Golden Circle

The Golden Circle (Gullni hringurinn) is Iceland's most famous tourist loop, and probably the most geologically dense in all of Europe. This circular route of approximately 300 km from Reykjavik and back lets you discover three world-class sites in a single day: Þingvellir (national park, UNESCO, founding site of the Icelandic nation), Geysir (a geothermal area with the Strokkur geyser that erupts every 6-10 minutes to 20-30 m in height) and Gullfoss (the 'golden waterfall', one of Europe's most powerful with its two cascading drops totalling 32 m in a deep canyon).

Þingvellir is far more than a national park: it is the cradle of Icelandic civilisation. It is here that the Alþingi was founded in 930, considered the world's oldest still-active parliament, where the Viking chieftains of the island gathered every summer to dispense justice and pass laws. It is also at Þingvellir that Iceland peacefully adopted Christianity in the year 1000, that it proclaimed its independence from Norway then Denmark, and that it became a republic in 1944. The site is also geologically extraordinary: it straddles the rift of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates visibly separate. You can literally walk in the Almannagjá fissure, dive in the Silfra fissure between the two continents, or photograph the gaping fissures that stretch for several kilometres.

The Geysir geothermal area gives its name to all geysers in the world (the word 'geyser' comes from the now-dormant Icelandic Geysir). Its neighbour Strokkur, on the other hand, remains in regular activity, projecting a column of boiling water 20-30 metres high every 6 to 10 minutes — a hypnotic spectacle. The Gullfoss waterfall, 10 km from Geysir, is one of Europe's most powerful: two cascading drops of 11 m and 21 m in a 70 m deep canyon, with near-permanent rainbows in the spray on sunny days.

Beyond the unmissable trio, the Golden Circle hides less-frequented secondary sites: the Kerið crater (a volcanic crater with brick-red flanks and a turquoise lake at the bottom, €5 entry), the Reykjadalur geothermal springs (a one-hour hike to a hot river you can bathe in), the geothermal farm Friðheimar (tomato cultivation in greenhouses heated by geothermal energy, excellent tomato-soup lunch), or the Secret Lagoon at Flúðir (an authentic geothermal lagoon, €30).