Book nowEvery bed on the Ring Road in June is booked months ahead, as are the car, the whale boat and the Blue Lagoon: book all of it before anything else.
Hours, prices, road times and coordinates are from general knowledge; check road.is and the weather at vedur.is every morning.
17 June, the day of independence: parades, music and families out in every town, with the biggest celebrations in Reykjavík and Akureyri.
🔗 official page visiticeland.com
Dates from general knowledge — check the official site
Eight days: the Golden Circle, the south coast, the glacier lagoon, the East Fjords, Dettifoss and Mývatn, whales and Akureyri, the long road west, Reykjavík and the Blue Lagoon.
Land at 8:00, the car, and the Golden Circle: the rift at Þingvellir, Strokkur's eruptions, Gullfoss. Kerið's crater on the way to Hella.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →1 h 15 minheadlights always on
Take gravel protection with the insurance. Shop for snacks and water at the Bónus or Krónan supermarket on the way; food at the sights is dear.
The rift valley where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart, and where Iceland's parliament, the Alþingi, met in the open from 930.
parking about 1,000 ISK
Walk down the Almannagjá gorge, the wall of the American plate, to the Law Rock and the Öxarárfoss waterfall, an hour. Parking is paid by app or at the machine.
The hot-spring field that gave the world the word geyser; the great Geysir is mostly quiet, but Strokkur beside it shoots water 20 metres up every 5–10 minutes.
freeday's highlightscalding water
An hour on. Stand upwind of Strokkur and wait: the pool bulges blue a second before it blows. Keep behind the ropes; the water is near boiling.
The visitor centre across the road has soup in bread bowls for lunch. An hour and a quarter.
A waterfall of the Hvítá river dropping 32 metres in two steps into a narrow canyon, saved from a hydro dam in the 1920s.
freespray
Ten minutes on. The lower path goes out onto a ledge beside the falls; waterproofs, the spray soaks. Forty-five minutes.
A volcanic crater of red scoria with a green lake at the bottom, about 3,000 years old.
about 600 ISK each
Fifty minutes south. Walk the rim, 20 minutes, then down to the water. Then 40 minutes on to Hella.
4,000–6,000 ISK each
Guesthouses here often cook dinner; otherwise the restaurant in Hella. Icelandic lamb soup is the dish. Sleep early: it will not get dark.
Hella to Vík, about 1 h 45 min of driving. Two waterfalls, a guided walk on the Sólheimajökull glacier, and Reynisfjara's black beach in the evening.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A 60-metre waterfall with a path running round behind it, and Gljúfrabúi, a second fall hidden in a gorge next to it.
parking about 1,000 ISKsoaking spray
Thirty-five minutes east. The path behind the fall is wet and slippery; full waterproofs. Walk ten minutes north to Gljúfrabúi and wade into the gorge to see it.
A 60-metre waterfall 25 metres wide falling from the old sea cliffs, where rainbows form on sunny days.
free527 steps
Thirty minutes on. Walk up to the spray at the base, then the 527-step stair to the platform at the top; the path beyond follows the river past more falls.
3,000–5,000 ISK each
The café by the falls or the hotel, soup and bread, or a picnic from the supermarket.
A tongue of the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap, which sits on the Katla volcano, with ridges, crevasses and ash bands in the ice.
about 15,000 ISK eachday's highlightbook ahead
Fifteen minutes off Route 1. Guides from several companies meet at the car park and fit crampons, harness and axe; the walk on the ice is about two hours of three.
Never walk onto the glacier without a guide. Wear boots and waterproofs; the rest is provided.
A black-sand beach under a cliff of hexagonal basalt columns, with the Reynisdrangar sea stacks offshore.
freesneaker waves
Forty minutes on. The waves here are deadly: big ones run far up the sand without warning and have dragged people out. Stay well back from the water and never turn your back on it. The columns and the cave are at the east end.
5,000–7,000 ISK each
Fifteen minutes on. Restaurants in Vík serve Arctic char and fish soup. The church on the hill above the village is the photograph at 23:00, still in daylight.
