It was time for a vacation, so naturally we decided to travel back to the same place we went to last vacation: Iceland!
We loved Iceland before, and this time we decided to take our oldest child. We considered bringing the boys too, but they are at an age when tantrums shows up really quick, and their attention span can be short, so it seemed like it might end up being quite unpleasant. However, we did have to promise we’d take them there later, so we’ll have that to look forward to.
One of the boys was actually very disappointed, because Iceland recently had a volcano going off, and he’s obsessed with lava. And then when we were coming in, I SAW THE VOLCANO WITH MY OWN EYES!! I SAW IT SPRAYING MAGMA IN THE AIR!!! IT WAS SO COOL!!!! (The road from the airport went right by it)
And then the universe decided the volcano was closed, as it went back to sleep before we’d even left Iceland.
But since I love Iceland so much, I’m not against going again with the boys, but I also plan to go again with just myself so I can take a riding tour!! The kids are too young for it, so they’ll have to wait, but I’m not waiting. I’m going to do it ASAP, as I can’t imagine anything cooler than trail riding in Iceland.
One of the (non-riding) tours I did was the Golden Circle, which is detailed below. However, there are some cool riding trips right through this same area!
4 Day Winter and Northern Lights Horse Riding Holiday in Selfoss, Iceland
7 Day Southern Comfort: Golden Circle Horse Riding Holiday in Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur, Iceland
More on them below!
I feel like many people avoid international travel because they think its too complicated or hard to figure out logistices, but Iceland is so simple. One of the nice parts of traveling to Iceland is how incredibly easy it is. Sure, you can go all out, rent a car and drive the ring road, or go to the highlands, but it’s so easy to have a full vacation with very little effort. Just be prepared for the cost, because it’s expensive to eat out here. We made several trips to the grocery store instead.
Plus, everyone speaks English. It’s one of the required classes in school.
So Iceland on easy mode: Fly into KEF, take the Flybus to Reykjavik, stay in a hotel, book some tours, and the bus picks you up (not in that order, book tours early as the popular ones will sell out, like the Tomato Greenhouse. Good luck getting that one!)
The horse tours run the same way – book your tour, and you’re picked up at the bus stop in Reykjavik, you just have to take the flybus there. Super easy. No navigating on your own, or renting a car, or trying to figure out logistics.
For that reason alone, Iceland is a great place to visit, but of course the country itself is beautiful and amazing. I did the Golden Circle tour and Secret lagoon, and that’s what I’m going to share here. The horse tours I linked also go to these places, so you can see these areas on horseback!
Thingvellir National Park
Thingvellir (Icelandic: Þingvellir) National Park is famous for a few reasons. It was the site of the Althing (Icelandic: Alþing), which was the first parliament in the world. All the chieftains of Iceland would gather here once a year to discuss the happenings between the groups, and sort out any issues that came up. Engagements were made, but also people decided they didn’t really like each other, and swear blood oaths against each other for generations. Eventually they begin to realize they needed a central authority to enforce the rules, but this took a few hundred years, so this system lasted a while. This whole era of Icelandic history is well documented within the Icelandic Sagas, medieval literature that tells the stories of different families or specific people. It’s actually very interesting, and I highly recommend checking it out.
The Icelandic Sagas
The Sagas are very interesting, and mostly passed over when looking at historic literature. However, you can still enjoy them today in a few ways!
The Sagas of Icelanders is a simplified translation of the stories, written for the modern reader, with lots of notes to help understand the backgrounds and history. I’m currently working my way through it now. Be warned, this is a MASSIVE book.
There’s also a series on YouTube, presented by the University of Iceland, that gives you an overview of the story, told in the region of the country where it happened. So it’s a story, plus you get to see the actual places where it took place. It’s very cool! Check out Sage #8, Witches and Wonders in Eyrbyggja.
Finally, you can just google for the Icelandic Sagas. They are open source at this point, no copyright on them! The translation quality tends to vary, though, and some versions can be very confusing.
The other main thing the park is known for is being where the North American and European tectonic plates meet. The plates are pulling apart and creating rifts. There’s are tours to scuba dive in the water between the plates. The water is crystal clear. But for those of us that like to stay dry, there is a hiking path in the largest rift.
The park is a beautiful hiking (and riding!) spot, and full of history. There’s still ruins somewhere of the Althing. I wish I had seen them, but alas, I did no.
For all the history and geological significance, the park was made a UNSECO World Heritage Site.
Gullfoss
Likely the most famous of the Icelandic waterfall, the Gullfoss waterfall has the distinction of being two waterfalls, but in very close proximately. This is most likely for tax benefits.
This is a good waterfall to visit if you like getting sprayed in the face (and really everywhere) by water, especially if you like doing it while it’s windy and cold. We saw someone without a rain coat make a hasty retreat when he realized the extent of the spray.
But if you make it down there, you’ll be in a nice area with lots of other tourists on slippery rocks, with a rope fence to keep you from falling over the edge.
