Help with 2,5 day itinerary in September

I replied on the other forum that you posted this to:)

I would go with option 1, and maybe tweak it a bit. If you are not set on the Blue Lagoon, you could get the car and head to Reykjavik and do Sky Lagoon there. The drive is 45 minutes, so soaking after the drive would be more relaxing.

Since you have a really morning flight home, you might consider staying near KEF that last night just so you get a bit more time to sleep in. I like the Aurora Hotel which is right next door to the terminal, just a 5 minute walk across a parking lot. You could still have dinner and see Reykjavik that evening then head over and return the car and stay the night there. You could also do Blue Lagoon that evening, then return the car and sleep at the Aurora. So a few options to think about.

I'm a little unclear - the "tour" you reference is driving yourself by car? Or taking an organized tour? If the latter, depending on which southern Iceland tour you do, they can run 8-10 hours long. Most of the tours depart between 8-9 a.m.. Golden Circle tours are also 6-ish hours long but some companies do offer midday departure times. Regardless of self-guided or organized tour, a day trip won't leave you much time to see things in Reykjavik if you want a place to be open. For example, the inside of the Hallgrímskirkja church is only open 10-5 daily. So if you have must-see Reykjavik places, be sure to check their hours and adjust your schedule accordingly.

I also agree staying by the airport for your departure is a good idea, especially with kids. You'll save the hassle of turning the rental car in the wee hours of the morning and it will allow you to get to airport at least 2.5 hours early (it can be chaos that time of day, many flights arriving/departing at that early hour).

And FWIW, if you do day tours with tour companies you may not have much need for a car in central Reykjavik, other than getting to/from the airport with the hot spring stop. That can be accomplished using other methods.

Hi!

Thank you for your answers :)

We have decided that we want to go to Blue Lagoon, not Sky Lagoon :)

We are going to have a rentalcar so we are going to drive the Golden circle and also drive the south Iceland to Vik.

We are planning to drive from Reykjavik no later than 7 am in the morning to have enough time but also to get back to Reykjavik in time.

Reykjavik City Center we are only planning to strolling around and eat dinner.

Our concern by doing Blue Lagoon straight after we arrive on Keflavik is that we don’t know how long time it will take to get out of the airport and collect our rentalcar. Does it take 45 minutes so we are at Blue Lagoon at 4,30 PM or does it take 2 hours so we are at the Blue Lagoon at 6 PM? We want to visit Blue Lagoon during daylight and the sun goes down at 7 PM.

Another thought is when is the best time to visit Blue Lagoon:
Thursday at 5-6 PM or Friday 8 am?

If we decide to do the Blue Lagoon on day 2 we are thinking:
8 am: Blue Lagoon
11 am: Drive to Geysir / Gullfoss
1 pm - 5 pm: Geysir / Gullfoss / Tingvellir
6 pm: Back in Reykjavík

Is this a reasonable planning?

Good idea to stay the last night close to the airport, will think about that :)

Once again, thank you for the answers :)

I would do the Blue Lagoon after landing. It has always taken us only about 30 minutes or so to get out of the airport, then add in time to get the rental car. If you are renting from Blue, you can just walk over and it takes maybe 5 minutes, and you can get a key from the locker and be on your way. I don't know how long it takes for the others with needing to take shuttles etc. Since the BL is only 20 minutes from KEF, you could easily be at the BL for a 5pm reservation. That still gives you plenty of daylight time, and honestly, sunset there is really nice.

I would do not the BL in the morning as that is a lot of backtracking to get to the GC, so time that you could use there to see the sights.