Reykjavík & the Golden Circle

A private Blue Lagoon soak is arranged before the lagoon opens, so you bathe as the steam rises over black lava in total stillness. The Blue Lagoon sits on the Reykjanes peninsula and is open, but magma continues to accumulate beneath Svartsengi. A second geothermal option in the Reykjavík area is held in reserve for any evening the peninsula closes at short notice.

At Þingvellir at first light, you walk the rift between two continents with a geologist, and the valley is entirely your own. It works because every day tour runs the Golden Circle loop clockwise from mid-morning. Arriving early, ahead of the coaches, gives you the rift valley before Geysir and Gullfoss fill up later in the day.

The harbour-to-table dinner is a private table with a Reykjavík chef, with the catch chosen at the dock that same morning. It suits a city whose great restaurants number a handful, not a hundred. Reykjavík has two or three kitchens worth a table, and this dinner turns one of them into a private evening built around the harbour.

Aurora from the City's Edge is a three-day journey of northern-lights chases from a private lodge minutes from Reykjavík. On an ordinary night you need to be 30 to 60 minutes beyond the streetlights, on the Reykjanes lava fields or towards Þingvellir. The nights rely on a driver still on call at one in the morning, and they run from September to April.

The best time for Reykjavík and the Golden Circle depends on what you come for. For the aurora, September to April matters, because by late June the sky over Reykjavík never goes dark at all. Summer gives long days for the Golden Circle, leaving the city between 07:00 and 07:30 to beat the coaches. In winter, first light does not arrive until around 11:00 in December, so the day is planned around four usable hours rather than twelve.

Reykjavík deserves two nights at the start and one at the end, not four in the middle, working best as bookends around the south coast and the north. The Golden Circle is shaped as a two-day private journey, with The Design Capital and Aurora from the City's Edge running three days each. The exception is a short winter break, with the city as base and the aurora chased outward each night. If your week is short, give the capital a single night.

Yes. Forest Travel opens Reykjavík and the Golden Circle privately: a Blue Lagoon soak arranged before opening, Þingvellir at first light with a geologist, and a harbour-to-table dinner with a Reykjavík chef. Geysir, Gullfoss and Þingvellir are run with a private guide, timed against the crowds. Aurora nights rely on a driver on call at one in the morning, and a second geothermal option is held in reserve if Reykjanes closes at short notice.

The Golden Circle is a loop of about 250 km from Reykjavík through three sites: Þingvellir, the rift valley between two continents; Geysir and its geysers; and the Gullfoss waterfall. Every day tour runs it clockwise from mid-morning, so Forest Travel runs it early or in reverse with a private guide, and opens it with Þingvellir at first light, walked with a geologist before the coaches arrive.

A full day. The loop is about 250 km, and in summer we leave the city between 07:00 and 07:30 to reach Þingvellir ahead of the coaches. In winter the same loop runs on about four usable hours of light, since first light does not arrive until around 11:00 in December. Forest Travel shapes the private version, The Golden Circle, Privately, as a two-day journey so that no site is rushed.

A ten-day private journey of nine nights starts from around US$18,000 per person, based on Forest Travel's figure of around US$2,050 per person per night. It usually uses Reykjavík as bookends, two nights at the start and one at the end, with the south coast or the north in between. Helicopter days and aurora lodges move the figure; Iceland's lodging tax of ISK 800 per room per night sits on top, and the planning fee is US$250 per itinerary.