• Duration: 8,5 hours
  • Easy
  • Electronic Voucher

  • Meet on location or pick up

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Description

The Golden Circle is not only the most popular day tour we run here at BusTravel Iceland but perhaps also the most popular trip that leaves Reykjavik.

We will combine all of the famous sights with a few extra stops to make your day as special as we possibly can, this means you will get to see Þingvellir national park, the geothermal wonders of Geysir, and the golden waterfall Gullfoss. At BusTravel Iceland though our motto is “More nature, more fun” so we also make an additional stop at Kerið volcanic crater. You should expect a packed day full of adventure!

Highlights

  • Geysir geothermal area
  • Gullfoss waterfall
  • Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park
  • Kerið volcanic crater (entrance fee included)

Itinerary

Our Golden Circle tour begins with a fast and efficient pick up service. You only need to be on time at the designated pick up point and we'll take care of the rest. Once we have collected all our guests we set off to the first major attraction.  

Kerið volcanic crater

Kerið volcanic crater is the first stop we make. Kerið is a crater lake that became a focal point for tourist activity thanks to the breathtaking contrast of its blue waters and red lava rock surroundings. Now there are walking paths enabling guests to do the tour of the crater rim or walk down to the bottom of the crater and walk around the lake.

It was once believed that Kerið was a volcanic crater created after a large explosion but study of the area showed no evidence of any explosions of the required magnitude had occurred here. Current theories state that Kerið was in fact itself a volcano that emptied its magma reserves and collapsed in on itself.  

Gullfoss waterfall

Our next stop is the Gullfoss (Golden falls). Gullfoss is one of Icelands most majestic waterfalls. The waterfall originates in the Langjökull glacier and gets it's name from the gold hue it gives off as it tumbles downward into the canyon.

The waterfall drops down into a crevice of 32 meters (105 ft) in two steps being 11 meters and 21 meters each. On many occasions rainbows can be observed dancing across the top of this magnificent sight. Gullfoss has an interesting history that involves investors trying to harness its awesome power.

The waterfall can viewed from a few different locations. The upper deck next to the visitor center gives a great view from above. By walking down the staircase the waterfall can be viewed from the lower deck. From there the waterfall seems to vanish into the earth.

From the lower deck you can walk a path that leads towards the first plunge of the waterfall. This will give you a great view into the crevice and a feeling of the true power of the waterfall. This path can be closed if the path is icy and conditions are not good.

Geysir Geothermal Area

After the waterfall we head to the geothermal area called after the original geyser called Geysir. The Geysir area boosts with steam vents, bubbling pits, hot ponds, magnificent colours and the highlight of the site, Strokkur Geyser. Strokkur performs natural and powerful eruptions, spouting water and steam some 20 m up in the air every 10 minuets. Walking paths take you between interesting geothermal features so you don't miss out on any wonder or smell!

The Geysir area offers large visitor centre with souvenirs, local products and many possibilities for purchasing lunch. 

Þingvellir National Park

The last stop (certainly not the least) is the National Park and UNESCO World Heritage site called Þingvellir (Thingvellir). Þingvellir is Icelands most important site when it comes to history and geology.

This is where the worlds first parliament was established by the vikings in 930 AD, making it the oldest parliament, still active, in the world. The park sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of 2 tectonic plates, the Eurasion and the North American one. 

Starting from the bottom of the Rift Valley you walk in the footsteps of the Vikings, along impressive Almannagjá all the way to Hakið. Hakið is an ideal viewing point giving you a great overview of the whole area. You can almost witness the continental drift as you take a walk between the American and Eurasian tectonic plates. 

As you walk up to the North American plate via Almannagjá you can read interesting tidbits about our history, viking era and how the laws of the land were established.

Þingvellir is also a natural treasure with it's vast lava fields and rivers leading into Icelands largest lake. The Þingvellir valley has been an inspiration for numerous painters and photographers alike.

After the National Park we have around 45 min drive back to Reykjavík.

What's included

  • Professional guide
  • Entrance fees to Kerið Volcanic Crater
  • Free WiFi

What's excluded

  • Pickup and drop off
  • Food and drinks

What do I need to bring

  • Warm, water- and windproof clothing are always useful in Iceland.
  • All tickets are e-tickets so there is no need to print them out.

Important information

  • Duration of tour is 8,5 hrs
  • The tour allows for lunch time at the Geysir area

Cancellation policy

  • Cancellation fee of 100% if cancelled 1 day or less before departure

Categories

  • SIGHTSEEING
  • DAY TRIPS AND EXCURSIONS
  • SIGHTSEEING ATTRACTION
  • NATURE
  • BUS OR MINIVAN TOUR

Guided Language

  • English

Reviews!

