Peaceful Alternatives to Iceland's Golden Circle

The Westfjords: empty Iceland

The Westfjords are the large hand-shaped peninsula in the northwest. Roughly 7 percent of Iceland's tourists reach them, and you feel it. Long days of driving past empty fjords, single-lane mountain passes, and the occasional small village with a swimming pool fed by a geothermal spring.

Dynjandi is the headline waterfall, a 100-metre cascade that fans out across a cliff. Látrabjarg, the westernmost point of Europe, has the bird cliffs where you can lie on the grass and watch puffins from a metre away in summer.

The East Fjords

The east is the other quiet corner. Egilsstaðir is the small town that anchors it, and from there you can reach the Stuðlagil basalt canyon, the Hengifoss waterfall, and a series of small fishing villages on the fjords. The road that loops through Seyðisfjörður, with its switchbacks and rainbow street, is a small classic.

Snæfellsnes: Iceland in miniature

If you only have a week and want to avoid the south coast crowds, the Snæfellsnes peninsula on the west is the answer. In two or three days you get a glacier, basalt sea stacks, black sand beaches, a lava field, fishing villages, and Kirkjufell, the cone-shaped mountain that has become its own postcard.

Base in Hellnar or Arnarstapi for atmosphere, Grundarfjörður for convenience.

What the Golden Circle still does well

We are not suggesting you skip Þingvellir or Geysir. They are easy half-day trips from Reykjavík and they deliver. The point is not to plan an entire Iceland trip around them. Use the Golden Circle as an arrival or departure day, then go further.