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The sights of southern Iceland usually make it on everyone’s must see list. The best part is that you can take a day tour from Reykjavík to see all of them. You can even visit Jökulsárlón, the well-known glacier lagoon. The lagoon is almost a 5 hour drive from Reykjavík in one direction. Considering the distance it doesn’t even make sense how we could make five sightseeing stops with adequate time to visit plus pit stops, but it happened. Our scheduled 14 hour day tour turned into a 16 hour day! Despite the number of hours it didn’t feel like a lot of time in the car or an over-exhausting day.

Back to Iceland Tours

Back to Iceland Tours is owned by Anton, a hilarious man from Eastern Europe. In my small group tour of only two other people, I knew immediately I would enjoy the day. Anton told us right away that he wouldn’t be telling us a lot of names and historical details, that we could get those on the Golden Circle Tour. Instead he talked about the life of people in Iceland and many interesting aspects of the culture.

So many amusing stories, like the man who escaped out of an Iceland jail on a Friday night to attend a party but returned back to the prison later in the evening! The quality of the jails are apparently pretty nice and most people are incarcerated for financial crimes.

I would encourage you to go with a tour, and especially a small group tour company like Back to Iceland. Throughout the hours on the road you gain so much more insight into the country than you would if you rented a car. Also with this company we had the flexibility to ask for extra pit stops and were not given a designated time at each stop, we could go at our own pace. It really was as close as you could get to having the freedom of traveling on your own, yet the companionship of fellow travelers and knowledge of a local.

Whether you go with Back to Iceland or not, here is what you must see on the way.

Seljalandsfoss

With over 10,000 waterfalls in Iceland, what makes Seljalandsfoss so special? Well for one thing you can walk behind it. Be prepared to get wet though. On my 2nd visit here later in the week on my Ice & Fire Tour we stopped here again and my guide told the other people in our group, “you don’t get that wet”. Yes, it is not as if you are under the falls and get soaked, but let’s just say you want a raincoat!

 

Skógafoss

This waterfall you can visit up close at the bottom. The closer you go, the wetter you get. If conditions are right you might get to see a rainbow like I did.

You can also climb up the stairs to get an overhead view. On this tour Anton recommended that we not go up to the top because it took 30 minutes. Then on my Ice & Fire Walk Arnaud said we could run up to the top in 5 minutes. My time was in between the two. I am clearly not as fit as a mountaineering guide, but I can move a little faster than a full time driver.

Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach

Reynisfjara is a world famous black sand beach that was formed from lava rocks. Visitors needs to be careful of the powerful waves that can and do sweep people into the ocean with little warning.

Make sure to check out the columns that were created naturally from wind and erosion. Many accidents also occur on these rocks when people climb too high. I had to climb a little though!

Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon

Our next stop was the beautiful Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon where we hopped onto a boat and went out into the lagoon.

We stopped mid-way to learn more about the glaciers. After five minutes of holding a huge hunk of the glacier with no gloves (no idea how he did that), our guide gave us a turn to hold the ice and taste it too. The water is so cold in the lagoon that they have someone following in a small zodiac boat behind our boat in case someone falls in and they need to do a quick rescue. Our guide informed us that that is not a fun drill to practice!

Diamond Beach

Across the street from Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon is the diamond beach, another black sand beach with glaciers that drift ashore.  

The Town of Vík

Our last stop of the day was in the town of Vík where we visited a large IceWear store that has viewing windows into its factory.

We also visited Vik i Myrdal Church, a church sitting up on a hill with a picturesque view of the village below.

Go and explore the beauty of Southern Iceland!

Visiting Information

Where

Pick-ups from Reykjavík.

Company

Back to Iceland. They offer a couple of different private and small group sightseeing day tours around the southern and southwestern parts of Iceland.

Review

On the last full day of my trip my golden circle day tour was cancelled. I unsuccessfully tried (didn’t have a tour that day) to book Back to Iceland’s golden circle tour because I enjoyed my first tour with them so much.

I think the extra cost of a small group tour is completely worth it. As I said above there is so much more flexibility for extra stops and more time at the stops.

Toilets & Food

I had no problem with the amount of toilet and food stops. So that means 99.9% of the population have no worries. There are toilets at every single stop made on the trip. I would take along a few extra snacks for the road though. FYI I bought a really good apple caramel muffin at the lagoon gift shop/food stand.

More About Iceland

• Incredible Iceland
• One Day in Reykjavik
• How to Get from Keflavík Airport to Reykjavík, Iceland
• National Museum of Iceland in Reykjavik
• Day Tours from Reykjavík
• SUP
• Kayaking in Iceland
• Hot Springs Hike & Glacier Hike, 
• Books about Iceland & Finland

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