Iceland is hands down one of the most gorgeous countries we’ve ever visited. While you can definitely experience Iceland’s beauty without a car, you can see a lot more with one. There are a lot of Iceland road trip posts out there that are either the entire ring road, or take more than a week. However for money and leave from work reasons, we didn’t have more than 5 days to work with. Because of that, we’ve written this post with our exact itinerary if you’re after a shorter but still amazing Iceland summer road trip.

This road trip could is possible in winter too, but winter time in Iceland sees almost 24 hours of darkness. This means you definitely wouldn’t be able to see or experience quite as much of the natural beauty of Iceland. But it would still be fun to do if that’s when you’re heading over. You’d also have the added bonus of seeing the Northern Lights over winter!

In this post:

1. Car Rental
2. Parking
3. Day One: Reykjavik → Blue Lagoon → Selfoss/Eyrarbakki
4. Day Two: Selfoss/Eyrarbakki → Waterfalls → Reynisfjara and Vik
5. Day Three: Vik → Vatnajökull Glacier → Höfn
6. Day Four: Höfn → Diamond Beach → Hvolsvöllur
7. Day Five: Hvolsvöllur → Golden Circle → Reykjavik

For our five day Iceland summer road trip car rental, we decided to go with Budget. We chose them because they’re a trusted brand and also the rental prices were very decent. We opted to pick up the car at the Reykjavik Domestic Airport, which is right by the city centre.

Of course prices will vary depending on the time of year, but we visited in early June. For that time of a year a small car with 4 seats and 5 doors costs around £320 – £350. That includes any city or airport surcharges, a local tax, the vehicle registration fee and unlimited mileage.

It won’t include insurance though or Iceland’s mandatory kilometre fee. This is a country wide fee that applies to any road vehicle. At the end of your trip you will be charged 6.95 ISK or 0.40 GB per kilometre travelled. Petrol in Iceland surprisingly isn’t too expensive. At the time of writing this post in mid 2026 it cost around 218.51 ISK or 1.30 GBP per litre. There are a decent amount of petrol stations around the south. However we do recommend stopping whenever possible to top your petrol up in case you enter a long period without a station.

All of these costs weren’t too bad because we went with two friends, so split everything 4 ways. Obviously with only 1 or 2 people it will be a lot more expensive. Also it is worth noting that it is a legal requirement in Iceland to keep your headlights on 24/7 day or night. Iceland also drives on the right side of the road which is something we weren’t used to, so make sure you’re comfortable with that!

One thing about us is that we hate paying for parking and will park further away for free and walk to our location. Unfortunately this is not possible in Iceland. If you want to see any landmarks like waterfalls, viewpoints, geysers, or beaches you will have to pay for parking. There’s parking lots with cameras at all the landmarks, with no possibility to park further away. Luckily paying is super easy, which you can do via an app or at pay stations at the parking lots. Most places cost 1000 ISK or around 6 GBP, but some are cheaper too. Most of these landmarks are free to visit, so at least you won’t be paying twice.

We spent the night before our road trip in Reykjavik, but you could also start your road trip right from the airport when you arrive. Just keep in mind that day one can be quite long depending on how long you want at the Blue Lagoon. We opted to spend the day we arrived exploring Reykjavik (on a budget, as always), so we could get on the road early the next day.

After you’ve picked up your car in Reykjavik or at the airport, the best thing to do is head straight to the Blue Lagoon. This is a must do while in Iceland and while it is very touristy, we thought it was completely worth the money. It takes about 45 minutes to drive there from Reykjavik (and only about 20 minutes from the airport) and there is free parking at the lagoon.

Once there, you’ll need at least 2 or 3 hours to really relax and make the most of your time. There’s changing rooms with free and unlimited soap, shampoo and conditioner, as well as lockers for you to put your belongings in. The lagoon itself is large and there’s also saunas, steam rooms, a waterfall and a cold pool to enjoy. On the cheapest ticket you also get a free drink and a free silica mud mask, so there’s lots to keep you busy.

If you want a much more in-depth look into the Blue Lagoon, we have a whole blog post about it.

If you’re hungry after the Blue Lagoon, you can head to the nearby town of Grindavik for some lunch. We got some delicious food at Papas’ Restaurant then headed up the nearby Brimketill Lava Rock Pool. This has a view over the black cliffs around and a little natural pool that has formed into the rock.

From here, you can head east along the coast, stopping at any stop that appeals to you! We chose to stop at the Krýsuvíkurberg Cliffs, then head slightly north to the Kerið Crater. This is actually a stop on the golden circle but we chose to do it on day one as we had some extra time, but you could add it onto day five if you’d prefer. We walked around the top to see it from above then headed down to the waters edge, which we enjoyed.

