the coast, staying back from the edge where the rock is loose. The Gerðuberg basalt cliffs are worth a stop in any season: late afternoon light in summer brings out every crack between the columns, while in winter a cap of snow on each column top makes a strong photo, though the gravel road can be icy. Landbrotalaug, a tiny natural hot pot, is only a few minutes away. Ytri-Tunga beach, where seals often haul out, is farther west along Route 54.

Cathedral of Christ the King

The Cathedral of Christ the King, known locally as Landakotskirkja, is the Catholic cathedral in Reykjavík, on Landakot hill in the old west side of downtown. It is the seat of the Catholic Church in Iceland and the only Catholic cathedral in the country, a short uphill walk from Tjörnin pond and the Alþingi parliament building. Most visitors assume Hallgrímskirkja is the big cathedral in Reykjavík, but the city has two cathedrals, and this is the one people walk past without knowing it. Guðjón Samúelsson, the state architect behind Hallgrímskirkja and Akureyrarkirkja, designed it in a neo-Gothic style that stands out among Iceland's churches. It was consecrated on July 23, 1929, and was the largest church in the country at the time. Look up at the tower: it ends in a flat top instead of a spire, which makes the building easy to pick out from Tjörnin. Inside, the nave is bright and simple, with pointed arches and stained glass, and much of the furniture came from a Dutch workshop. The congregation has grown fast in recent decades, mostly through immigration, so Mass is said in Icelandic, Polish and English. If you want to attend, the English Mass is on Sunday evenings at 6 PM, but check the parish schedule first because times can change. Entry is free, and the church is usually open from early morning until about 6:30 PM on weekdays, with longer hours on weekends. Tourists should not walk around during services, so time your visit between Masses and keep your voice down. Fifteen to 20 minutes is enough, and it pairs well with a loop past Tjörnin, Austurvöllur square and the Settlement Exhibition.