One Week Road Trip of the Popular South Coast and Mythical Highlands of Iceland

On the second day of your week-long summer holiday in Iceland, you'll set out to visit the attractions of its most popular tourist trail, the Golden Circle. This sightseeing route boasts three incredible attractions. Since this is a self-drive tour conducted under the midnight sun, there are plenty of beautiful hidden gems around it you can seek out.

Thingvellir National Park is the first major attraction on your agenda. It's located directly between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plate edges and boasts beautiful lava fields, ravines, and forests that beg to be explored. The site also has a fascinating history, being the original setting of Iceland's first national assembly.

Next, you'll find the Geysir geothermal area. This valley is a hotbed of hot springs, with many bubbling mud pots, steaming vents, and several geysers. Strokkur is the most impressive, regularly blasting water and steam over 66 feet (20 meters) tall.

Finally, you'll come to Gullfoss, about 6 miles (9.7 kilometers) from Geysir. It's one of the most beloved waterfalls in Iceland. It's a natural wonder cascading into an ancient valley with tremendous power and played a fascinating role during a pivotal moment in Iceland's environmental awakening.

The Gullfoss waterfall boasts two incredible cascades. The first is a shorter drop measuring 36 feet (11 meters) tall, while the second cascade is about 69 feet (21 meters) tall. 

Around these fascinating sites are several lesser-known attractions where you can enjoy the wonder of Iceland away from the tourist crowds. These include the Kerid crater lake, Solheimar eco-village, and the Secret Lagoon.

You can add three tours to your day for a taste of adventure. While at Thingvellir, you can organize a snorkeling excursion into the spectacular Silfra, a crystal-clear spring between the tectonic plates. Snorkeling participants need to be comfortable in the water and be able to swim.

Meanwhile, from the car park at Gullfoss, you can take a super-jeep to the sparkling glacier of Langjokull and embark on a thrilling snowmobiling ride across its surface.

Finally, you can head to a farm in the beautiful countryside of southwest Iceland to ride an Icelandic horse. These creatures are renowned for their intelligence, friendliness, and diminutive size. Riding one of them offers a lovely perspective of the surrounding nature.

After packing your first day full of amazing attractions and adventure, you'll retire for the night in a countryside hotel in Southwest Iceland.

On day four of your week-long Icelandic summer holiday, you'll slowly explore the sites of the South Coast of Iceland. Many packages and tours try to squeeze as many attractions along this route as possible into a single and end up rushing. However, due to this tour's immersive, slow-paced nature, you'll give all of them justice.

The south truly has it all, including waterfalls, glaciers, volcanoes, beautiful stretches of coastline, charming villages, and terrain that ranges from idyllic country to volcanic wasteland. It's most famous for its waterfalls. Today, you'll marvel over the serene Seljalandsfoss, the powerful Skogafoss, and the magical Gljufrabui, spending as much time at each as you desire.

Seljalandsfoss is a gentle-cascading waterfall with a huge cavern behind it. The cavern lets you fully encircle the cascade and take photographs from a different perspective.

On the other hand, the Skogafoss waterfall is known for its raw power. The waterfall throws off vast blooms of spray as it thunders from a 197-foot (60-meter) tall cliff with impressive force before smashing into the rocks below.

Meanwhile, the Gljufrabui waterfall is hidden in a cliff-side cleft. Measuring 131 feet (40 meters) tall, the waterfall is smaller than the previous two but has its unique appeal. When visiting Gljufrabui, you'll see it falling over a moss-covered boulder inside a magical grotto.

Aside from the waterfalls, the ice caps deserve special mention due to the exciting opportunities for excursions that they present. The first of these is a classic glacier hiking tour on the outlet of Solheimajokull. Under the care of an experienced guide, you'll scale its spectacular surface and enjoy unforgettable views across the south.

The second is the chance to explore an ice cave on Myrdalsjokull, the glacier that conceals the notorious volcano of Katla. Ice caving is usually impossible in summer, making this a unique opportunity for those seeking to witness the world inside an ice cap.

Though you're welcome to set out to find the many hidden gems of the south, it's still highly recommended you visit the famous attractions of the Dyrholaey rock arch and Reynisfjara beach. The former is renowned for its scale and being home to thousands of puffins in summer, while the latter is a beautiful black sand stretch of the coast known for the towering sea stacks of Reynisdrangar.

When you finally retire for the evening, it will be at a hotel in South Iceland.

The fifth day of your holiday will be spent exploring two of the most incredible locations in South Iceland, both in the majestic Vatnajokull National Park: Skaftafell Nature Reserve and Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon. Sitting under the park's namesake, the enormous Vatnajokull glacier, you'll be incredibly grateful for this self-drive's slow-paced nature as it will provide you with hours at each.

Skaftafell is a spectacular area sheltered by glacier tongues and defined by lagoons, rivers, and lava landscapes. It is often described as a hiker's and photographer's paradise. The most popular trail in the reserve leads to the beautiful Svartifoss waterfall, which tumbles amongst bizarre columns of hexagonal basalt.

To further immerse yourself in Skaftafell, you can take a glacier hiking tour on the magnificent tongue of Svinafellsjokull. It's an excellent choice if you missed the trip to Solheimajokull yesterday. Though Solheimajokull's consistent weather often leads to better views, Svinafellsjokull usually has more dramatic crevasses, ridges, and ice formations.

Meanwhile, Jokulsarlon is a glacier lagoon of epic proportions. One of the largest and ever-growing natural lakes in Iceland, it's filled with enormous icebergs that break from an adjacent glacier tongue. Their scale, vivid coloration, and gentle movements make them magnificent to watch, and many spend hours silently marveling over them from the shore.

If you want a more intimate experience, you can book an alternative tour here and take a boat into the lagoon. Amphibious vessels are an affordable option to immerse yourself amongst the bergs while staying out of the splash zone. At the same time, zodiacs can offer you an even closer perspective.

When the icebergs finally escape Jokulsarlon, they wash up on the shore of the adjacent black-sand coast called Diamond Beach. It's another area of spectacular beauty you should explore. Both the lagoon and coastline are also great seal-watching locations.

After enjoying the wonders of Southeast Iceland, you'll head to a local hotel for the night.