Around Iceland’s Ring Road in 2 weeks: Part I
Waterfalls, beaches, mountains, hot springs, volcanos, and more. Iceland, the Land of Fire and Ice, is nature at its best and the adventure of a lifetime. Our two week itinerary of Iceland took us around the Ring Road at an easy, comfortable pace – perfect for traveling with kids, and plenty of time to hike, swim, and take it all in.
Duration: 14 days
Traveled as: a family (two kids ages 5 and 7) with friends (another couple with two similar aged kids)
Type of travel: pleasure
Combined with other destinations: no
Iceland was perfect for our first post-pandemic travel adventure. It was a relatively short flight from Canada. We spent nearly every moment of it outdoors. We rented a motorhome (which in Canada we call a “RV” – recreational vehicle), and were naturally socially-distanced from everyone else. It felt like we picked up our RV and just took off into the wilderness.
But even without a pandemic, Iceland is a great destination for couples and families. (Solo too, if you enjoy alone time!) The country is easy to navigate, the people are friendly, most are fluent in English, and there is a lot to do and enjoy if you love the outdoors. You will be blown away by the rugged, unspoiled, dramatic landscapes. It’s a photographer’s dream.
Because we traveled as a family, we always like to give ourselves plenty of time. We build in time to slow down, to really let the kids savour their experiences, and give ourselves time to adapt our schedule if something isn’t working out. Two weeks in Iceland is long, for Iceland. You can use this same itinerary even if you are not spending as many days. However, we found it was the perfect pace for us. We got to immerse ourselves in everything Iceland has to offer (limited only by little legs), without feeling rushed or like we were burning out from traveling.
How to build your Iceland itinerary
In one sense, building your Iceland trip is easy. There is literally ONE main road around the coast of the island. And it is very aptly named, the Ring Road (aka Route 1). It’s just over 1300 km – about a 13 hour drive around the whole island. If you will be in Iceland for more than a week, it’s worth taking the Ring Road. You can take the Ring Road either clockwise or counterclockwise. We chose counterclockwise, which brought us to the more populated (AND popular) areas along the south first, before then venturing into more remote regions (the east and the north). This is totally personal preference. I always prefer to see the “must see” sights first, before wandering off the beaten path.
On either end of the Ring Road tour, you can tackle on Iceland’s capital and biggest city (it’s only city, really) Reykjavik, as well as the Golden Circle. The Golden circle has possibly Iceland’s most famous natural and historical sites and can easily be driven in one day.
If you have extra time, consider the bonus parts of Iceland not along the Ring Road: Snaesfellsnes Peninsula, the remote Westfjords, and the Highlands that make up most of Iceland’s interior. Unless you are in a 4×4/off-roading vehicle (which motorhomes and most camper vans are not), it is not recommended to do either the Westfjords or the Highlands, because of it’s rough, inhospitable terrain. (Although there are day tours you can take from Reykjavik to explore the highlands – eg. Landmannalaugar.) Snaesfellsnes boasts simply breathtaking scenery. With beaches, glaciers, mountains, and caves, it’s sort of like a condensed mini-sampler of everything Iceland has to offer.
If you have a week or less in Iceland, we do not recommend the Ring Road. You will spend most of your time driving as opposed to seeing the sites. In that case, we recommend Reykjavik (1 day), the Golden Circle (1 day), and the south side of Iceland with its famous waterfalls and glaciers (1-2 days at least). If time allows, add on Snaesfellsnes (1 day, at least).
Because we had two generous weeks, we started our along the Golden Circle, took our time around the Ring Road, detoured to Snaesfellsnes, and finished off around Reykjavik.
When to travel to Iceland
Of course, your Iceland itinerary will depend on how long you’re going to be there. But perhaps the MAIN consideration in where you can go is WHEN you go. Iceland’s weather is a force to be reckoned with, even in the summer. In the winter, it can be impossible. Even in the summer, the rain, wind, and sometimes fog frequently made the challenging terrain even more difficult to navigate. With snow and ice, many roads are dangerous or impassable, and a 4×4 is highly recommended.