To end the day, we drove down through Selfoss which is a cute town to stop in shortly. It also has a famous hot dog place called Pylsuvagninn, which was amazing! You could definitely stay the night in Selfoss but we found our options to be limited so stayed in the nearby town of Eyrarbakki. Here we stayed at the Bakki Apartments & Hostel which had free parking and was right on the water. It also had a kitchen so we could make our own dinner to save some money and it was clean and comfortable, so we’d recommend it!

This day is all about nature and waterfalls, a true Icelandic day!

Leaving Selfoss, head east along the coast to Seljalandsfoss. This is a stunning 60m waterfall that you can walk behind into a little cave. The parking is easy and there’s lots of spots, as well as a little food stall. There’s also a shop that sells great souvenirs and a clean bathroom. From the parking it’s only a 5 minute walk to the waterfall, where there are great view points for photos. From here you can walk around and behind the waterfall which is really cool!

However PLEASE be prepared to get very wet as the spray coming off the falls is intense. The wind can also change at any time and send the water into you so just be prepared. We definitely learned this the hard way…

From here you can walk along the cliff for 10 minutes to another waterfall, Gljúfrabúi. This is an amazing waterfall that’s hidden inside a canyon that you can walk into. The canyon is very narrow and you will get wet when you go to the falls so be prepared for that. If you don’t want to go into the canyon you can see the falls from outside too.

A 30 minute drive from Seljalandsfoss is Skógafoss, our favourite waterfall of the trip. It has appeared in the films The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Thor: The Dark World. As well as the tv shows Vikings and Game of Thrones. Once you’re done admiring it from below, you can slowly climb the 527 steps to the top of the waterfall. Here you’ve got a great view of the water falling over the edge and the valley below. It’s beautiful from above and below and as well as the falls, there’s also lots of parking and a bathroom so it’s a great stop on your Iceland summer road trip.

After admiring all the beautiful waterfalls, the next stop on your Iceland summer road trip should be Dyrhólaey Lighthouse. This stop isn’t so much for the lighthouse but for the view of the black sand beaches from it. You can also walk along the cliff and see the southernmost point of Iceland which has an amazing archway over the water.

As a bonus, if you’re visiting during May to mid August this is a good spot for puffin watching. The Atlantic puffin is native to around 10 different countries and is quite commonly found in Iceland. They nest in cliffs, feed in the water and fly around so it should be easy enough to spot some.

After seeing it from above, you can then drive down to Reynisfjara beach and Hálsanefshellir Cave. This cave is amazing, surrounded by basalt columns with the black sand under it. It’s such a cool place to take photos, but please be careful when you’re visiting Reynisfjara beach. This beach is famous for deadly sneaker waves which can come out of nowhere, so it’s important you stay as far away from the water as possible. There is supposed to be a system of lights showing you when it’s dangerous to go on the beach, but this wasn’t working when we visited.

The best place to stay for the night will be the nearby town of Vik, which was our favourite town we visited in Iceland. It’s a beautiful little town on the water with big cliffs surrounding it. For dinner we recommend Black Crust Pizzeria for the most delicious black crust pizza. Make sure you also walk or drive up to the Vík i Myrdal Church which has the most beautiful view back over the town. For accommodation, we stayed at the Vik Tröll Hotel which we absolutely loved. Self check in was easy, the rooms were big, comfortable, warm and you get a free buffet breakfast included. We’d highly recommend it for your night in Vik!

Leaving Vik, you must stop at the nearby Skool Beans bus café set against some big beautiful cliffs. This is an adorable café in an American yellow school bus and the owner is so lovely. There’s also a café cat called Jeff who sometimes hangs around. The café does have some food but is mostly famous for its drinks so head there for a morning coffee or hot chocolate. Just a note though that the café is shut on a Monday and Tuesday.

After the cafe, it’s a 50 minute drive to Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon which is a must visit. This canyon is 2km long and up to 100m deep. It originates back two million years ago to the ice age and it is absolutely spectacular. There’s a couple of view points and they’re all worth going to so put aside at least 30 minutes.

From there, you will start heading along the amazing Vatnajökull glacier. This is the largest glacier in Iceland, covering about 8% of the country, and is also the second largest in Europe. We recommend stopping at the Skaftafellsstofa visitor centre along the glacier. There’s lots of hikes you can do from here including one to the famous basalt waterfall, Svartifoss.

From the Skaftafellsstofa visitor centre is also where the glacier hike tours leave from. Even though they’re expensive, we decided to book one because it’s a once in a lifetime experience and where better to do it! We booked this blue ice glacier hike and loved it. They drove us to the glacier, gave us all the safety gear we’d need, gave us a 1.5 hour tour of the glacier, then drove us back. The whole experience was about 4 hours long and we thought it was so unique and fun. All the guides were experienced and knowledgeable, and we would highly recommend it.

