Thingvellir National Park - Golden Circle

Overview

Þingvellir is a stunning national park in Southwest Iceland, about 45 minutes from Reykjavik, that sits in a rift valley caused by the separation of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. Crowds of tourists flock to this attraction every year to walk between the two continents, see the beautiful Öxarárfoss waterfall, go snorkeling at Silfra and hike out to the abandoned farms of Skógarkot.

Quick Facts

Time Spent1 hour or up to 3 hours 30 minutes

Best Time to Visit?Morning or Evening

Distance1.2 Miles (Roundtrip)

Type of TrailThere & Back

Bathroom Available?Yes

Cost for Entry$9 / 1,000 ISK

Worth It?Must Go

Hiking DifficultyBeginner

Seasonal?Year-Round

Note: Always check trail status and weather conditions before visiting

Attraction Tips

Visit early in the morning or later in the day

Þingvellir National Park is the closest attraction to Reykjavík along the Golden Circle, so it is naturally a widely popular attraction for anyone who visits Iceland. Due to this, there are tour buses that drop hundreds of tourists off on a daily basis starting in the morning. We would highly recommend getting here between 8-9am if you visit in the morning before the masses descend on the park. You could also save this attraction towards the end of the day when most of the tours have finished.

DON'T FORGET TO PAY FOR PARKING OR YOUR LICENSE PLATE NUMBER

There is a $9 / 1,000 ISK parking fee and you pay at the visitors center, which is only a few minutes walk from the parking lot. Don’t forget to write down your license plate number before you leave your car, since that is what’s used to pay for parking.

Hike out to Skógarkot

Follow the map found within this post to hike out to Skógarkot and back. The trail is a flat, easy hike that gets you away from the crowds and offers some interesting sights along the way.

NOTE: We wouldn’t recommend hiking any further than Skógarkot since the trails aren’t well maintained – turn around and walk back on the other path that leads more towards Silfra.

How to Get There & Parking

Address:

Þingvellir National Park

7V4C+83

Thingvellir, Iceland

Directions via Google Maps

Parking: $9 / 1,000 ISK

This is one of, if not the most, popular attraction in Iceland that brings in tour buses full of visitors, so there is plenty of room to park.

Attraction Details

When you arrive, there is a very spacious parking lot with plenty of room to park, as this is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. There are information plaques to read about the history, an indoors visitor area and plenty of bathrooms available (we recommend the ones in the parking lot). Make sure to enter the visitor area to pay for parking! Remember to write down or take a picture of your license plate number, since that is needed to identify your car and pay for parking.

As you walk past the visitor center, you’ll see throngs of people at the viewing area that overlooks the beautiful Þingvellir National Park and Þingvallavatn Lake. The viewing area is basically a minute walk from where all the tour buses get dropped off, however, so it gets pretty crowded. This is why we recommend visiting first thing in the morning (between 8-9am) or later in the evening after all the tour crowds have dispersed. That being said, the sights from the viewing area is truly astounding and features panoramic views of the tectonic plates.

The main attraction to Þingvellir National Park is that it offers a unique experience to walk between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The entire region is located in a rift valley created by the drifting apart of two tectonic plates – and it is constantly expanding, albeit very slowly at 2 centimeters per year.

During your visit, walking between the tectonic plates is one of the first things you get to do by following the path next to the visitors center and there are a few various attractions to see when visiting this national park, including Drekkingarhylur and Öxarárfoss waterfalls, Silfra and hiking out to the abandoned farms of Skógarkot.

As you walk through the tectonic plates, there are two different stops off to the right that offer quick 5-10 minute stops to see other expansive views of Þingvellir. As you continue your walk, you will pass Drekkingarhylur waterfall on your lefthand side as you walk over a bridge. If you follow this path up a bit past the parking lots, about 15 minutes more, there is a split in the trail and a sign – follow the path to the left for the Öxarárfoss waterfall.

After visiting the waterfall, you can turn around and head back to the parking lot to move onto the next attraction, but we would recommend taking the easy one hour hike out to Skógarkot. As you’re leaving Öxarárfoss waterfall, just walk straight back out the path you came in (since the path dead ends at the waterfall) and follow the sign directions toward Langistigur. Just a few minutes walk from there and you’ll see an information plaque next to a few wooden seats where the path turns splits two ways and turns into a gravel path – take the path to the right around the rock formation and this is where the hike out to Skógarkot starts.

Attraction Details Continued Below

Attraction Details

Attraction Details Continued Below

Attraction Details (Continued)

We arrived at Þingvellir National Park at 9:30am (although we recommend getting there between 8-9am) and started the hike to Skógarkot at 11am, so we had a solid 1 hour and 30 minutes to park our car and leisurely explore the main parts of the national park first. While it’s not the most scenic hike, it does let you get outside of the crowds and experience a peaceful walk in Icelandic nature. The hike itself takes about 1.5-2 hours round trip and there are pretty interesting canyons to view along the way. The trail and signs are also pretty easy to follow and the pictures below show a few snapshots of the hike to ensure you’re on the right track.

Once you’re out to Skógarkot, we spent about 5-10 minutes soaking in the view of the abandoned farm and mountain in the distance and then took a trail that was more of a diagonal route back, towards Silfra. Please note that there are a couple different paths you can take from here, but only the path you came from and the other diagonal one labeled Gönguvegur take you back to the parking lot / will get you back to where you started. We highly recommend that you do not follow the path with the sign labeled Vatnskotsgata. This path is poorly maintained and brings you pretty far away from the entrance of the park. We attempted this way at first, since it was labeled on the map we got at the visitors center, but regretted going that way.

As you finish your walk back along the Gönguvegur trail, you can follow the road toward Silfra to see the continental under water continental divide. There isn’t too much to see if you are just doing a quick visit, but this is an extremely popular bucket list activity for any divers out there. There are a few different diving tours offered and a convenient meet up parking area at the launch point if you choose to dive! To walk back to the main visitors center, simply walk along the road to the left of the divers parking area towards the P5 parking lot, through the lot and up the stairs.

We hope you enjoy your visit to Þingvellir National Park! It’s a wonderful visit and definitely make the most of the time you have there.

Attraction Details (Continued)

We hope you enjoy your visit to Þingvellir National Park! It’s a wonderful visit and definitely make the most of the time you have there.

Thingvellir Trail Map

For those of you who are interested in taking the hike out to Skógarkot during your visit, we’d recommend taking a look at the map below to follow in our footsteps! Start at the i and WC logos on the bottom left part of the map (which is where the parking lot is located) and follow the red paths north. Then head east on the map where it reads 362 along the red path that has the people and horse logos. Once you reach Skógarkot, take the diagonal brown path back labeled Gönguvegur that leads towards the ⌘ logo to stop at Silfra, and then head back to where you parked.