We traveled toward the tail end of August, so cannot really speak to visiting Iceland in the winter. We’d love to see Iceland covered in snow and explore the ice caves, but personally would not go solely for the stressful driving conditions. Also, the days are short, leaving you little time for sightseeing. If you travel in winter, I certainly would not suggest staying for as many days. I would consider sticking to Reykjavik and the Golden Circle, and maybe venturing south (which is where glacier trekking and ice caves are).
Summer is a gorgeous time in Iceland. The weather is relatively warm (average 10 degrees C), relatively mellow, with the most days of sunshine. The days are long. Sometimes very long. When we traveled at the end of August, we had daylight from around 6am to 9pm. It is tourist high season, so overall everything is pricier and the sites are more crowded. However, we never felt overwhelmed, even at the most popular sites.
The shoulder season (I would consider May, September, and maaaaybe early October to be “shoulder season” for Iceland) *might* be the best time to go. Everything is cheaper, less crowded, and you also have the best chance of seeing the Northern Lights during these months. However, I say “might”, because it gets significantly colder (much less comfortable), particular at night, and the weather gets much more unpredictable. Traveling with children, I would still recommend sticking to the summer months for a more pleasant experience.
How to get around Iceland
Campervan or RV, obvi.
We’re kidding. There are a number of ways to see Iceland. There are many day tours from Reykjavik, and even many multi-day tours that will take you to the north, or south, or even all around the island.
But the two main ways of traveling around Iceland if you’re building your own itinerary is either renting a car and staying in hotels, or renting a campervan/motorhome and staying at campsites. (You can also rent a car and camp in a tent, but even Icelanders consider this crazy, because of the weather.) You can read more about why we chose to rent a motorhome here, and here, and why we felt this was the best way to see Iceland with kids. Between our two families, we actually rented two motorhomes. Initially, we thought it might be difficult to coordinate two separate vehicles, but it ended up working out well. We got to hang out together at the attractions and campsites, but still had our own space.
Because we rented a motorhome, our itinerary includes campsites. However, many campsites in Iceland are located in small towns that also have hotels. Many campsites also have cabins to rent, so it is very possible to follow this itinerary in a rental car and still have a place to stay!
::Our two week Iceland Itinerary::
Day 1 – Arrival and Golden Circle
We landed at the Keflavik Airport at around 9am. (For our area in Canada, most of the flights into Iceland are red-eye flights.)
It took us awhile to pick up our motorhome. We had a long orientation to the RV and road safety in Iceland. (Road safety is a huge deal. There is A LOT of difficult terrain and challenging weather conditions even in the summer. And a RV might *not* be the easiest vehicle to maneuver.) After we were cleared to set out, we made our first grocery run in Keflavik and made lunch. By then, it was early afternoon and we were all tired from the red-eye flight.
We drove straight through Reykjavik and started the Golden Circle. As we mentioned, the Golden Circle can really be done in one day if you get an early start. The entire road is about 230 km, a 3 hour drive. The first main stop, Thingvellir National Park, is only about 30 mins outside of Reykjavik. We camped here at Thingvellir. (If you need a hotel, there are cabins to rent inside the park. Otherwise, we recommend staying in Reykjavik, or else you are driving through the park to to the next major attraction, Geysir, about 60 mins away.)
We had good intentions of exploring the park that afternoon, but by the time we got to the Thingvellir campsite, all the kids wanted to do was run around and had no cognitive power left to do any sightseeing. And it also started raining pretty heavily. (Building in extra time to accommodate for the weather is also very helpful in Iceland.) Thingvellir Campsite is beautiful, and has a ton of space for the kids to burn off energy after a long day of travel. We made dinner and all turned in early that night.
Day 2 – Golden Circle
The main sites along the Golden Circle are: Thingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gullfoss Waterfall.
Had we been able to hit Thingvellir on Day 1, we would have done more hiking, but it was still very doable even with kids to visit all three attractions in one day. (Unless you plan to snorkel/scuba dive, then I would definitely recommend an additional half day.)