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Don't miss out

Amazing tour with an amazing guide that you don’t want to miss out! All the sites are breathtaking and you will get loads of information on geography, culture and history of Iceland and some good sense of humor on top! Highly recommended!

By Danijela on 2023-05-15

Exceptional

The tour guide was exceptional and very knowledgeable! Bus driver was very courteous and pleasant! Highly recommend!

By Albert on 2023-05-05

Friendly and knowledgeable guides

The tour is very well-paced, and although you see a lot on the tour you do not feel that you are being rushed from one place to the next. There were good facilities (toilets, food) at most of the places we stopped, and there was plenty of time to buy lunch if you didn't bring your own. Josip (guide) and Piotr (driver) were both wonderful. The bus was very modern and clean, and Piotr navigated the wet and windy roads very safely. Josip was very knowledgeable and had a great sense of humour. I enjoyed hearing about how he came to live in Iceland, and he had lots of interesting things to say about the sights we saw and about Iceland more generally. Highly recommend!

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By Helen on 2023-04-06

Amazing Day Tour

We have amazing experience with bus travel & their services, well guided tour Our guide Mia was very nice, informative & helpful, just a beautiful experience.

By Raveena Gupta on 2023-03-26

Blessed with Bergsteinn Jónsson

To be honest: i did not expect anything from this tour as booking.com gave me a voucher for it. Having travelled through Iceland in a camper van, being alone in the icelandic sublime wilderness, avoiding touristy places, i did the grand golden circle tour at my last day in iceland. And if it wasn´t for this lovely guide i wouldn´t recommend doing a big bus tour but want you to rather go experience it during early mornings or late nights all by yourself. But Bergsteinn Jónsson was enchanting and he made my last day in Iceland an absolute highlight. This man made strangers kinswomen, knew everything, sang us rhymes and cared for everybody as they were family. Every traveller and company should feel absolutely honoured to spend time with this unbelievably warm hearted human. i did not want this tour to end!

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By Lara Schilling on 2023-03-01

Amazing tour!! We would like to do It again!!!

Today It's been a spectacular day, the guides and the driver really great, they explained everything to us wonderfully, they delighted us with Icelandic songs and candies, very nice! We Got lot of interesting information about the country, funny jokes and lot of laugh! 8 hours flew by in an instant!! on the next tour we hope to have the same group because it was an unforgettable day! Thank you very much to our tour guide, and all the team: his Brother and the driver! We Will choose Iceland bus travel again, hopefully very soon! Maura & Anna (from Italy)

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By Maura Mastrantonio on 1970-01-01

Best Tour/Guides Ever!

We took this tour and it was amazing! For starters, our guide, Monica and driver, Chris were one of the most amazing people and made the experience so much better. Despite the weather conditions, and the very strong winds, they did an excellent job giving us the full experience of the trip and keeping us calm. All in all, I would definitely recommend this tour to whoever, and hopefully you get Monica and Chris arms your guides as well because they make the whole trip even more spectacular!

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By Eduardo Aristizabal on 2023-01-09

Amazing!!

It was spectacular. Our bus driver was Tomek and our guide was Freydis (hopefully the names are spelled correctly). She was amazing: she told us all about the history, myths, traditions, interesting facts and fun facts about Iceland, places that we saw from the bus and places we visited during the tour. She had a lot of energy and was very prepared. She gave us advice literally on everything: on how to deal with the icelandic weather in winter, what clothes to wear, what make up not to wear because of the temperature, where to go to eat and to visit,... she was all that I hoped for and more. Thank you!!

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By Cristina on 2022-12-23

Fantastic (and affordable!) tour

Amazing sunny December day! This trip is a must when travelling for the first time! Our guide Perla was super nice and so was the driver Þorgeir (?) She told us about the country and also sang folkloric song! A pity that we started at 9 am (instead of 8 am when we booked, because of the agency) because we arrived at Thingvellir after the sunset.

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By Paz on 2022-12-08

Amazing Experience

Definitely recommend this tour!! Our tour guide called IGA was amazing, so knowledgeable and gave some great recommendations. She made the day that extra bit special. Would definitely recommend!

By Naomi on 2022-12-02

Great day with Chiara

We had a beautiful day with Chiara on the Golden Circle tour! The sights were truly amazing to see, especially the geysers and the tectonic plates. We are in awe of Iceland's magical and unique beauty. Chiara was very knowledgable and had a true, infectious energy at every stop as if she was seeing them for the first time as well. Thanks for a great day out!

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By Sharen on 2022-08-27

Amazing Tour!

