Where do I begin to plan trip for early next September (Reykjavik as a base?

Why don't you start with Rick Steves' Iceland guidebook.

Then read the Iceland section on this forum.

That should give you a good start.

The bests resource I have found for Iceland is Iceland With A View. Both her website as well as her You Tube channel have always been spot on for us.

I highly recommend self driving and taking as much time as you possibly can. The ring road is popular for a reason but I would not do it with less than 10 days. We had 12 days on the trip that we did that and it still felt a bit rushed and we still missed so much, just to give you an idea. You can drive it in less, but that doesn't leave you any time to get out of the car and actually see the sights. I do not recommend staying in Reykjavik as a base. Nothing really works as a base in Iceland if you look at a map with the roads and where they go. Staying in town will mean a to of backtracking and wasted time.

Fall is my favorite time in Iceland. Early September will be beautiful, and you may get a chance to see the aurora.

Thank you Mikliz97 I just downloaded the brochure. Definitely a great stating point. Much appreciated. I have a lot to learn about Iceland so appreciate your thoughts. Sounds like we can definitely do more then just 4 or 5 nights without being bored.

We traveled to Iceland this August/ September for the first time, and we started with a couple of travel books as well just to get to know the country. I also watched the forum too, as the great advice and expertise is invaluable. We spent a couple of nights in Reykjavik (doing the free City Walk and a food tour to get acclimated), and then we did a 3 day/2 night tour with Nice travel for the Golden Circle, Silver Circle, and Snæfellsnes Penninsula. (Got to see the Aurora in Borgarnes!) We loved the local guides in a small group and learned so much about the area, history, as well the local cultural perspectives. Then we picked up a car for the south and east coast area and stayed in a wonderful Airbnb, and by then we felt more confident and informed. We included a Midgard Jeep tour into Thórsmörk Nature Preserve and a day in the Westmann Islands, where the puffins were still hanging out.
If we return, I would simply rent a car, but as first timers, the combo of a short tour and then independent exploration (incorporating advice from Rick Steves and this forum) worked well for our needs.
Happy happy planning!

Thank you fraubarr. Just curious how many nights do you recommend in the South and East? Any towns you would recommend staying in. I love your idea of a combo of both self guided and a few nights with a tour company. I will definitely begin or end trip in Reykjavik for a few nights.

Much appreciated

Chris

Chris--You will not be bored! We recently returned from our 8th trip and we have just over 65 nights in Iceland so far, and still are not bored;) If you share more of your interests, I can help more.

Thank you Mikliz. In terms of what we like we love little small towns to check out and quaint villages, waterfalls, etc as well as any Must see attractions when we go to a city. I also like big cities so any recommendations for that as well is appreciated. We did do the ring of Kerry in Ireland and that was great. We have been to Europe many times but I just need to educate myself on Iceland. (which is why I'm starting the process now so I have a full year). I'm flexible on number of days so it sounds like my original estimate of 4-5 nights will not be enough so I can certainly add as many nights as needed and leave Scotland for another trip (That was my original plan do Iceland for 4-5 and Edinburgh for similar.

I will just do Iceland for now

Thank you

Chris

Chris--If you can swing 2 weeks that would be ideal and you could do the entire ring road and Snaefellsness. That time of year I would do it clockwise to get the north out of the way earlier in case bad weather sets in. Two weeks would allow for a couple of two night stops and not as rushed. Iceland with a view has great ebooks, including a ring road one. I used that along with the Lonely Planet Ring Road book for our 2nd trip, which was the ring road. I still refer back to both of those. If you are flying in from the US, stay in Reykjavik for the day/night of arrival. That will help you get over jet lag, and while the city is quite small, it has a lot to see. As another poster mentioned, the Citywalk "free" walking tour (tip at the end) as well as the Food Tour are excellent. We have done both of these a couple of times. A very basic itinerary would be Reykjavik to Stikkishomur to Akureyri to Seydisfjordur and then on down the south coast and the golden circle. There are lots of great places to stay, and not just hotels but cottages out in the middle of nowhere which is what we prefer. We do eat out a lot there, but like to have the cottages so we can do our own breakfasts and then we usually take picnic stuff for during the day. We almost always use booking.com for lodging there as quite a few of the smaller places do not even have their own booking platform so use this instead. When you nail down an itinerary, I can share the places we have stayed if you want. If you are interested in hot springs/lagoons, those are wonderful! We always try to fit in as many as we can, and we do a mix of big commercial ones as well as rustic ones.

Thank you Mikliz97. Very helpful info. This is a great starting point for my itinerary. I appreciate your thorough insight and suggestions. They are greatly appreciated. I will keep you in the loop on my planning.