Golden Circle Small Group Tour review
Who it’s for
Anyone who has done a full-size coach tour once and did not enjoy the queue to get off it. Heidi from Belgium made the case better than I can: “It is recommended to visit this in a small group, as there are already so many people at all those places.” That is exactly it. The crowd at Strokkur is fixed and enormous no matter what you book; the only variable you control is how long your own group takes to assemble.
It also suits small parties travelling together. Lindsey from the US came with three different families and wrote that the tour “took the stress of planning and logistics out of it”. And it has a decent record on mobility for a standard bus — Christina from the US said it was “very accommodating for my mother who uses a walker”. Under-5s are not accepted. For a wheelchair or a genuinely slow walker, the private jeep is the safer booking.
The day in order
The operator does not publish stop-by-stop minutes for this one, and I am not going to invent them. What it does state is the shape of the day: pickup at your hotel, the three headline sights plus Kerið crater, eight hours in total, back in Reykjavík around 17:00.
- Hotel pickup in Reykjavík, included in the price, with drop-off at the end.
- Þingvellir National Park — Almannagjá, the Alþingi site, UNESCO-listed since 2004.
- Geysir and the Haukadalur geothermal field, Strokkur every 6 to 10 minutes.
- Gullfoss on the Hvítá.
- Kerið crater, included in the tour.
- Back in Reykjavík around 17:00.
What the reviews add to that outline is the unscheduled part. Mercedes from the US: “The mini bus was very comfortable, pick up and return were on time… She even added extra stops for farm made ice cream and to pet an Icelandic horse.” Other reviewers mention a geothermal plant. None of this is promised, and you should not book on the strength of it, but it is what a nineteen-seat bus can do and a sixty-seat coach cannot.
What works
- Nineteen seats maximum, which is the whole point and the thing you are paying for
- Hotel door pickup and drop-off in Reykjavík, no hunting for Bus Stop 12
- Wi-Fi and a USB socket at every seat — rare on this loop
- Extra unscheduled stops turn up repeatedly in reviews: an ice-cream farm, Icelandic horses, a geothermal plant
- Hilma from Sweden called it a “well-planned tour with stops of just the right length”, and Heidi rated guide Thorey’s dry sense of humour
- Kelly from the US had an “incredible day even in the rain”, which on this loop is the test that matters
Worth knowing
- The operator does not publish per-stop minutes, so you are trusting the guide’s judgement on the day
- Food and drink are not included
- 776 ratings is a solid sample but a fraction of the full-day coach’s
- No under-5s
- Eight hours is a full day for what is, at heart, the standard four-stop loop
- You are asked to bring warm clothing and hiking shoes, which tells you the guide intends to walk you about
Bring shoes with a grip on them and mean it. The reason this tour asks for hiking shoes rather than trainers is the lower path at Gullfoss and the scoria on the Kerið rim, both of which turn slick with a bit of rain. Wool socks help more than a second jumper. The full list is on what to wear.
Small group versus the big coach
The honest version: you see identical things. Þingvellir does not become a different rift valley because nineteen of you arrived instead of sixty. What changes is the dead time. A big coach spends roughly ten minutes at each stop simply loading and unloading, and across four stops that is most of an hour you could have been standing at Gullfoss. It also changes the guiding: on a minibus the guide answers your specific question, and on a coach they answer the microphone’s.
Whether the step up from the cheapest coach is worth that is a personal calculation, and I have watched people go both ways on it. If it helps: nobody I have ever met regretted the smaller bus, and plenty of people regretted the bigger one. The wider case is on the small-group tours page, and the price ladder is on the prices page.
Check dates
Nineteen seats means it sells out earlier than the coach in summer. Book a week ahead for June to August; shoulder-season dates are usually available a day or two out.
Frequently asked questions
How small is the small group?
A maximum of 19 guests per bus, stated by the operator. That is roughly a third of a standard Golden Circle coach, and the practical difference shows up as less waiting at every stop rather than as fewer people at the sights themselves. Compare it with the other minibus options on small-group Golden Circle tours.
Does it include hotel pickup?
Yes, pickup and drop-off in Reykjavík are included, which is the other thing you are paying for over the cheapest coach — that one meets at Bus Stop 12 on Þórunnartún unless you add the pickup option. See the full-day tour review for that comparison.
What time does it get back?
Around 17:00, after about eight hours. That leaves you an evening in Reykjavík, which the ten- and eleven-hour combos do not. If you want the day shorter still, the six-hour afternoon tour is the shortest guided option on the loop — the timings are compared on how long the Golden Circle takes.