This is a tour you shouldn't miss out. All the places that we visited have their own magic. I really enjoyed sitting down and see the Geyser going off. For sure, the Gulfoss is incredible! I am so glad we had Monika and Tomek as our guides. Monika was really enthusiastic, full of energy, friendly and helpfull taking pictures and giving information about the sites. I did 3 tours in Iceland and she was the best guide of them. As all tours, your are in a schedule and it can be a little bit of rush sometimes, but it is worthy because you can manage to see incredible places, with lot of info in one day! And in the tour with Mokina we also did 3 extra stops that day!!

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By Liann Muñoz on 2022-10-27

Tour Guide Jona is awesome!

Although the weather was miserable with the strong wind and the persistent rain throughout the day, we were fortunate to have such an awesome guide, Jona! She was very informative throughout the entire bus trip to the Grand Circle Tour. She discussed the geological background, the history, the myths and stories of the areas as we're passing by. She was very cheerful and professional and often talked about her experiences and other topics about the people she's met and it's wonderful to get a guide who clearly loves her job. Albert, our driver was very good and drove us safely from our destination back to our drop off point. We clearly got a great group of people including the rest of the tour group because everyone was civil and we all adhered to the timeline to get back to the bus on time and it went as smoothly as it could be. We even got a brief period of sun during the day. We will definitely come back and book with BusTravel Iceland the next time we visit Reykjavik because it's clearly a golden team.

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By May C on 2022-07-07

great introduction to Iceland

A superb introduction to the unique sights of Iceland. The pick up from our hotel and transfer to tour bus was well managed and efficient. The tour was enthusiastically led by Perla who regaled us with facts and stories about the island culture while Magic drove the bus. A visit to the magical-looking lake and colourful slopes of the Kerid Crater, a visit to the Gullfoss Waterfall and the Geysir followed. We even had time to stop off at a family owned and run farm for local ice cream. We would thoroughly recommend the tour.

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By Andrew on 2022-07-06

Great Guide!

Tour was especially interesting because of the extensive knowledge of our guide Jone. She had detailed information aboout so much history , geology, plants, animals and more. Her commentary while traveling and at the stops was among the best we have had. Iceland is an amazing country with rugged people. Bus was large but comfortable.

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By Bill T on 2022-07-22

Grand Golden Circle Day Tour with Kerid Crater

Thor and Jona were our tour guides and they were great. Jona was very knowledgeable on the history of Iceland and I would highly recommend the tour.

By Linda Newman on 2022-07-01

Beautiful nature, friendly guides

Took the Grand Golden Circle tour with Palli and Tomic, they are really friendly. Palli (the guide) told very interesting stories about Icelandic history and culture, and some funny stories. The nature was so beautiful and amazing.

By Hussam on 2022-06-26

Amazing!

The Golden Circle Tour is a must-see in Iceland, and we're happy to have chosen BusTravel Iceland for it. Our guide Monika was super well informed and helpful and had a great sense of humor. The driver was great as well. we've seen amazing spots and had fun all the way. The trip was an great experience, will surely recommend!

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By Anna on 2022-06-10

Golden circle and Kerid crater

We took the Golden Tour. It was a fantastic experience. We saw amazing sites and learned many things about Iceland and the Icelanders. Our host Iga was amazing. She was very nice and had a great sense of humour, which made our trip fun and interesting. Our driver Lucas was excellent. I fully recommend it.

By Carles on 2022-06-15

Daniel - the aurora whisperer is the best!

It took me 4 attempts to be able to see the Northern lights! But I am very glad I didn't give up. It was absolutely amazing! Daniel, which was our tour guide was super nice and very very knowledgeable about the auroras, he explained the process and even showed us some constellations in the dark sky while we waited. He knows a lot about this stuff!!! Very nice experience

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By Catarina on 2022-04-18

Monika the GOAT!

On the day of our tour we unfortunately had bad weather (was raining the entire day) but our guide Monika really came through and saved the mood in my opinion. She was really informative and helpful (always ready to help take pictures). My personal highlight of the tour was the Gulfoss Waterfall simply magnificent!! Another very unique experience was seeing the Geysir going off (little note: it might smell a bit bad once you are close to geysirs but you get over it) Definitely a tour you shouldn't miss out on!!

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By Kevin Ngo on 2022-03-26

Tom makes the trip! If your not on his bus your missing out

We went on the grand circle tour with a visit to the blue lagoon. Tom was our guide for the day and his dry sense of humour is hilarious. Great day all round and if your not on Toms bus your missing out!

By John Chidlaw on 2022-03-26

Great Tour!

We had a great trip with Monika who was very knowledgeable about the tour with a good mix of humour. It's hard to pick out one specific part of the tour because we loved it all. The crater was amazing, as were the geysers and waterfall. Not usually someone who goes on tours but this was really enjoyable and hassle free.

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By Michael P on 2022-02-15

Interesting tour with an amazing guide.