Vík to Höfn, about 4 hours on the road. A canyon, a walk to Svartifoss in Skaftafell, then the icebergs of Jökulsárlón by boat and on the Diamond Beach.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A winding canyon 100 metres deep, its walls covered in moss, cut by a small river through soft rock.
parking about 1,000 ISK
An hour east, three km off Route 1 on gravel. The path climbs along the rim to viewing platforms, 40 minutes there and back. Keep to the path: the moss is fragile and the paths close when it is damaged.
A waterfall in Skaftafell, part of Vatnajökull National Park, falling over a cliff of black basalt columns that hang like organ pipes.
parking about 1,000 ISKuphill
An hour on. From the visitor centre, 45 minutes up and about 4,000 steps on a good path, past two other falls. Lunch at the visitor centre café afterwards. Two and a half hours in all.
3,000–4,500 ISK each
Food trucks and the café at the visitor centre. Then 50 minutes east under the ice cap.
A lagoon at the foot of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, filled with icebergs that break off it and drift out to sea, some a thousand years old.
about 7,500 ISK eachday's highlightbook ahead
The amphibious boats drive into the lagoon for 40 minutes among the bergs; the guide passes round a piece of ice to taste. Seals often lie on the floes near the mouth.
Book a slot; walk the shore before or after for photographs of the blue ice.
The black-sand beach where icebergs from Jökulsárlón wash up and glitter at the water's edge.
freewaves
Across Route 1 from the lagoon, both sides of the river mouth. The light is best in the evening. Then an hour on to Höfn.
6,000–9,000 ISK each
Höfn's harbour restaurants serve the langoustine the town is known for, grilled in garlic butter or on pizza.
Höfn to Egilsstaðir, about 3 h 30 min of driving. Vestrahorn over the dunes of Stokksnes, then the fjords; it is National Day, with flags and parades in every town.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →A jagged 454-metre mountain rising from the black-sand dunes of the Stokksnes peninsula, one of Iceland's most photographed views.
about 1,000 ISK eachday's highlight
Fifteen minutes east of Höfn; the land is private and the café at the gate charges entry. Walk out across the dunes to the wet sand at low tide for the reflection.
A replica Viking village built as a film set stands by the café. An hour and a half.
The coast of long fjords and steep mountains in Iceland's east, with small fishing villages at their heads.
1 h 15 mingravel stretch
The road follows each fjord in and out. Reindeer graze by the road here, the only wild ones in Iceland. Pull over only in proper lay-bys.
A fishing village on a harbour, with a row of 34 granite eggs on the quay, one for each local bird species.
free
Lunch at the harbour café. On 17 June towns hold small parades and family games around midday; join in or watch. Shops may close.
1 h 45 mincheck road.is
Route 1 over the Öxi pass (road 939) is shorter but steep gravel, often closed; with a small car take the coast road by Breiðdalsvík. Check road.is in the morning.
A fjord town of coloured wooden houses, with a rainbow-painted street leading to a blue church.
free
Over the Fjarðarheiði pass, with snow beside the road even in June. An hour's wander, then back for dinner in Egilsstaðir.
5,000–7,000 ISK each
Reindeer burger or fillet at the hotel restaurants; the local farm Vallanes sells organic barley and vegetables.
Egilsstaðir to Mývatn, about 2 h 45 min of driving. Dettifoss, the steaming field at Hverir, the Grjótagjá cave, and the Nature Baths in the evening.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →2 h
Route 1 across the Möðrudalur plateau, a desert of grey lava and gravel, then north on the paved road 862 to the west bank car park. Fuel in Egilsstaðir; there is one station on the way.
Europe's most powerful waterfall by volume, 100 metres wide and 44 metres high, carrying glacier meltwater into the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon.
freeday's highlightspray, no railings
From the car park, 15 minutes over rocks to the viewpoints; the ground shakes. Keep back from the edges, which are wet and unfenced.
Selfoss, a wider horseshoe fall, is another 15 minutes upstream. Allow an hour and a half.
