This week I am sharing some fun and easy winter day trips from Reykjavík that you can enjoy during your visit. The days have become noticeably shorter and soon the nights will be very long, which is something that Icelandic winter is known for.

While it is more than possible to travel the ring road (the road that goes around the whole country) of Iceland during winter, I often find that a decent number of visitors during this season use Reykjavík as their base and are interested in day trips that end up back in the capital.

These ideas are specifically catered to people who plan to drive themselves with a rental car. I have nothing against tour buses but if you’ve heard my other episodes about renting a car you know that it’s my preferred option and the one I recommend to everything that visits because it provides you the opportunity to explore so many places that tour buses don’t go to.
How I Made These Winter Day Trips Optimized for Iceland
I purposefully chose places that don’t include more than 4-5 hours of driving round-trip because, as I mentioned, we have long dark nights during winter and you will have limited hours of daylight. I think it’s good to use as much of the daylight at the sites and drive in the dark to the places and on the way back to town.

I’m including five-day trips and you can check out the full list of places below. Please note that rental car companies in Iceland do put studded tires on their cars to help with traction on the road during winter if the road is icy.
Where to Rent Your Car During Winter in Iceland
Before I jump into the places, I’d like to thank the sponsor of this episode, Go Car Rental Iceland. They are a local Icelandic rental company that has competitive rates, great customer service and a large variety of cars to choose from. If you use my code Iceland10, you can save 10% on your entire booking with them.

A few of you have reached out to let me know how great of an experience you’ve had with Go Car Rental Iceland after booking with them and using their vehicles. It brings me so joy to hear that because I only like to partner with companies that I have personally used and feel that my audience will also enjoy and/or find helpful. Please feel free to keep tagging me on Instagram or other places in your adventures. It’s fun to see what all of you are up to.
5 Winter Day Trips from Reykjavik, Iceland

1. The Iconic Golden Circle
To kick off this list, I‘m sharing the most iconic route in the country and that is the Golden Circle. At it‘s simplest, the Golden Circle consists of Þingvellir National Park, Geysir Hot Spring, and Gullfoss waterfall. I‘m going to share 12 Pleaces, including the three main attractiios that you can consider visiting on this day trip.

Þingvellir National Park
Laugarvatn Fontana (spa and place where bread is baked in the ground)
The Cave People
Efstidalur dairy farm
Geysir
Gullfoss
Friðheimar
The Secret Lagoon
Faxi waterfall
Skálholt
Sólheimar Eco Village
Kerið crater


2. South Coast
Iceland's famous South Coast has so much to see during winter. Below is a fun list of places I think you'll enjoy.

Seljalandsfoss waterfall
Gljúfrabúi waterfall
Skógafoss Waterfall
Skógar Museum
Kvernfoss waterfall
Sólheimajökull glacier
Dyrhólaey
Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
Vík
The  Lava Show (in Vík)


3. Reykjadalur Hot Spring River Hike
Hveragerði in south Iceland is only about a 30 minutes drive from Reykjavík. I didn't include this in the south coast list above because, on average, people spend about 3 hours hiking and spending time in the hot river soaking. 3-hours is the round-trip amount.

There is a great pizza place called Ölverk and a shopping place called Gróðurhúsið that has a food hall in the town, if you find yourself feeling famished after the hike.

I highly recommend bringing water shoes with you for the hot spring river. They come in handy because there are a lot of rocks in the water and the board walk area ...