Our guide Iga gave us plenty interesting information during the day. Not just about the places that we visited but also her experiences in the country. It was a very fun tour.

By Marcell Aklan on 2022-01-27

Superb!

What an amazing trip!! Well worth a visit and good value for money! Monika our guide was simply brilliant and so informative!! Michael our coach driver got us everywhere very safely despite pretty bad snow conditions. Would definitely do this again just for the breathtaking views ❤

By Tracey Wills on 2022-01-16

Fully recommended!

This was an excellent tour, especially as we had limited time in the country and were conscious of limited hours of daylight (end Nov). The guide was entertaining and knowledgeable, and made sure we crammed all the sights during daylight hours. The coach was very clean, modern and comfortable (and warm!). Needless to say, the sights are definitely worth seeing even though our weather wasn’t great. We would love to do this tour again in the summer months to see how different it all is when not covered in so much snow! We felt this tour was really good value and well organised.

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By Vaughan on 2021-11-28

Lovely golden circle trip tour

We had a great day with beautyfull weather and a amazing guide Omar, Who told us a lot of information in a lovely funny way! I realy loved it and of course the beauty of icelands nature is awesome!

By An on 2021-11-20

Grand Golden circle

Monika and Tomek are the best! Our Golden circle was not just a couple of extremely beautiful places but the unique Icelandic adventure with heartwarming music, personal stories and jokes. Wishes to acknowledge: - warm and attentive attitude of our guide Monika and great mood that she brought with herself; - fast and careful Tomek’s driving. Big thanks to guide and driver, it was amazing tour, cannot wait to repeat!

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By Anastasiya Mazura on 2021-11-19

Golden Circle Tour

Absolutely awesome day out......the views,sights and places you visit are stunning. Omar our guide was brilliant from start to finish,funny informative and made the day even more enjoyable. One of the best trips ever and a must do when in Iceland.

By Andrew Slingsby on 2021-11-12

Great tour

Loved the tour our guide was brilliant again very knowledgeable and answered any questions promptly. I would love to do this tour again and probably try a summer tour as well

By Steven Crane on 2021-10-08

Grand Golden Circle

Great tour. The sights are so impressive and splendid, even in the rain. Guide Tommy was very funny and knowledgeable. Takk fyrir! Comfortable coach. Driver not really talkative but drove us safely. Hope to visit Ísland soon again!

By Christian de Jong on 2021-09-19

Amazing!

I loved this tour so much! It was the best tour I did on Iceland. The Guide (Palli) was so good at telling interesting things about Icelandic culture, history, geology and attractions. I only wish that we would have had longer time at the Thingvellir National Park to actually get to explore the area. :)

By Cecilie Mikkelsen on 2021-08-25

Grand Golden Circle Tour

An excellent experience for us. We enjoyed the many sights and side journey to the church. It was special to see a bride and her bridal party.

By Kevin Bruce on 2021-06-26

Grand Golden Circle Tour

The weather was bad but the tour was great

By Erika Knollema on 2021-06-13

Grand Golden Circle Tour

Ist was such a great Tour. The tourguide was very nice and gave us a lot of information, mixed with funny jokes and Storys about trolls and fayries. Every time again.

By Sabine Forst on 2020-08-14

Grand Golden Circle Tour

We had lovely experience with Piter,thank you for the interesting and informative tour!

By Alex Kruhlaczenko on 2020-08-14

Grand Golden Circle Tour

We were incredibly fortunate to be booked for the Golden Circle tour with Simon as our most impressive guide and host. He is without a doubt the most professional, yet personal, guide we have had the pleasure of spending our day with during our many travels. He was not only well versed in the history of his country and the places we visited along the way, but went out of his way to get us both on a second tour that same day without reservations in advance (Blue Lagoon.) He has been doing this for quite some time and it really shows through in his professionalism and enthusiasm. We would wholeheartedly recommend him for any tour you desire, from basic to the most complex customized multi day. Just get in contact with him and he will take care of it all for you so you do not have to worry about the minutiae. Sincerely, Joel and Galina

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By Joel Fairbanks on 2021-06-01

Grand Golden Circle Tour

Tour mit den besonderheiten Islands. In kleiner Gruppe und sehr unnteerhaalttsamme Tourguide.

By Anita Roßmann on 2021-06-16

Grand Golden Circle Tour

Excellent service and Bill and Bob did their best (Magic and Howser). We learned a lot aside from the wonderful views. The stories behind the people and the places are wonderful. It is a must. I would rather booked this tour than driving myself around. The visit to the home made ice cream and dairy farm as well as the horse petting is a bonus.

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By MARC JEFF MERTOLA on 2021-06-05

Price from: 9590

8,5 hours

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