I hope I don’t sound cynical at all, it was actually very nice. But since having kids my opinions are greatly influenced by how safe I think it is for kids. And I have horror situations that play in my head. So it was a little nerve racking to have my small precious child so close to extreme water, with the potential of either tripping on the very uneven rocks, or accidently getting bumped by a much larger human. Which is why I took the below photo by putting her place, where no people were, and then moving myself to the spot. It seemed to work, she’s still here!
It’s a very impressive waterfall, and it really was amazing to see it.
hot springs of Geysir
I had very low expectations of the geyser area, and perhaps because of that, I ended up loving the geysir area. It was way more interesting and impressive than I expected. (I’m going to have to make a trip to Yellowstone now.)
It started out slowly. We walked for the path, and there was some steam coming out of the ground. I thought that was all, and I was like “hm, nice.” But as we continued down the path, there was pools of boiling water. Then I was like, “Oooo, nice!”
Then we continued down and there was a geyser spraying water 70 feet in the air, and I was like “OOooooOOOo, very nice!”
It was really neat to see all the different pools and colors, and formations all around. It was very different from what I see in my normal, non-geyser, day to day life.
So 5 stars, highly recommend going to this park to look at geysers. There’s even the original “Geyser,” which used to shoot 200 feet up in the air. It is the geyser that birthed all other geysers, in the sense that they are all called geyser because of this one.
It doesn’t go off anymore thought, it’s retired to watch Matlock and reminisce about the good old days. People have tried to drag it out of retirement by dumping salt in its waters, though. I guess you could try salting retired people that you know to see if there’s any effect.
The Secret Lagoon
After seeing all the sights, we went to the hot springs. This spring was originally built as a neighborhood swimming pool, but has since been made into this very rustic, looking hot spring stop. It’s very clearly heated from the hot spring as you can literally see where the water is coming from. It’s also insanely hot over in this corner of the pool, and I don’t know what kind of ice blood you have if this is where you want to hang out. Not to mention they had to put up a fence because people kept going into the hottest part of the hot spring???
People really are built different. I love being warm and all, but I’ll take temperate warm to being scalded alive.
This is a very nice hot spring though, and less populated than some of the tourist ones (looking at you Blue Lagoon and Sky Lagoon). What shocks most tourists is that you do have to shower naked before you get in. And it’s communal showers, with minimal hiding spots, which is very normal for Iceland. But after this hot spring and visiting the community pool in the city, I’ve realized that Icelanders have a very different view on nudity than Americans, and it’s very much: “no one cares.”
This stop isn’t always included in the Golden Circle tours, so make sure you check before booking.
The Icelandic Horses
As we were driving along, our tour guide asked if we wanted to see the horses. Yes, please, obviously.
So we pull over for this road side attraction. It’s very simple.
- Buy horse treats from the stand
- Feed horses
- Take pictures
That’s it, that’s the whole business model. People stop and pay money to pet and feed the horses. It could literally be the most brilliant business model I’ve ever seen. All you need is some horses that won’t bite people and just want treats. I would love to know if this kind of business would take off in the US. If you have a horse farm on a main road, maybe you should try it.
Once I came home, I noticed these exact same horses in this exact same location in other visitor’s Instagram photos. Everyone outside of Iceland is going to think Icelandic horses look like these specific three horses at a roadside attraction. They are famous horses, if you know who you’re looking at.
Take a Horse Vacation at the Golden Circle
If you thought any of the Golden Circle looked neat, well, you are in for a treat! There’s horse riding vacations that literally go past these places, and visits to them are included in the vacation. I listed two below. For both of these vacations, food is included. Maybe that seems minor, but food in Iceland is really expensive. We mostly ate from the grocery store. And I just love the feeling of someone else taking care of my food needs and bringing me food. It’s my love language, so really it’s always a plus when food is included.
4 Day Winter and Northern Lights Horse Riding Holiday in Selfoss, Iceland
This one is more of a quick tour of the area. An overview, you could say. It rides past the above areas, but at the end of the trip a tour bus takes you to each of them, which is basically the exact same tour that I described above, but you get to ride a bunch first.
This one is designed for winter, which means you could see the Northern Lights. It’s also possible that you won’t, as they aren’t on a schedule or anything, it just happens when it happens. But there’s a good change you’ll see them. People are already seeing them now up there, and it’s only August.
7 Day Southern Comfort: Golden Circle Horse Riding Holiday in Skeiða- og Gnúpverjahreppur, Iceland
This is a longer, more intense version of the previous ride. It still goes through the same areas of the Golden Circle, including the Secret Lagoon, but it goes on more trails, deeper into the wilderness. This tour was nominated by CNNgo as one of the 15 greatest horse treks in the world.
This ride is a top pick for me, and I’m debating between this one and another one in the northern part of Iceland. I wish I had that money tree so I could just go on all of them. (If I was rich, I wouldn’t tell anyone, but there would be signs!)
Overall, I highly recommend a trip to Iceland. Icelandic Air regularly has flights for $299, and some careful planning can get around the expensive food issue. I’m really looking forward to my next trip there!