Icelandthe south coast in eight days

Waterfalls right off Route 1, black sand beaches, a lagoon full of icebergs, and a river hot enough to sit in.

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Iceland · 8 days

The northernmost capital in the world and the only real city in the country: a rocket-shaped church over the rooftops, an old harbor where the whale boats leave from, and one street the whole town walks down.

Day by day

Day 1 · 7 placesLanding, Reykjanes, and the first evening
KEF → Reykjavík, 30 miles of straight road
  • Bláa lónið
    Milky blue water in the middle of a black lava field. The most famous bath in the country, and the easiest first stop there is: it sits between the airport and the city.
  • Hallgrímskirkja
    The rocket-shaped church you can see from anywhere in town. An elevator takes you up the tower, and from there Reykjavík is a field of colored rooftops.
  • Keflavík International Airport (KEF)
    Where you land. The rental desks are inside the terminal, and the car is what makes the rest of this trip possible.
  • Brú milli heimsálfa
    A footbridge over the crack between two continental plates: North America on one side, Europe on the other. It sits right on the road from the airport.
  • Gunnuhver
    A field of boiling mud pots with steam blasting out of the ground. The boardwalks run right between them.
  • Laugavegur
    The main shopping street: wool sweaters, bookstores, coffee, and the whole town out walking in the evening. The street art starts here too, and on Friday nights this is where the rúntur — the Icelandic bar crawl — begins.
Day 2 · 5 placesReykjavík on foot
the whole day downtown, the car stays parked
  • Gamla höfnin · whales
    The whale boats leave from the old harbor: in summer humpbacks and minkes show up on almost every run. Book the seat ahead.
  • Harpa
    A concert hall built out of glass honeycombs: walking in is free, and the walls catch the light differently in any weather.
  • Þjóðminjasafn Íslands
    Eleven hundred years of one country: ships, swords, carved doors, and the sagas Iceland more or less invented itself out of.
  • Perlan
    A glass dome on the hill: inside there is a real ice cave cut into hauled-in glacier ice and a walkthrough on volcanoes. Outside, a 360-degree deck over the city.
  • Sky Lagoon
    A bath on the ocean's edge: the hot water runs up to a stone lip and past it there is nothing but sea. People come at sunset and watch it from the water.
Day 3 · 5 placesThe Golden Circle
a 145-mile loop, a full day of driving
  • Þingvellir
    The rift between two continental plates, and you walk along the floor of it. The world's first parliament met on this spot starting in 930.
  • Geysir · Strokkur
    Strokkur fires boiling water sixty feet into the air every five to ten minutes. Geysir next door, the one that gave every geyser on earth its name, is asleep.
  • Gullfoss
    The river drops in two steps into a narrow canyon. In sunlight there is always a rainbow over it, which is where the name — the golden one — comes from.
  • Friðheimar
    A greenhouse where tomatoes grow year-round on hot water pumped from underground. You eat lunch between the vines and the soup comes bottomless.
  • Kerið
    A crater with a turquoise lake at the bottom and red slopes around it. Twenty minutes to walk the rim; the entry fee is small.
Day 4 · 6 placesThe south coast: waterfalls and black sand
Reykjavík → Vík, 120 miles on Route 1
  • Seljalandsfoss
    The waterfall you can walk behind: the path runs right along the back of the curtain. You will get wet, so bring the rain shell.
  • Skógafoss
    A flat wall of water eighty feet across. The staircase on the side takes you to the top platform, where you can see where the river comes from.
  • Gljúfrabúi
    A waterfall hidden inside a cleft five minutes from its famous neighbor. You wade in along the creek, and almost nobody is there.
  • Kvernufoss
    Skógafoss's neighbor, half an hour away on foot, and you can walk behind this one too. Few people know about it, so it stays quiet.
  • Sólheimajökull
    A glacier tongue you can walk up to in twenty minutes from the lot. Markers along the trail show how far it has pulled back in just a few years.
  • Sólheimasandur
    The shell of an American plane out on the black sand. It is an hour's walk each way across flat desert from the lot — you decide on the spot whether to go.
Day 5 · 6 placesAround Vík: headlands, a canyon, a glacier
day trips out of Vík, about 95 miles
  • Reynisfjara
    A black beach with basalt columns stacked like organ pipes. The surf here is dangerous: stay back from the water and never turn your back on the ocean.
  • Dyrhólaey
    A headland with a stone arch big enough to take a boat through. From the cliff you see the whole black coast, and in June the puffins nest here.
  • Víkurkirkja
    The white church on the hill above town — the one place you can see all of Vík at once, with the beach and the Reynisdrangar sea stacks behind it.
  • Lava Show
    The only place in the world where they pour molten lava in front of an audience: 2,000°F about six feet away, and you feel it on your skin. Timed shows, ticket ahead.
  • Víkurbraut
    The whole main street of the village: the wool store at the factory, a couple of cafés and the gas station. Half an hour covers it, and it is the one place on the south coast with people out in the evening.
  • Fjaðrárgljúfur
    A snaking canyon lined in green moss: the path runs along the top edge while the river winds below. Three hundred feet deep and a mile long.
Day 6 · 4 placesThe glacier lagoon and Höfn
Vík → Höfn, 170 miles along Vatnajökull
  • Jökulsárlón
    Icebergs calved off the glacier drift across the lagoon toward the sea. Amphibious boats run out among them, and seals haul out on the shore.
  • Diamond Beach
    The same ice, washed back onto black sand: clear blocks lying on the beach, lit up like glass in the sun.
  • Skaftafell
    The gateway into Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Europe. Trails start here, and this is where you book a guided walk onto the ice.
  • Hafnarbraut
    Höfn's main street: the harbor with the boats, a couple of cafés and langoustine on every sign — the local delicacy people drive out here for.
Day 7 · 3 placesBack west
Höfn → Hveragerði, 235 miles
  • Stokksnes · Vestrahorn
    Black dunes and a jagged mountain reflected in the wet sand. You pay at the farm café to drive in; low tide is the time to come.
  • Svartifoss
    The waterfall drops off a wall of black basalt columns. It is a 45-minute climb up from the visitor center, and it earns it.
  • Dverghamrar
    Basalt pillars right by the road — dwarves live in them, the story goes. Five minutes to stretch your legs in the middle of a long drive.
Day 8 · 4 placesThe hot river, then home
Hveragerði → KEF, 45 miles
  • Reykjadalur
    An hour uphill through a valley steaming out of the ground, and then a river you sit in: scalding at the top, cool further down, and you pick your spot.
  • Hveragarðurinn
    A geothermal park in the middle of town: springs boiling straight out of the ground, and they cook eggs and bake bread in the hot soil right there.
  • Breiðamörk
    The main street of a town that runs on boiling water: greenhouses between the houses, a bakery, and stalls with local vegetables.
  • Seltún · Krýsuvík
    An orange and yellow field of boiling springs on the way to the airport: boardwalks run over the bubbling clay, and you smell the sulfur a mile off.
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