Iceland: Reykjavik for 3 days, ideas?

We went to Iceland a couple years ago during July and did the Ring Road route around the country as we had nine days at our disposal instead of three. Nevertheless, there's a lot you can see in the Reykjavík region. The Golden Circle route will include Þingvellir National Park, Geysir, and Gullfoss, all of which are worth seeing. You can also drive north on the ring road (Route 1) into the Vesterland area or head south on the Ring Road to Vík. Reykjavík is one of my favorite European cities -- it's a beautiful city and easy to explore. Some of the best seafood I've ever eaten was in Reykjavík. The good thing about Iceland is that you can go just about anywhere and you won't go wrong.

The Blue Lagoon is very close to the airport. Depending on your arrival/departure time, you could easily go there right after you arrive or just before you leave. If that doesn't work with your schedule, it's about a 40 minute drive one-way from Reykjavík.

For three days, I would have one day in Reykjavík, one day doing the Golden Circle route, and then the last day could be another day trip, or another day in Reykjavík.

Thank you for your wonderful reply!

I wouldn't rent a car. Just take a day bus tour to the Golden Circle sites (
all beautiful) and to the Blue Lagoon (over rated in my opinion). I really enjoyed walking around Reykjavik. I spent five days in Iceland June 2014.

Apologies for tagging on to this post. Would the same advice apply to the last week in January? An Iceland stopover in transit to HEL looks interesting.

In late January, your main issue will be daylight. There will only be about 6 hours of usable daylight, although the night skies will be good for viewing the aurora borealis. The other thing to note is that the tours which run during the summer don't usually run in winter, unless it is something for a specific winter activity, so you would most likely need to rent a car.