A must-see experience when you’re planning a trip to Iceland is the Golden Circle. The majority of people who visit Iceland book this tour – it’s the most popular offering and it’s a shorter day than a lot of the tours, making it ideal if you are restricted by time. The Golden Circle consists of three sights – starting with Thingvellir National Park, then Geysir and finishing up at Gulfoss. I took such a huge amount of photos on our trip that I’ll be splitting the Golden Circle tour into three posts – so, today I’m giving you a virtual tour of Thingvellir National Park.
We booked the express version of the Golden Circle tour to maximise our time in Iceland, again using Reykjavik Excursions (we were impressed by their customer service). The tour cost us £45.10 per person, which we felt was good value for a tour that lasted around 6 hours.
Departing Reykjavik at 10.30am, we drove through beautiful scenery for around an hour before we arrived at our first stop – Thingvellir National Park. There are many things that make Thingvellir such a special place – one of the most significant is the location.
Thingvellir National Park lies across two tectonic plates – the Eurasian and North-American plates. This makes the area quite active when it comes to both earthquakes and volcanic activity – although both are quite quiet at the moment. The national park sits in a rift valley created by the slow separation of the two plates, giving rise to some interesting geographical features. If you’re a scuba diving enthusiast, in the warmer months you are able to dive in the Silfra fissure, between the two tectonic plates.
The main feature of Thingvellir National Park is the huge lake at the centre – Lake Thingvallavatn. With a surface area of 84km² , Thingvallavatn is the largest natural lake in Iceland. The waters of this enormous lake are incredibly clear and are full of life – including several varieties of the local Arctic Charr.
The scenery from the main viewpoint was breathtaking – miles of snowy landscapes, mountains and clear waters. It was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and made so much more incredible with the covering of snow – in the Summer the scenery will be completely different.
You might also like this post, Entering the Blue Lagoon, Iceland
After taking in the view from every possible angle (and bracing ourselves in the icy wind) we headed towards the Almannagja fault.
Previously there was a road through here, as one of the main routes through Thingvellir National Park – but now it is simply a walking path.
If you have a little more time on your hands, you can walk along the fault and explore the surrounding area – but as we were on the quicker Golden Circle tour, we didn’t go too far.
After a few minutes admiring the view and taking as many photographs as we could, we headed back up the (quite steep) path.
Thingvellir National Park was a fascinating place to visit, and I wasn’t expecting views quite like these. It’s such an interesting geographical spot with so much history – no wonder it’s one of Iceland’s proudest features.
The first part of our Golden Circle tour was very enjoyable, made even better by our knowledgable tour guide from Reykjavik Excursions.
Keep an eye out for the next part of our Golden Circle tour – a trip to Geysir.
If you enjoyed this post, check out the rest of my Iceland blog posts!
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What a fabulous holiday and your photos and description are brilliant,so picturesque can’t wait for the next post 😀