Where should you visit on a Southern Iceland trip?

Southern Iceland was one of the most stunning places we visited while based in Reykjavik. I’m green with envy at anyone who has a hire car to go out further, but it just wasn’t viable at this point. 

Beautiful scenery is abundant in the land of fire and ice though, so you needn’t go far to find a picture perfect view.

The route we took is fairly simple, a 372km return trip from/to Reykjavik on road 1 (Easy to remember!)

Skogafoss

Our first stop was Skogafoss. Yep, the waterfall in everyone’s Iceland instagram pics with a rainbow running through it. Sure enough the rainbow was there.

The waterfall is one of the biggest in the country, and legend has it locals found treasure belonging to the first viking settler in a cave here.

Alongside the waterfall is a path that goes all the way to the top so you can look downwards too.

There were plenty of coaches of tourists stopping off here, which took away a bit of the romanticism, but is probably to be expected. We encountered much the same for the whole day here, so perhaps it’s worthwhile seeking out some hidden gems too.

Vik & the Black Sand Beach

After a quick trip to a cafe in Vik (the southernmost village in Iceland) and a walk along the lesser visited side of the black sand beach, we made a trip round to see what all the other tourists were up to on the other side.

The beach lies on the windward side of the golf stream, and boy could you tell. I honestly struggled to keep my footing the wind was so strong. Never has a neck buff been so useful, keeping the grains of black sand from pelting my face in the wind.

The basalt stacks really reminded me of the giants causeway, which is equally as beautiful (and windy!)

Of course it wouldn’t be an icelandic site without a legend behind it. Two trolls brought a ship onto shore and becamse needles of rock when the sun came up.

Sólheimajökull

As I mentioned previously, it was crazy windy in the south on the day we visited, so we stayed around the tip of the glacier. It was still an amazing sight and absolutely worth layering up and braving the wind for.

There’s a car/bus park and a small cafe in a sort of porta-cabin looking building to warm up with a coffee after too.

Selfoss

Another waterfall marks the last stop on the way back. If you’re a fan of Belieber (no, me either) you might recognise this one…

It might just look like another waterfall (although, who can’t get enough of waterfalls?) but it’s when you get up close that the magic really happens. Because, guess what? You can walk through this one!

That pretty much sums up our day in Southern Iceland. Once again, we travelled with Bustravel who we also went with for the Golden Circle trip