Route 1 circles the whole island: the south coast's waterfalls and black sand, the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, the quiet East Fjords, Lake Mývatn's geothermal north and the Snæfellsnes peninsula on the way back. June to August has the midnight sun and open roads; winter brings the northern lights but short days and closures.
Road trip route for your dates
6 days from Sat, Dec 5.
- Day 1 Reykjavík
- Day 2 Vík and the south coastDrive from Reykjavík to Vík and the south coast (about 2.5 hours)
- Day 3 Jökulsárlón & HöfnDrive from Vík and the south coast to Jökulsárlón & Höfn (about 3 hours)
- Day 4 The East FjordsDrive from Jökulsárlón & Höfn to The East Fjords (about 3.5 hours)
- Day 5 Mývatn & AkureyriDrive from The East Fjords to Mývatn & Akureyri (about 2.5 hours)
- Day 6 Snæfellsnes peninsulaDrive from Mývatn & Akureyri to Snæfellsnes peninsula (about 4.5 hours)
Last day: about 2 hours back to the start (from Snæfellsnes to Reykjavík; Keflavík airport is 45 minutes further).
Good to know
- Check umferdin.is (roads) and vedur.is (weather) every morning; wind can close roads and rip car doors off.
- Book places to stay early in summer; there are few beds between towns.
- Never walk on a glacier without a guide, and stay well back from the waves at Reynisfjara; sneaker waves have killed visitors there.
Eat this
Places the planner can use
Mark places as a must or something to skip. The itinerary is built only from this list; ★ marks the destination’s highlights.
A loop through the rift valley where the North American and Eurasian plates meet, an erupting geyser field, and a thundering two-tier waterfall.
Milky blue geothermal water heated by an adjacent power plant, with a swim-up bar and silica mud masks.
Reykjavík's tallest building, a striking basalt-column-shaped church with an observation deck over the colourful rooftops.
Boat tours from the working harbour heading out into Faxaflói Bay in search of minke whales and white-beaked dolphins.
A compact indoor food hall with stalls covering everything from lobster soup to Icelandic hot dogs.
A glass-domed museum on a hilltop with a real man-made ice cave and exhibits on Iceland's glaciers and volcanoes.
The main shopping street, lined with Icelandic wool sweater shops, bookstores and cafés.
A chronological walk through Iceland's Viking settlement, medieval sagas and path to independence.
A slender 60-metre waterfall you can walk behind, with the hidden Gljúfrabúi falls a few minutes away.
A thundering curtain of water with a staircase to the top and the start of the Fimmvörðuháls trail.
Basalt columns, sea stacks and black sand; stay well back from the dangerous waves.
Crampons and ice axes on a guided walk among blue ice and crevasses.
Interactive exhibition on Iceland's volcanoes and earthquakes, good on a wet day.
Icebergs calving off Breiðamerkurjökull drift to the sea past seals; boat tours weave between them.
Ice chunks washed up on black sand, glittering at sunrise and sunset.
Hike to a waterfall framed by black basalt columns in Vatnajökull National Park.
Guided trips into natural blue ice caves in the cold months, roughly October to April and most reliably November to March.
The harbour town's famous lobster (langoustine) soup and grilled tails.
Painted wooden houses, a rainbow street and a blue church at the end of a deep fjord.
Iceland's third-highest waterfall, about 128 metres, striped with red clay layers; a 40–60 minute walk up.
One woman's lifetime collection of minerals filling a house and garden.
A roaring wall of grey glacial water in a canyon; feel the spray from the east-bank path.
Milky-blue geothermal lagoon with lake views, calmer and cheaper than the Blue Lagoon.
Bubbling mud pots and steaming vents on an orange, sulphur-streaked hillside.
The 'waterfall of the gods', a wide horseshoe where Iceland's lawspeaker threw his pagan idols.
Iceland's whale capital: humpbacks and sometimes blue whales in Skjálfandi Bay.
The north's small capital, with cafés, heart-shaped traffic lights and a surprising botanic garden.
Infinity-edge geothermal pools set in a birch forest above the fjord.
Iceland's most photographed mountain rising behind a small three-step waterfall.
A coastal path past basalt arches and seabird cliffs to a tiny café in Hellnar.
Black pebble beach with a shipwreck and lifting stones at the foot of the glacier volcano.
A family farm that still cures Greenland shark; taste the famous fermented hákarl if you dare.