Thingvellir National Park
Thingvellir is renowned for two things: 1) it sits along the rift between 2 tectonic plates – the North American and the Eurasian, and 2) it’s the site of Iceland’s early parliament, from about 10 – 18th century. There is also a spectacular waterfall here – Oxararfoss.
The main “fault line walk”, Almannagja, starts from the Thingvellir Visitor’s Centre, where there is a great panoramic lookout of the park, and can continue to Oxararfoss (total approximately 2km). It is possible that somewhere along this walk is Logberg, the site of Iceland’s first parliament. However, the exact location is unknown, as the rift keeps moving. Along this trail you can also see the Drekkingarhylur drowning pools. This is a deep pool along the Oxara river where – as its morbid name implies – women were once drowned for crimes of incest, adultery, etc.
We turned back before we hit the waterfall, as the 4km return hike would have been too much for the kids. On our way back, we took some of the smaller trails that took us to other rifts and past the Thingvellir church (Thingvallakirjka).
Oxarafoss has a separate parking lot entrance, and the walk up to the waterfall is easily manageable.
The more adventurous can scuba dive or snorkel along the Silfra fault line.
We comfortably spent 2-3 hours here and could have easily spent more.
Geysir
Geysir is the next attraction, about 60km further along the Golden Circle. The “Geysir” itself hasn’t erupted in years and is currently inactive, but you can see Strokkur, now the most famous hot spring in Iceland. It erupts predictably even 5-10 minutes, and shoots water up to 20 feet in the air. In this geothermal area you can also see bubbling mud pots and fumaroles. There is a steep climb you can take up to a lookout mountain – the kids desperately wanted to challenge this, but we eventually vetoed it. Overall, we spent about an hour here.
Gullfoss
A mere 10 minute drive up the road from Geysir is Gullfoss. Gullfoss (aka “Golden Falls”) is arguably Iceland’s most famous waterfall, a dramatic, 2 stage cascade into a narrow canyon. There are two short paths to explore, one level with the falls, and the second offering an elevated vantage point. I would plan for an hour or two here. The kids were pretty tired by this point, so we did not make the climb to the higher ground.
Gullfoss is the “far end” of the Golden Circle, and people doing day trips typically head back toward Reykjavik, either backtracking through Thingvellir or completing the circle southward toward Selfoss. If you’re continuing onward, find a campsite or hotel between Geysir and Selfoss (still along the Golden Circle.)
We camped at Borg Campsite, a large campsite that seemed more popular with locals, mostly because it was raining heavily at the time (are we seeing a theme, here?) and was right off the main road. It is also minutes from another Golden Circle attraction – Kerid Crater (see below).
Other Golden Circle Attractions
It was only mid-afternoon when we arrived at the campsite. If you have an extra half day in the Golden Circle (say, you were able to explore Thingvellir on Day 1), and your kids don’t need to turn in quite so early (ours slept by 8pm on the trip, but these first few nights they turned in even earlier), you may be able to fit in one or two other stops. Some attractions along this stretch of the Circle include:
- Secret Lagoon – a geothermal pool, the oldest pool in Iceland. We skipped this one because of the aforementioned rain, and we hear this pool may be a little too deep and too warm for little kiddos.
- Fridheimer – a tomato greenhouse. BUT, it’s more exciting than it sounds. You can take a tour of the geothermal heated greenhouses, book a visit to meet the Icelandic horses they breed, and have lunch at their renowned restaurant. (The restaurant only serves lunch.)
Day 3 – Waterfalls of South Iceland
After multiple days of overcast skies and rain, this was our first day of sunshine, so needless to say, we were rearing to go early in the morning.
Kerid Crater
We made a quick stop at Kerid Crater, a five minute drive further along the Golden Circle. I was initially ambivalent about this stop, but the kids loved this one! It’s a small, picturesque volcanic crater with a turquoise lake at the bottom, and offers a great view of the surroundings. The kids loved walking around the lip of the caldera, exploring the red volcanic rock, and would have hiked to the bottom if we had more time.