After that, drive 1.5 hours along the glacier to Höfn for the night. Unfortunately we wouldn’t recommend where we stayed in Höfn, so we’ve found some higher rated places to recommend instead. For budget travellers there’s the Höfn Hostel which has both private and shared dormitory rooms. Slightly more expensive but closer to the city is the Guesthouse Dyngja wich has private rooms with shared bathrooms, and a studio apartment. Lastly, there’s Central Stay Hofn which has standard style modern rooms with private bathrooms. Make sure to book as early as possible because accommodation in Höfn seems to book out very quickly.

On our Icelandic summer road trip, we decided that Höfn would be as far around as we would go. So in the morning, we headed off back towards Reykjavik. About an hour away from Höfn you will reach the amazing Diamond Beach and the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. These are across from each other so you can easily walk between them.

Firstly, the lagoon is Iceland’s deepest lake and has amazing icebergs that have broken off from a nearby glacier. They float in the lagoon and have the most amazing colours, and if you’re lucky you’ll also see some seals that swim between the icebergs. As the icebergs wash out to the ocean, they are then washed ashore to Diamond Beach. The little pieces of iceberg on the black sand beach is truly so beautiful and is something we had never seen before.

After enjoying Diamond Beach, we decided to do the majority of the driving back to our stop for the night, Hvolsvöllur. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive back along the edge of the glacier to this town, but we did stop in Vik for lunch to break it up.

Once in Hvolsvöllur there’s a couple of cool things you can do. There’s a LAVA Centre which is an interactive volcano museum where you can learn all about volcanos and lava in Iceland. A 15 minute drive away there is also the Caves of Hella which are man made caves where you can get a very interesting one hour tour. We opted to do the cave tour, and we learned so much about Icelandic history! If you’re after a deeper look at how Icelandic people came to be, we would definitely recommend this tour!

For accommodation, we found that the town had a lot of guesthouses so have a look around on Booking.com and Airbnb as to what might be in your budget.

The last day of the road trip is about finishing the golden circle so it’s going to be a lot busier than the other landmarks.

Our first stop of the day was to Friðheimar which is an incredible tomato farm and restaurant. They grow tomatoes all year round in green energy greenhouses with artificial lighting. You can eat at the restaurant or bistro, buy their tomato products from the shop, and wander a greenhouse. The food is delicious, they’re got their famous tomato soup with unlimited homemade bread, tomato pizza and pasta and fresh tomatoes with burrata. If you want to visit, it’s best to book a table on their website because it sells out quickly. However, if you do miss out you can still do walk ins at the restaurant, or visit the bistro which doesn’t take bookings.

After a nice little tomato feed, drive 30 minutes to Gullfoss waterfall. Amazingly there is free parking here with a little visitor centre too. There’s a couple of nice lookouts and depending on the wind the spray may get you a bit wet while you’re there. Next, drive to the Geysir which does smell like eggs because of the sulphur gas bubbling from the ground. There are a couple of geysers in the area that erupt every 10 ish minutes and go quite high.

After we headed to Brúarfoss which you aren’t going to for the landscape but more for the colour of the water. There’s a bright blue streak running through the waterfall which is so beautiful and needs to be seen.

Lastly we headed into Thingvellir National Park which is a beautiful park with lots to do. There are campsites with toilets and showers, portable grills, tables, and electricity ports. There are also places you can legally fish, and lots of hiking trails. There’s even two free guided walking tours a day, one at 10am and one at 2pm, that last for 1 hour each.

One of the most popular things to do in the park however is to snorkel between the tectonic plates of North America and Europe at the Silfra Fissure. You can book a 3 hour snorkelling experience that leaves from inside the national park. Or there’s this tour where there is an option that picks up and drops off in Reykjavík. If you don’t want to snorkel in the fissure you can still go and see it and the amazingly clear water within which is definitely worth it too.

While most Iceland road trip itineraries out there are for a week or more, we didn’t have the time to spare and wanted the freedom to be able to stop the car whenever we wanted. Because of this, we’ve created the best 5 day south Iceland summer road trip. We ended up seeing the south and some of the east, and felt that we had more than enough time to really see what we wanted.

On our road trip we saw so many incredible waterfalls including Skógafoss which was our favourite. We were lucky enough to see puffins at Dyrhólaey Lighthouse, and took photos of the Hálsanefshellir cave on the black sand beach. We walked on the Vatnajökull Glacier, enjoyed the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon and diamond beach and explored Hella Caves. Lastly we finished up by seeing more waterfalls on the golden circle, seeing the geyser erupt, and driving through Thingvellir National Park. Overnight we stayed in the beautiful towns of Eyrarbakki, Vik, Höfn and Hvolsvöllur.

There is so much to see in Iceland that it can be overwhelming, but we really felt that we got a great idea of the country and all the beauty it has to offer, just in five days. However long you have to road trip Iceland, and whatever you see, you no doubt will have an incredible time in one of the most unique and beautiful countries we have ever visited.

If you want to see our trip in more detail, we filmed two vlogs during our time in Iceland:

Related Posts:

• Is The Blue Lagoon Iceland Really Worth It?
• How to Enjoy Reykjavik On a Budget