Reykjavík in 2 days, on foot

This 2-day self-guided walking plan for Reykjavík covers 18 narrated sights in an easy day-by-day order. Each day is split into a morning and an afternoon loop, and every stop has a two to three minute audio story in the Gingerguide app.

You set the pace: this is a suggested order, not a schedule. Walk it in 2 days, or stretch it out. Reorder freely; Reykjavík rewards a detour.

The Reykjavík route at a glance

Day 1

Day 1 covers 9 stops over about 7 km as the crow flies, from Viðey Island to Tjörnin. ≈ 7 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. Viðey Island: A short ferry from Reykjavík reaches this quiet green island, home to Iceland's reputed oldest stone house and Yoko Ono's Imagine Peace Tower, a winter beam of light for John Lennon. 3.9 km to the next stop
2. Sun Voyager (Sólfar): Often mistaken for a Viking ship, this gleaming steel sculpture beside the sea is really Jón Gunnar Árnason's 'dreamboat', an ode to the sun pointed toward the bay. 0.7 km to the next stop
3. Hallgrímskirkja: Iceland's largest church, a 74.5-metre concrete tower shaped after the country's columnar basalt, crowns central Reykjavík; ride the lift up to its observation deck for the city's widest view. 0.4 km to the next stop
4. Laugavegur: Reykjavík's busy main shopping street, whose name means 'wash road' for the women who once hauled laundry east to the hot springs; the low, car-free stretch is pure downtown. 0.6 km to the next stop
5. Harpa: A concert hall sheathed in honeycombed coloured glass on the harbour, Harpa rose as the only major project still building through Iceland's 2008 crash, and won Europe's top architecture prize. 0.5 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. Old Harbour (Gamla höfnin): The harbour Reykjavík grew up around, still landing fish on one side while whale and puffin boats leave the other; a rare Icelandic railway once built its breakwaters. 0.5 km to the next stop
2. The Settlement Exhibition (Reykjavík 871±2): Below a city-centre street, a Viking longhouse sits exactly where it was raised over a thousand years ago, dated to within two years by a layer of volcanic ash. 0.1 km to the next stop
3. Austurvöllur, Parliament House and Reykjavík Cathedral: Reykjavík's modest central green doubles as Iceland's political stage: the 1881 Parliament House, the old cathedral and Jón Sigurðsson's statue ring a square made for coffee and for protest. 0.3 km to the next stop
4. Tjörnin: A shallow bird-filled pond at the heart of Reykjavík, barely half a metre deep, ringed by the City Hall, parliament and the National Gallery; the city grew up around it.

Day 2

Day 2 covers 9 stops over about 198 km as the crow flies, from National Museum of Iceland to Gullfoss. ≈ 198 km between stops, straight line

Morning

1. National Museum of Iceland: Iceland's national museum lays out a thousand years in one long room, from Settlement-age relics to a medieval carved door, telling the whole story of how a nation was made. 4.4 km to the next stop
2. Grótta Lighthouse, Seltjarnarnes: A white lighthouse on a tidal islet reachable only at low tide, Grótta is the capital area's favourite place to catch a sunset or the northern lights over the water. 38 km to the next stop
3. Blue Lagoon: Not a natural hot spring but a man-made lagoon of silica-blue water, the warm byproduct of a geothermal power plant, pooled in a black lava field. 36 km to the next stop
4. Sky Lagoon: An ocean-edge geothermal spa just south of Reykjavík, opened in 2021, where an infinity pool spills toward the North Atlantic and a seven-step ritual runs hot to cold. 2 km to the next stop
5. Perlan ("the Pearl"): A mirrored dome on six giant hot-water tanks, Perlan crowns a Reykjavík hill with a man-made ice cave, a planetarium and a revolving 360-degree view over the city and sea. 41 km to the next stop

Afternoon

1. Þingvellir National Park: A cracked-open rift valley where two tectonic plates pull apart, and where Icelanders founded their assembly, the Alþingi, in 930, one of the world's oldest surviving parliaments. 27 km to the next stop
2. Kerið Crater: A deep volcanic crater ringed by rust-red and black rock, with a vivid aquamarine lake on its floor, sitting on private land along the Golden Circle route. 42 km to the next stop
3. Geysir Geothermal Area: The valley that gave the world the word 'geyser.' The original Great Geysir mostly sleeps now, but its neighbour Strokkur blasts a column of water skyward every few minutes. 8.7 km to the next stop
4. Gullfoss: The 'Golden Falls' on the glacier-fed Hvítá river drop in two thunderous steps into a narrow canyon, long tied to a tale of resisting a hydroelectric dam that was never built.

Distances are straight-line between stops; streets add a little.

Updated: September 25, 2026

Full Reykjavík guide and all stops →