… And the main reason we didn’t have more time was because we were eager to start the South Iceland part of the road trip and start exploring some waterfalls.
It’s a short drive from Kerid Crater to Selfoss, the main town that connects the Golden Circle back onto the Ring Road. From here, we drove south to Vik, a town at Iceland’s southern point. Along this segment of the Ring Road sit two of Iceland’s most renowned waterfalls: Seljalandsfoss and Skogafoss. (By now you’ve probably figured out that “foss” means “falls”.)
Seljalandsfoss (and Gljufrafoss)
From Selfoss, it’s about an hour to Seljalandsfoss. Seljalandsfoss is tall and narrow, cascading down a very impressive cliff face, visible from the Ring Road. But what make Seljalandsfoss so memorable is you can take a short hike BEHIND the falls. It’s a truly remarkable way to experience the power of the waterfall (but be prepared to get wet). (If you are a dedicated photographer, it is possible to book it from yesterday’s Gullfoss down to Seljalandsfoss and camp here for the night. The drive is just an hour and a half, and if you’re lucky you’ll make it for sunset. On the other hand, this is a BIG *if*, because sunny days are not all that easy to come by in Iceland.)
Seljalandsfoss itself takes only an hour or so to explore. However, plan to add in another hour or two if you want to hike along the bottom of the cliff. This path takes you past a few smaller waterfalls, as well as the hidden Gljufrafoss. To access Gljufrafoss you need to trek through a narrow crevice with shallow water. While not the tallest or the biggest, this was hands down our most unique waterfall experience.
Seljalandsfoss also has a small food and coffee stand. We didn’t buy food as we ate in the camper van, but it’s a good place to stop for lunch.
Skogafoss
Half an hour further down the Ring Road is Skogafoss. Skogafoss was probably the most dramatic and most beautiful waterfall of the trip. (But it was sunny that day, and weather makes a huge difference. Skogafoss generates so much mist there’s almost always a rainbow if the sun’s out.) You can walk along the Skoga river directly to the base of the falls. There is also a staircase that takes you up to the top of Skogafoss. If you are up for hiking, this marks the beginning of a hiking trail that leads up to the glaciers. With the kids, we only walked a bit of this path.
We always tend to end the day around mid-afternoon, as the kids start running out of gas around that point. However, especially if you go in the summer, you’ll still have quite a bit of the day left. Another popular attraction in this area is Solheimasandur. This is the site of a US navy plane that crashed in the 1970s, and the black sand background makes a dramatic photo-op. The parking for Solheimasandur is only 10 mins away from Skogafoss, but it is approximately a 1 hour hike to get to the crash site (you can also take a shuttle).
The town of Vik
We ended our day driving into Vik, a quaint seaside town on Iceland’s south coast. This was our first real “town” so far, so we used this opportunity to fill up on gas and make a quick grocery stop.
Vik is a hub of tourist activity, from companies offering glacier hikes to Icelandic horse riding by the sea. We saved those activities for elsewhere, but we did make a stop at the Vik community centre and public pool (the first of several such stops). Honestly, this was probably the best part of the day if you were to ask the kids. Outdoors heated pools under the bluffs right by the coast, and a fantastic playground to boot. There is a public pool in nearly every town in Iceland. They are cheap to access, and all contain a lap pool, a warm kids pool, and several hot tubs of varying temperature. These were great for our water loving kids, and a great way for campers to access showers!
We camped in town at the Vik Campground that night, for convenience. (It’s located right at the base of Vik’s church, Reyniskirkja, if you care for more hiking.) We woke bright and early the next morning to explore some sights around Vik (check out Part II of our Iceland adventure here!) If you don’t mind driving a little further, Pakgil campsite is 14 mins away, tucked in a picturesque valley.
That night, we caught the aurora! We hadn’t expected to see the northern lights in August – but thanks to a clear night and some dedicated aurora-App’ing, we did!
