Thingvellir
Thingvellir is a parliament older than most nations in a rift between two continents, forty minutes from Reykjavík and the opening stop of the Golden Circle. An hour walks the rift wall and the waterfall, half a day adds Silfra between the plates, and the road stays open all winter.
Thingvellir in a nutshell
Thingvellir: what to expect
72,000+ stops in Iceland are planned on Stippl, and this is the shape they make for Thingvellir.
An hour at Thingvellir walks the rift, and half a day adds the water between the plates. The Almannagjá path runs down the North American plate's edge from the overlook to the plain past the Law Rock where the law was spoken, Silfra is the flooded fissure of filtered glacial melt with visibility past a hundred metres, snorkelled or dived in a drysuit with a guide, Öxarárfoss drops into the rift on a boardwalk loop, the small nineteenth-century church stands on the assembly plain, and Þingvallavatn is Iceland's largest natural lake. 55.88% of stops here on Stippl are a pass-through.
Thingvellir is the earliest stop outside the capital, and the most winter-resilient sight in the country. Thingvellir holds 2.06% of every Icelandic stop planned on Stippl, more than the Blue Lagoon, its winter floor is the tightest of the Golden Circle's sights because the road from Reykjavík stays open in every month, and 73.2% of Thingvellir trips stay inside Iceland, the Golden Circle being the first day of almost every one of them.
Park at the overlook, walk down through the rift to the plain and back or be collected at a lower lot, book Silfra with an operator if the plates are the point, and come after six for free parking and the aurora. Skip the fissures unguided, since the water is two degrees with no exit points, and skip expecting a dramatic waterfall, because the drama here is geological and historical.
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Golden Circle first-timers
The Circle's opening stop, and the only one where the story outranks the scenery; it holds 2.06% of Icelandic stops on Stippl.
History-minded travellers
The Alþingi met on this plain from 930 and independence was proclaimed here in 1944, so the Law Rock reads as a memorial.
Divers and snorkellers
Silfra is a bucket-list site with two-degree water all year, drysuit-only rules and visibility past a hundred metres.
Winter city-breakers
Forty minutes from Reykjavík on a maintained road, which is why its winter floor is the tightest of the five Circle sights.
Day-trippers from the capital
55.88% of Stippl stops here are a pass-through, the Circle's first stop on the way to Geysir and Gullfoss.
Aurora hunters
Dark plains forty minutes from the city, free parking after six, and the rift as the foreground.
Maybe not for you: anyone expecting dramatic waterfalls, because Öxarárfoss is modest and the drama here is geological and historical; and non-divers hoping to enter Silfra, which is guided-only and drysuit-only in water of two degrees.
The best time to visit Thingvellir
Summer
June to August
Long light, the campsite open, the plain green and August the busiest month on Stippl, with the coaches stacking at the overlook between ten and four.
The shoulders
May, September and October
Mild, the coaches thinner, the aurora returning in September and the boardwalks still dry, the best months for the rift walk.
Winter
November to April
The road from Reykjavík maintained in every month, the boardwalks iced from November, the rift in snow and the plains dark for the aurora after six.
Silfra season
All year
Two degrees in every month with a drysuit, so the season is about the light on the water rather than the temperature.
- 55.88% of stops in Thingvellir on Stippl are a pass-through. An hour walks the rift and the waterfall, and half a day adds Silfra, so the bed is in Reykjavík or on the Circle.
- August is the busiest month on Stippl, and no month drops far below it. The road from Reykjavík stays open all year, which makes Thingvellir the most winter-resilient sight in Iceland.
- Only 12.4% of Thingvellir plans on Stippl are made inside a fortnight. The park itself needs nothing booked, but Silfra's operators cap their groups and the Circle is planned with the trip.
- Parking is paid by the day across all five lots. One fee per car covers every lot, nothing is charged under ten minutes, and it is free from six in the evening to eight in the morning, which is a genuine loophole for the aurora.
- Silfra needs paperwork. A medical form for snorkelling and a certification for diving, enforced by the operators, and the drysuit is included in every price.
- The boardwalks ice before the roads. From November the rift path turns glassy, so spikes go in the bag and the lower path is taken with care.
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Things to do in Thingvellir
The Almannagjá walk
Down the rift wall from the overlook to the plain, along the North American plate's edge, past the Law Rock where the law was spoken.
Silfra
Snorkel or dive the fissure between the plates, two degrees and a hundred metres of visibility, in a drysuit and with a guide only.
Öxarárfoss
The park's waterfall, dropping into the rift on a boardwalk loop, modest in height and set in the drama of the wall.
The Law Rock and the church
The Lögberg where the assembly spoke and the small nineteenth-century church on the plain below it.
Þingvallavatn
Iceland's largest natural lake, with its own char and its own light, along the shore road south of the plain.
The aurora over the rift
Dark plains forty minutes from the city, free parking after six, and the wall as the foreground.
The areas of Thingvellir
Hakið and the overlook
The way in
The visitor centre, the viewing platform over the plain and the top of the rift path, where every visit starts and most of the coaches stop. For everyone.
The classic view and the way in, but the coaches stack here between ten and four.
The Almannagjá floor
The walled path
The walk down through the rift to the plain, with Öxarárfoss, the Law Rock and the church along it, and a lower lot to be collected from. For walkers.
The waterfall, the Law Rock and the church on one walk, and a climb back up unless collected.
Silfra
The dive site
The fissure's car park and the operators' vans, where the drysuits go on and the snorkel groups walk down to the water. For divers.
The fissure with an operator, and nothing else to do there without one.
The lakeside and Nyrðri Leirar
The campsite
The park's campsite and the summer houses along the shore, the rare bed inside a Golden Circle sight, open in the warm months. For sleepers.
