We have rented a car for our brief 48 hours in Iceland. We want to do the Golden Circle tour on our own, but wondering what order we should visit the main sites in order to avoid the large tour groups. Do the Tour Buses go in a specific order and we should reverse that for our trip? What time should we hit the road?! Also, with the rental car, are there other sites worth a stop that you wouldn't see if you are on tour bus? Thanks
Posted by
Reno, NV, USA
2533 posts
Hi,
I'm not sure how to avoid the tour buses but it's not that bad really. We hit the road about 10 or 11 am after we picked up our rental car and were able to see all the sights on the Golden Circle tour but it was a bit rushed as we had to get to our hotel in Reykholt before 6 pm. We visited the Kerid Crater, Geysir, Gullfoss and Thingvellir in that order. There is a greenhouse/restaurant between Kerid Crater and Geysir that I would suggest you check out. Although there are other greenhouses in Iceland, it is the only greenhouse/restaurant that I know of in Iceland so it is unique. The website is www.fridheimar.is/en The greenhouse is open 12 - 4 daily. The signage is not great for this place so you have to keep your eyes peeled for it. There is a dirt road on the right as you are heading to Geysir. We zoomed past it and had to turn back to get to the restaurant. The greenhouse grows tomatoes year round using geothermal energy. When you get there, you are given a brief tour of the greenhouse by the owner. The menu is fresh tomato based and delicious. I had the all you can eat tomato soup and bread and my husband had the tortellini. Both were delicious. This restaurant does get a lot of tour groups so getting a table without a reservation may be difficult but it's worth a look see. So I would recommend getting a reservation if you are interested in eating there. It was one of our favorite most memorable places to visit on our trip. With respect to the car rental, I would strongly suggest getting the Garmin with the Icelandic alphabet as the Icelandic language has a lot more characters than the English alphabet. Using the wrong characters could cause you to get lost. Another website that we found useful was www.iheartreykjavik.net which has a wealth of information about touring in Iceland. I hope this helps. You will love Iceland and it's people who are friendly, polite and accommodating. Have a good trip.
Posted by
Danville, VT
12040 posts
None of the sites along the Golden Circle are really overwhelmed by the tour groups. Even with a few tour buses unloading at tone time, there's more than enough room to walk around the geysirs, the waterfall and the... other site, who's name I can't remember.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, United States
873 posts
Skatie, I wouldn't worry about the main sites being overwhelmed with tour groups. We rented a car and did the Golden Circle tour a couple of years ago, and even in May with excellent weather, there weren't hoards of tourists at any of the sites. Not to say they were deserted or that we didn't see any tour buses, but rather that their presence had no negative impact on our trip whatsoever. :)
As far as other sites go, I cannot recall any specific places, but I would recommend picking up some maps and a guidebook (I recommend Lonely Planet's guidebook!) and just finding some additional places to stop along the way.