You might be already used to hear some route names like the Golden Circle or the Westfjords route, but Iceland has other ways less taken but still very beautiful. Join us on our tour around the Diamond Circle.
You might be already used to hear some route names like the Golden Circle or the Westfjords route, but Iceland has other ways less taken but still very beautiful. In this blog, we will take you around the Diamond Circle, a 250km circuit on Northeastern Iceland. Our trip will start and end in Húsavik, the main town in the Diamond Circle.
With a population of around 2,310 inhabitants, Húsavík is the town of Northeastern Iceland and the oldest settlement in the country. If you are traveling from Reykjavík, you will have two options. Driving to Húsavík will take you around 5 hours and 45 minutes, heading up north and driving almost by the coastline, passing through Akureyri. Another option is taking a flight from Keflavik Airport. You will save time because the ride is only 45 minutes to Akureyri Airport, and from Akureyri, the drive will take you around one hour.
Húsavík is Iceland’s whale-watching capital, and it is becoming more popular to visit between its travelers. The town is located in the shore of Skjálfandi Bay, and it is said it is northeast’s cutest fishing town for its colorful houses and museums. The activities to do in Húsavík include visiting its most famous landmark Húsavíkurkirkja, a 26-meter-high wooden church that looks across the harbor. The church was built in 1907 and designed by Icelandic architect Rögnvaldur Ólafsson. As we said earlier, this is considered the whale capital, and you will definitely find out more about this in its two museums, the Whale Museum and the Museum House. The Húsavík Whale Museum works along with the University of Iceland’s Research Center providing exciting information about whales and its environment, and utilizing this educational ingredient in the summer whale watching trips. With 8 exhibition rooms, the Whale Museum is a place you have to see!
If you are looking for a nice place to eat we recommend you these three places: Hvalbakur Grill & Café, Gamli Baukur, and Naustið. They are really cozy with delicious food. Walking around the Húsavík Port is also a very good plan after having something to eat.
Skjálfandi Bay is the perfect place to sail through and look for whales. It is said that you can see at least 23 different species, including the Blue Whale. The bay was originally created by glacial activity, and it includes two significant streams coming from Skjálfandafljót, a river formed by a glacier, and Laxá, a freshwater river. Skjálfandi Bay is the ideal place to do whale-watching, and even dolphin watching. We have a great number of tours for whale-watching that you will love. Click here to see more about our activities. Most of them last 3 hours and they are boat tours. With good weather, these trips are incredible. Don’t forget comfy and warm clothes for the tours.
If you are not into the boat tours, you can also enjoy the view of the bay in the new places in the harbor. It is turning to a thriving tourist destination with restaurants and cool places to spend part of your day when visiting Húsavík.
Vatnajökull National Park covers around 14,141 km² of the country. The northernmost part of the park is known as Jökulsárgljúfur (the glacier-river canyon), making it part of the Diamond Circle route. The glacier created different molded bursts, and one of them created the famous horseshoe-depression known as Ásbyrgi. This canyon is located 38km of Húsavík and counts with some very cool hiking trails. Then, you will see Hljóðaklettar, the Echo Cliffs. These were formed when the volcanic material of some old volcanoes was swept away by a river, and the forms were revealed as we see them today. It is lovely because it looks like a small dwarf’s house.
Dettifoss is the most powerful waterfall in Europe with 44-meter high and 193 cubic meters of water falling every second. From all the places in the Diamond Circle, and even in Iceland, Dettifoss is the place you have to see with your own eyes to understand its beauty, experiencing the mighty spray of water, and maybe catching a beautiful rainbow on a glittering sunny day!
We have nothing else to say about Dettifoss. Just that you can’t miss it for anything in the world. It will be the most magnificent waterfall you will see in your life. You will hear that people call this waterfall “The Beast” comparing it to Goðafoss “The Beauty”. Visit both and then you will understand why.
Krafla is a 10km long caldera and 2km deep active volcanic zone. It’s a volcanic terrain with multicolored lava fields, craters, and warm steam in the air. It is said that Krafla will host the European Mars Analog Research Station to observe human living conditions in Mars. When visiting Krafla, stopping at its neighbor, Námaskarð is a must. This is a geothermal area on the mountain of Námafjall where you will find many hot springs and fumaroles (openings in the ground that emit sulfurous gases). It is considered a weird kind of a desert. Typically, the activity in deserts is almost null, but Námafjall is more active than any other desert. We must warn you before that the smell is not that nice. The gases make the air smell like rotten eggs, but for the landscape and the natural feature, it is worth it.
Game of Thrones made this beautiful lava cave famous to the rest of the world. The cave has a geothermal hot spring in its depth, a true natural wonder. Located near Lake Mývatn, locals used to go to this pool to bathe. The water in this natural pool has a perfect blue and perfect temperature. Due to the volcanic activity, the water reaches the ideal temperature to enjoy a quick dip into it. We wanted to mention Grjótagjá because of its beauty and for the Game of Thrones fans that for sure recall this place where Jon Snow and Ygritte lived a romantic moment. But, due to the terrible behavior of tourists visiting and leaving trash behind, using soap and other chemicals, the cave, and the pool suffered some damages, and it is now closed to the public.
Considered more than the lake, Mývatn is a complete area of about 4,400 km2 and recognized as the Mývatn-Laxá Nature Conservation Area. The name Mývatn comes from mý (fly), which the sector is full of them in the summertime. They are just like annoying mosquitoes. This active volcanic area also is home to a variety of waterbirds and the water of the lake coming from river Laxá is abundant in salmons and brown trouts. Walking around the shore of the lake, watching the birdlife, and experiencing the beauty of its landscape is everything in Lake Mývatn.
Our last stop is in the famous Goðafoss, a 12-meter high waterfall with a width of 30 meters, a result of the Skjálfandafljót river. The name of this waterfall comes from the fascinating story when the Norwegians went to Iceland and pressured people to change from the Old Norse religion to Christianism, Þorgeir Ljósvetningagoð the priest had the responsibility to take the decision for its people. He decided to officialized Christianity as the principal religion, and to symbolize his decision, he threw the statues of the Gods down the waterfall, and this is how the fall got its name: The Waterfall of the Gods.
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