When I first started planning for the trip and looking for recommendations, I couldn’t find anybody I knew who also vacationed there before. There was only one person who told me that their mom lived there before and the only advice she gave me was that if I didn’t do anything else in Iceland, I had to do the Golden Circle Tour.

The Golden Circle Tour is a very popular day tour that includes sightseeing around Thingvillier National Park, Gulfoss (Golden Falls) Waterfall, and the geothermal area of Geysir. I didn’t want to partake in the standard hop on hop off tour busses because I felt like I wouldn’t learn anything or even know what I was seeing, or worse missing. I wanted a smaller tour group so that I can actually hear the tour guide and appreciate what I’m seeing as I’m seeing it. There are also many tours available that can combine with the Golden Circle tour such as the snorkeling and dog sledding ones. I originally intended to sign up for those first but they were completely booked, and I’m actually thankful for that fact. Doing the Golden Circle tour for half a day doesn’t give it justice. Trust me, if you're deciding on a half or a full day tour, I highly recommend the full day tour.

Based on TripAdvisor ratings, I opted to go with GeoIceland, a company who runs small mini-busses that seat less than 15 people. Our tour guide Albert, who was also our driver, drove us to each of the destinations while spouting out interesting facts and stories on his microphone headset. He was very knowledgable and definitely encouraged questions. His most amusing remark was when a guest asked him what the national sport of Iceland was and he chuckled and gave a long serious story about the history of Iceland and then ended it with "so therefore, my friend, the national sport of Iceland is tax evasion, and that is the naughty answer". #dadjokes (the real answer he gave later was handball)

Gulfoss Waterfall

Our first stop was at the magnificent Gulfoss Waterfall which translates to Golden Falls, one of the most popular waterfalls in Iceland. I loved the fact that our tour guide actually took us on the opposite route in order to avoid crowds. Almost all the Golden Circle Tours provided by different companies stop at Thingvillier first before making their way to the Geysir and Gulfoss. By heading to Gulfoss first, we missed the majority of the coach buses with their mass of tourists.

It surprised me that a lot of the areas near the cliff weren’t blocked off by wood or ropes. I’m used to seeing trails and cliffs in the US that are so blocked off that there’s no chance of you falling unless you deliberately climb over them. Near the Gulfoss, you definitely have to be responsible for yourself that you don’t lean over too much because there won’t be a barrier to save you.

The air was frigid and it didn’t help that mist continuously sprayed up from the roaring falls and splashed across my face, but none of that deterred me from staying as long as possible to soak in the gorgeousness of the scenic waterfall. The waterfall was certainly beautiful with the majestic snow surrounding it, but I would also love to see it again in the spring when it's encompassed with greenery. Many of our tour guides encouraged us to return to Iceland during the warmer months because it will seem like a completely different country.

Geysir

Our next stop was to the Haukadalur geothermal area where the oldest known geyser is, and it’s called Geysir. The English word for Geyser actually comes from this Geysir which is derived from the Icelandic word gjósa which means spout. The frequency of eruptions at the geysir has changed throughout the decades depending on seismic activity around the area. However its neighboring geysir, Strokkur is the most famously reliable geyser spouting water up to 50-60 feet every 4-8 minutes. If you watch the activity of the water, you can see it start to pulsate up and down before forming a giant bubble that rises up and up until the bubble bursts into a powerful blast through the air.

It’s such an amazing natural phenomenon to have such a cold environment with snow everywhere but with little pools of boiling hot water scattered around the area. In fact Iceland takes advantage of the natural geothermal energy to provide heating and the production of electricity. They essentially drill into the ground near the hot spring areas and use the steam to turn the turbines and pump water into homes. The hot water from the springs are also pumped directly into homes. Even when showering in our apartment, the hot water smelled a bit like rotten eggs, similar to what you smell when you're near geysers because the water is taken from the hot geothermal water.

Thingvillier National Park

Actually before we got to the park, we made a pit stop on the side of the road to play with Icelandic horses! The horses were very friendly and playful. As soon as they saw us hopping off the bus, they galloped towards the fence to greet us and let us pet them. Our tour guide even handed us some bread to feed them. The horses were very gentle, I was initially afraid they would bite my hand, but they simply nibbled on it to get to the bread.

These horses have a thick heavy winter coat that felt so furry to touch. I even braved the cold and took my hands out of my gloves to touch their fluffy fur. Their manes also flowed beautifully. Each shot I have of them, their hair is perfect, not a strand out of place. I can best describe it as having perfect surfer dude hair that flowed incredibly in sync with the wind.

So next up we took a lovely stroll through the same park where we snorkeled on the first day. Thingvillier is a UNESCO World Heritage Site known for its scenic landscape as well as historical and geological importance. We saw more examples of cracks in the earth where the tectonic plates split as well as examples of pools of water where you can see the exact line where one side is completely frozen and the other is heated enough underground that the water is still running.

Half of the water is frozen whereas the other half is still running

In terms of historical importance, Thingvillier is the site where Parliament was first established by the Vikings in 930. The Lögberg or Law Rock is the rocky landscape where important cases were presented, news was reported, and legal actions were announced by the council.

North Iceland is already the backdrop to many Beyond the Wall scenes from Game of Thrones but this park is also the setting for some scenes of Westeros. It just goes to show how incredible the landscape is in Iceland that it is used for so many out-of-this-world scenes like in Game of Thrones, Prometheus, and Interstellar. These surreal looking worlds are real, accessible, and right here in Iceland.