3,000–5,000 ISK each
Forty-five minutes south-west. The village by the lake has a supermarket and cafés. Geysir bread, rye baked in the hot ground, is sold with smoked trout.
A geothermal field of boiling mud pots and roaring steam vents on orange ground, smelling strongly of sulphur.
parking about 1,000 ISKkeep to the path
Ten minutes back east, over the Námaskarð pass. Stay on the roped paths: the crust can break into boiling mud. Forty minutes.
A small lava cave with a hot spring pool inside, known from Game of Thrones, beside Hverfjall, a 2,500-year-old ash crater a kilometre across.
free
Look into the cave; bathing is not allowed, the water is too hot. Then drive five minutes to Hverfjall and climb to the rim, 20 minutes, for the view over the lake.
A geothermal lagoon of milky-blue mineral water at about 38°C, on a hillside over the lake.
about 7,900 ISK eachbook ahead
Book an evening slot. Shower without swimwear first, as everywhere in Iceland. Two hours, then dinner at the baths' café or back in Reykjahlíð.
Mývatn to Akureyri, about 2 hours of driving. A whale-watching boat from Húsavík at 10:00, Goðafoss in the afternoon, an evening in Akureyri.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Húsavík is the whale-watching harbour of Iceland: humpbacks, minke whales and sometimes blue whales feed in Skjálfandi bay in summer.
about 12,000 ISK eachday's highlightbook ahead
Check in 30 minutes early; the three-hour trip on an old oak fishing boat goes out into the bay. Sightings in June are almost certain; companies offer a second trip free if you see none.
Overalls are provided; bring gloves and a hat. Puffins nest on the island of Lundey in the bay.
3,500–5,500 ISK each
Harbour cafés serve fish soup and fish and chips. The Whale Museum, in an old slaughterhouse, has full skeletons if it rains.
A horseshoe-shaped waterfall where, the sagas say, the lawspeaker threw his pagan idols when Iceland became Christian in 1000.
free
Forty-five minutes south-west. Paths on both banks; the east bank path goes down to the water's level. Forty-five minutes.
Iceland's second town, at the head of the long Eyjafjörður fjord, with a botanical garden of Arctic plants.
free
Thirty-five minutes on. Check in, then walk the steps up to the Akureyrarkirkja church and the botanical garden, free. Traffic lights here have heart-shaped red lights.
6,000–9,000 ISK eachbook ahead
Restaurants on Hafnarstræti; book for Saturday. Lamb, Arctic char, and skyr with blueberries for dessert.
Akureyri to Borgarnes, about 3 h 45 min on the road. The turf houses of Glaumbær on the way, the Grábrók crater, and the Settlement Centre in Borgarnes.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →1 h 10 min
Route 1 over the Öxnadalsheiði pass and down into Skagafjörður, horse country.
A farm of 18th- and 19th-century houses with walls and roofs of turf, lived in until 1947, now a museum.
about 2,500 ISK eachday's highlight
The rooms are joined by a long dark passage: the kitchen, the pantry, the communal sleeping loft where the household worked and slept.
Áskaffi, in a 19th-century timber house beside it, serves coffee and cakes from old recipes. An hour.
A small volcanic crater by Route 1, about 3,000 years old, with steps to its rim over moss-covered lava.
free
Wooden steps up, 15 minutes; walk round the rim. Then 30 minutes to Borgarnes.
A museum of the settlement of Iceland in the 870s and of Egil's Saga, set in Borgarnes, with audio guides and carved scenes.
about 3,500 ISK each
Two exhibitions, an hour each with audio guides; the Egil's Saga one is told through wooden carvings in a cellar. The restaurant upstairs does a good soup buffet.
5,000–7,000 ISK each
The Settlement Centre's restaurant or the hotel; then a walk on the rocks by the fjord in the midnight light.
An hour to Reykjavík for Hallgrímskirkja and the harbour, then the Blue Lagoon at 12:30, near the airport. The car back by 15:15 for the 17:30 flight.