The rare bed inside a Circle sight, though it is a tent in summer or nothing.
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Where to stay in Thingvellir
The park's campsite at Nyrðri Leirar and the lakeside sites are the rare bed inside a Golden Circle sight, open in the warm months, and everyone else sleeps in Reykjavík forty minutes back or on Road 35 toward Geysir. 55.88% of stops here on Stippl are a pass-through, which is the Circle doing what it does.
Hakið and the overlook
No beds at the centre; the nearest rooms are on the road toward Laugarvatn, €120 to €250 a night.
The Almannagjá floor
Nothing on the plain but the church and the state's summer house; the Circle hotels are €120 to €250 a night.
Silfra
No rooms; the operators drive in from Reykjavík and the Circle hotels, €120 to €250 a night.
The lakeside and Nyrðri Leirar
The park campsites in the warm months, about €15 a person a night.
What to eat in Thingvellir
Lamb soup, the Circle's constant
The warm-up after the rift wind
The packed lunch, the local norm here
The greenhouse lunch down the road
The evening meal
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Thingvellir customs and what not to do
A shrine before a sight
The assembly plain is where Icelanders locate their founding, and the tone at the Law Rock is closer to a memorial than a viewpoint.
Stay on the boardwalks
The moss and the fissures both: the ground is protected and some of the cracks are deeper than they look.
No coins in the fissures
The wishing-well habit contaminates water that has filtered for decades, and the park asks plainly at every pool.
Þ is a thorn
The letter is pronounced like the th in thing, the park spells itself Þingvellir, and both spellings find it.
The plates are the point
The path runs along the North American edge and the plain is the gap, drifting two centimetres a year, so the geology is walked rather than viewed.
Silfra has rules
Drysuit-only and guided-only, a medical form for snorkelling and a certification for diving, and the operators enforce every one.
Do
- Walk down through the rift and along the plain
- Book Silfra with an operator if the plates are the point
- Come after six for free parking and the aurora
- Bring spikes from November for the boardwalks
- Read the Law Rock as a memorial
Don't
- Enter any fissure without a guide
- Throw coins into the water
- Step off the boardwalks onto the moss
- Expect a big waterfall
- Leave the overlook hatless in the wind
What a Thingvellir visit costs
The stop
€7
Parking for the day; entry is free and always has been.
With Silfra
€130–165
The guided snorkel, drysuit included.
The full Circle day
€50–105
This parking, Kerið, fuel and lunch on the way round.
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Fun facts about Thingvellir
The Alþingi met at Thingvellir from 930. Which makes it one of the oldest parliamentary sites in the world, and the assembly moved to Reykjavík only in the nineteenth century.
The plates at Thingvellir pull apart at roughly two centimetres a year. The plain between them sinks as they do, and the lake fills the gap.
Silfra's water at Thingvellir is filtered glacial melt decades old. Which is why the visibility runs past a hundred metres, and why the park asks for no coins in it.
Iceland's independence was proclaimed at Thingvellir in 1944. On the same plain as the first assembly, in the rain, with a crowd of tens of thousands.
Þingvallavatn at Thingvellir is Iceland's largest natural lake. Four kinds of arctic char evolved separately in it, which is a textbook case of evolution in one lake.
Thingvellir holds 2.06% of every Icelandic stop planned on Stippl. More than the Blue Lagoon, and with the tightest winter floor of any Golden Circle sight.
Local tips for Thingvellir
One fee covers all five lots
About seven euros per car for the day, more for a minibus and less for a motorcycle, free under ten minutes and free from six in the evening to eight in the morning.
The one-way walk works
Down through Almannagjá and along the plain, collected at a lower lot by a patient driver or a second car.
The edges are unfenced
The drop off Almannagjá is real in places and the boardwalks ice early, so spikes are sensible from November.
Silfra: drysuit and guide only
Two-degree water, a certification requirement for diving and a medical form for snorkelling, and the operators enforce it.
No fissure unguided
Cold shock, no exit points and the park's clearest prohibition, which applies to every crack on the plain and not only Silfra.
A pass-through on day one
55.88% of Stippl stops here are no night at all and only 12.4% of plans are made inside a fortnight, because the Circle is planned with the trip.
Thingvellir questions, answered
An hour walks the rift and the waterfall, and half a day if you snorkel Silfra, which is the thing you cannot do anywhere else. 55.88% of stops here on Stippl are a pass-through, the Golden Circle's first stop on the way to Geysir and Gullfoss, with the bed back in Reykjavík.
The same place. Þ is a thorn, pronounced like the th in thing, and travellers type both, which is exactly why the park's volume is hard to see in raw counts. It holds 2.06% of every Icelandic stop planned on Stippl once the two spellings are merged.
Entry is free and always has been. Parking is charged per car for the day across all the lots, with nothing charged under ten minutes or between six in the evening and eight in the morning, which is the aurora loophole, and the visitor-centre exhibition carries a small fee of its own.
No. Guided and drysuited only, with a medical form for snorkelling and a certification for diving, and the rule is enforced because the water is two degrees with no exit points. Put Silfra into Stippl as the half day before Geysir, then ask people who did it in subreddits like r/VisitingIceland which operator they used.
In Silfra, effectively yes: the fissure runs between the plates and the guides show you the spot where a hand reaches each wall. Above water you walk the North American edge along Almannagjá, with the plain and the Eurasian side across the lake, drifting apart at two centimetres a year.
Better than anywhere: Thingvellir is the most winter-resilient sight in the country, no month drops far below the rest on Stippl because the road from Reykjavík stays open, the rift in snow is the better version, and 73.2% of Thingvellir trips stay inside Iceland whatever the season.
Every guide is written by the Stippl editors and checked against the trips our travellers actually plan. Spotted something out of date? Let us know.
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