Golden Circle tour reviews
Start with the review of the tour you already have a tab open for. If you have not narrowed it down, the full-day coach is where most people land and the side-by-side comparison of all eight is the faster way to rule out the six that do not fit. Numbers are on the tour prices page.
The eight tours
Most bookedKerið crater visitReykjavik: Golden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid Crater
Late startKerið entry fee includedReykjavík: Golden Circle Afternoon Small Group Tour
Max 19 guestsHotel pickup includedGolden Circle and Kerið Crater Small Group Tour
Hot-spring comboSecret Lagoon entry includedFrom Reykjavik: Golden Circle, Kerid, & Secret Lagoon Tour
Top ratedBlue Lagoon admission includedReykjavik: Golden Circle, Kerid Crater, & Blue Lagoon Tour
Glacier add-on1-hr snowmobile ride includedFrom Reykjavik: Golden Circle and Glacier Snowmobiling
German-speakingCruise-terminal pickupReykjavik: German-Speaking Golden Circle Shore Excursion Small Group Tour
PrivateAirport pickup availableGolden Circle Private Tour from Keflavik or Reykjavik
Read a review
Golden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerið Crater
The default first booking: large coach, four stops, a live guide, most mornings of the year.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›Golden Circle Afternoon Small Group Tour
Six hours, a late start and stops of 25, 20, 45 and 20 minutes. Built to miss the morning coaches.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›Golden Circle and Kerið Crater Small Group Tour
Nineteen seats, hotel door pickup, a USB socket each and guides who add stops that are not on the sheet.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›Golden Circle, Kerið & Secret Lagoon Tour
Ten hours with 90 minutes in Iceland’s oldest pool — taken second, not last, which divides people.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›Golden Circle, Kerið Crater & Blue Lagoon Tour
Eleven hours in a minibus, the loop then two hours in the lava fields. The highest-rated of the eight.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›Golden Circle and Glacier Snowmobiling
The loop plus an hour on Langjökull, two to a sled. Bring a driving licence if you want the handlebars.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›German-Speaking Golden Circle Shore Excursion
A Sprinter for nineteen, in German, from the cruise terminal only. The longest stop list on the site.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›Golden Circle Private Tour from Keflavík or Reykjavík
Your own jeep and guide-driver, airport pickup included. Perfect score, but only twenty-six people have voted.
Check latest priceRead the full review ›How I score these
I do not run these tours and I have never been on all eight as a paying guest, so I am not going to pretend otherwise. What I do is read the operator’s own itinerary against what I know of the road, then read a few hundred traveller reviews looking for the same complaint appearing twice. Four things decide where a tour lands.
- Minutes on the ground. A 45-minute Gullfoss stop and a 20-minute Gullfoss stop are different days out. Where the operator publishes the timings I quote them; where it does not, I say so rather than guess.
- Bus size. Sixty-odd people take about ten minutes longer to unload and reload at every stop than nineteen do, and it shows at Strokkur.
- What the small print removes. Kerið disappearing from afternoon departures of the full-day coach is the clearest example on this site.
- What the reviews agree on. One grumpy review is weather. The same sentence from six people in three countries is a pattern.
Ratings on this page run from 4.7 to 5.0, which is a narrow band and not much help on its own. Read the review counts instead: 26,856 people have rated the full-day coach and 26 have rated the private jeep. Both scores are honest; only one of them is settled.
Check dates on the most-booked tour
The full-day coach carries more reviews than the other seven combined, which is why it is the widget I leave at the bottom of most pages. Summer dates go a week or two ahead; in January you can usually book the night before. If you are still deciding whether the loop earns a whole day, read is the Golden Circle worth it first, and the loop explained if you want the geology and the history in one place.
Frequently asked questions
Which Golden Circle tour is the best one?
For a first trip out of Reykjavík, the full-day coach — four stops, a live guide, the most departures and by far the most ratings. Read the full-day tour review and then check whether one of the objections in it applies to you. If crowds are the objection, the small-group minibus answers it.
Are these reviews independent?
Yes. This site is not a tour operator and does not sell tickets. I earn a commission if you book through a link here, which is set out in full on the affiliate disclosure page, and it is the same commission on all eight tours — there is nothing to gain by pushing the expensive one.
Do you name the operating companies?
No. The eight tours are run by different Icelandic operators and the same company can run a coach beautifully one season and badly the next, so I review the product and its itinerary rather than the logo on the door. Prices and inclusions are the operators’ own, live on GetYourGuide — see what each price rung buys.