The Golden Circle Day Trip from Reykjavik: Thingvellir, Strokkur Geyser & Gullfoss

Beginning just forty-five kilometres north-east of central Reykjavík along paved, year-round highways, the 230-kilometre (143-mile) Golden Circle brings together the three cornerstones of Icelandic identity in a single six-to-eight-hour loop: the tectonic rift valley where the world's oldest parliament met in 930 CE, the geothermal valley that gave the world the word geyser, and a two-tiered glacial waterfall plunging into a basalt gorge.

1. Þingvellir National Park (UNESCO World Heritage Site): 930 CE Alþingi & Tectonic Plates

• Where the North American and Eurasian Plates Pull Apart (thingvellir.is): Inscribed by UNESCO in 2004, Þingvellir ("Assembly Plains") is one of the few places on Earth where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rises above sea level. As the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates drift apart by roughly two centimetres a year, the valley floor between them subsides, creating the dramatic vertical basalt cliff wall of the Almannagjá gorge. Start at the Hakið Visitor Centre overlooking the rift valley and largest natural lake in Iceland (Þingvallavatn), then walk down through the stone canyon of Almannagjá past the flag-marked Lögberg (Law Rock), where chieftains (goðar) gathered for two weeks every summer from 930 CE to 1798 to recite the law and where Iceland peacefully adopted Christianity in 1000 CE, out to the foaming cascade of Öxarárfoss.
• Snorkelling the Crystal Waters of Silfra Fissure: On the floor of the rift valley, meltwater filtered for decades through porous underground lava from Langjökull glacier fills the Silfra fissure, whose 2°C water offers underwater visibility exceeding 100 metres for guided drysuit snorkelling and diving tours.

2. Haukadalur Geothermal Valley (Geysir & Strokkur), Gullfoss Waterfall & Kerið Crater

• Great Geysir & Hyper-Active Strokkur (Route 35): Fifty minutes east of Þingvellir via Laugarvatn (home to the lakeside geothermal bread ovens and steam baths of Fontana), plumes of sulphur steam rise from the rhyolite mud pots and fumaroles of Haukadalur. Here lies the currently dormant Great Geysir (first recorded in 1294, whose Icelandic name geysir, meaning "to gush", entered every language on Earth) just steps from Strokkur ("The Churn"), which swells into a glowing turquoise dome bubble and shoots a column of boiling water 15 to 30 metres into the sky every 6 to 10 minutes.
• Gullfoss ("Golden Falls") & Optional Stops on Route 35: Ten minutes further up the highway, the glacial river Hvítá thunders down from the Langjökull ice cap over the two-stage staircase of Gullfoss, dropping 11 metres across its upper ledges and 21 metres at a sharp right angle into a narrow, 32-metre-deep basalt crevice that early-20th-century farmer's daughter Sigríður Tómasdóttir famously saved from hydroelectric damming. On your drive back toward Reykjavík along Route 35, pause for tomato soup among the bumblebee-pollinated geothermal greenhouses at Friðheimar and walk the rim of the 3,000-year-old red volcanic crater lake of Kerið.