🗺 The whole day in Google Maps →Reykjavík's concrete church of 1986, its 74-metre tower shaped like basalt columns, with a lift to a view of the city's coloured roofs.
tower about 1,400 ISK each
An hour from Borgarnes through the Hvalfjörður tunnel; park on the streets nearby, paid by app. The lift goes to the top of the tower. Thirty minutes.
Harpa is Reykjavík's 2011 concert hall on the harbour, its facade a honeycomb of coloured glass by the artist Olafur Eliasson.
free
Fifteen minutes down the rainbow-painted street of shops to the harbour. Walk inside Harpa for the light through the glass. Lunch: the hot-dog stand Bæjarins Beztu nearby, or fish soup at the old harbour.
45 min
Route 41 towards Keflavík, then south across the lava. Bags stay in the car; the lagoon also has a luggage room.
A geothermal spa in a lava field, its milky-blue water fed by the outflow of a power station, rich in silica and about 38°C.
from about 12,000 ISK eachday's highlighttimed tickets
Book a 12:30 entry. Shower first without swimwear; put conditioner in long hair, as the silica makes it stiff. The basic ticket includes a silica mud mask and one drink.
Two hours is right; the last road is 20 minutes to the airport.
20 minat the airport by 15:30
Refuel near the airport and check the car for stone chips with the agent.
Route 1 is paved all the way round; the dangers are wind, sheep, single-lane bridges and tired drivers.
Headlights on at all times. Speed limits are 90 km/h on paved roads, 80 on gravel, 50 in towns; speed cameras and fines are heavy. The alcohol limit is 0.02%, effectively zero. Off-road driving is illegal and fined severely. Mountain F-roads are closed to normal cars.
Stations are far apart in the east and north: fill up whenever below half. Pumps take cards with a PIN; buy a prepaid fuel card at an N1 if yours fails. Parking at the big sights is paid by app (Parka or EasyPark) or at machines.
Expect 5–15°C, wind and rain at any hour, and 24 hours of daylight in the north. Waterproof jacket and trousers, warm layers, a hat and gloves, boots with grip, and an eye mask for sleeping.
Every pool and lagoon asks you to shower naked before putting on swimwear; attendants check. Local town pools, sundlaug, cost about 1,500 ISK and are where Icelanders actually soak.
Cards are taken everywhere, even for a coffee; no cash is needed. Food is expensive: supermarkets (Bónus, Krónan, Nettó) for breakfasts and picnics save a lot. Tap water is excellent. Tipping is not expected.
For two, 8 days and 7 nights round Iceland. Covers the car, fuel and parking, seven guesthouse nights, the glacier walk, the boats, the baths, every meal and a buffer. Flights are not included.
| Item | Economy | Comfort | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rental car, 8 days with gravel cover | 180,000 ISK | 280,000 ISK | |
| Fuel and parking | 55,000 ISK | 60,000 ISK | About 1,450 km |
| Guesthouses, 7 nights | 245,000 ISK | 385,000 ISK | 35,000–55,000 ISK a night for a double |
| Glacier walk | 30,000 ISK | 30,000 ISK | |
| Jökulsárlón boat and whale watching | 39,000 ISK | 45,000 ISK | |
| Mývatn Nature Baths and the Blue Lagoon | 40,000 ISK | 60,000 ISK | |
| Museums and entry fees | 16,000 ISK | 16,000 ISK | Kerið, Stokksnes, Glaumbær, Settlement Centre, tower |
| Breakfasts and picnics from supermarkets | 30,000 ISK | 30,000 ISK | |
| Lunches | 60,000 ISK | 80,000 ISK | 8 lunches for two |
| Dinners | 90,000 ISK | 130,000 ISK | 7 dinners for two |
| Buffer | 30,000 ISK | 60,000 ISK | A wool jumper, an extra pool |
| Total | 815,000 ISK | 1,176,000 ISK |
Realistic figure: About 920,000–1,000,000 ISK for two (€6,300–6,900), without flights
No cash needed: cards and phones work everywhere, including parking and pools.
All of them: the WayFriend guide library.
