The Iceland Ring Road: 8 Days Around the Whole Island

Reykjavík's soaring concrete church, modelled on basalt columns, towers over the city — take the lift up for a view across the colourful rooftops to the sea and mountains. Below it, the streets of 101 (Laugavegur, Skólavörðustígur) are full of murals, design shops, wool sweaters and cafés. The perfect gentle first wander.

Stroll the seafront path past the Sun Voyager, a gleaming steel Viking longship sculpture facing the mountains across the bay, to the Harpa concert hall, whose honeycomb glass facade shimmers with colour. A lovely, flat first-evening walk in the long northern light.

Where two continents are tearing apart and a nation was born — you walk through the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian plates, down the Almannagjá gorge, on the very spot where the world's oldest parliament met in 930 AD. A UNESCO site of raw geology and deep history, and you can even snorkel the glass-clear Silfra fissure between the plates.

The original geyser that named them all — and beside it Strokkur, which erupts reliably every 5–10 minutes, firing a column of boiling water 20–30 metres into the air. The whole geothermal field steams and bubbles around the boardwalks. Endlessly watchable, and free.

The 'Golden Falls' — a vast, two-tiered waterfall where the glacial Hvítá river crashes 32 metres into a dramatic canyon, often hung with rainbows in the spray. One of the most powerful and beautiful waterfalls in a country full of them; walk the paths to feel it thunder.

Break the loop with a soak in the Secret Lagoon, a rustic geothermal pool at Flúðir, or lunch in the glowing greenhouses of Friðheimar, where tomatoes grow under geothermal light and the soup-and-bread is famous. Both are quintessentially Icelandic stops.

A striking volcanic crater with near-vertical red walls and a vivid blue-green lake in its base, on the way back to Reykjavík — a quick, beautiful stop with a rim walk.

A slender 60-metre waterfall that drops over an old sea cliff with a path running right behind the curtain of water — you can stand in the cave behind it and look out through the falling river (expect to get wet). Beside it, a short walk leads to the hidden Gljúfrabúi falls tucked in a mossy canyon. A magical first stop on the coast.

A perfect 60-metre curtain of white water thundering off the old coastline, often crowned with a rainbow — you can walk right up to the spray at its base, or climb the stairway beside it to the top and the start of a famous waterfall-strewn highland trail. One of Iceland's grandest and most photogenic falls.

A surreal beach of jet-black volcanic sand backed by a cliff of hexagonal basalt columns and a cave, with the Reynisdrangar sea stacks rising offshore — said to be trolls caught by the dawn. Stunning and genuinely dangerous: the 'sneaker waves' here are deadly, so never turn your back on the sea and stay well up the beach.

A tongue of the Mýrdalsjökull icecap that you can drive almost up to and walk a short path beside — or, with a guide, strap on crampons and hike onto the ice itself (book a glacier-walk tour ahead). A first, close look at Iceland's ice.

A deep lagoon where the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier calves great blue-and-white icebergs that drift slowly across the still water to the sea, with seals basking among them. You can walk the shore or take an amphibious-boat or Zodiac tour out among the bergs. Otherworldly, and unlike anywhere else on earth.

Across the road from the lagoon, the bergs that reach the sea are washed back onto a black-sand beach, where they lie glittering like scattered diamonds against the dark sand and white surf. Surreal, photogenic and constantly changing — every visit is different.

The lush oasis on the edge of Europe's largest glacier, and the trailhead for Svartifoss — the 'Black Falls' that drop over a cliff of dark hexagonal basalt columns (a 1.5-hour return hike). Glacier-walk and ice-cave tours onto the Vatnajökull icecap launch from here. A glorious leg-stretch on the long drive.

The Ring Road's loneliest, most underrated stretch — a slow ribbon around deep blue fjords beneath sheer mountains, past tiny fishing hamlets, waterfalls and reindeer, with barely another car. The journey itself is the attraction; take your time at the pull-outs.

A Mars-like basin of roaring steam vents, bubbling grey mud pots and ochre-and-sulphur earth at the foot of Námafjall — no plants, just hissing, stinking, primordial geology. One of the most alien landscapes in Iceland, right by the road near Mývatn.

The north's answer to the Blue Lagoon — a milky-blue geothermal lagoon overlooking the lake and lava fields, far cheaper and quieter than its famous southern cousin. The perfect soak to end a five-hour drive.

The most powerful waterfall in Europe — a colossal, thundering wall of grey glacial water plunging into the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon, so loud and violent it trembles the ground (and starred in the opening of the film Prometheus). Reach it on the paved west-side road (862). Raw, overwhelming power.

The 'Waterfall of the Gods' — a graceful 12-metre horseshoe where the river curves over a wide basalt ledge in a sheet of blue-white water, named for the moment Iceland's law-speaker threw his pagan idols in on converting the island to Christianity in 1000 AD. Right by the Ring Road and beautiful from both banks.

The whale-watching capital of Iceland — boats from the pretty harbour of Húsavík head into Skjálfandi bay with a very high chance of humpbacks, plus minke whales, dolphins and (in summer) puffins. A 3-hour trip and one of the best wildlife experiences in the country.

An enchanting pair of waterfalls in the west — Hraunfossar, where countless rivulets of clear blue water seep out of a lava field over a kilometre-wide span, and the churning Barnafoss rapids beside it. Unlike anywhere else, and an easy boardwalk stop on the drive south.

Europe's most powerful hot spring — a furiously boiling, steaming run of water that supplies the region's heating — beside the Krauma geothermal baths where you can soak in its waters. A dramatic, restorative stop on the long drive.

The historic town on the west fjord, with a well-told Settlement Centre museum on the Viking saga of Egil and a handy halfway stop for lunch with a fjord view — a good way to break the long western drive.

A relaxed final wander in the capital — a cinnamon bun and coffee on Laugavegur, a last look at the harbour and Hallgrímskirkja, and any souvenir wool sweater or design piece before you go.

If you saved it for now, the milky-blue Blue Lagoon in its black-lava field is the perfect last stop, minutes from Keflavík — a final geothermal soak with a silica mask before the flight. Pre-book a timed slot.