Having spent our first day in Iceland exploring Reykjavik and trying to get my camera to tell the difference between a whale and a wave, it was time to start looking a bit further afield, and the obvious place to begin was the Golden Circle. Apparently, the name Golden Circle was conjured up by the marketing people to describe a circular tour from Reykjavik that encompasses some of the highlights of south-west Iceland. The three main sites are Thingvellir, Haukadalur and Gulfoss, which means Golden Waterfall, and from where this circular route gets its name.

If I was to do this trip today I think I would hire a car, but back in 2006 it made more sense to use an experienced tour company for this 150 mile round trip. The map below shows the officially recognised route of the Golden Circle, but our journey started with a slight variation. For some reason Google wouldn’t let me chart the exact route that we took out of Reykjavik from the Hotel Centrum (stop A and I on the map), and instead of taking the main 1 and 36 roads towards Thingvellir, we headed along the minor 435 road to Nesjavallavirkjun.

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Originally posted 2023-12-19 08:15:46.