Iceland-East and North coast
- Day 4 : Hofn to Akureyri
- Day 5 : Akureyri to Hvammastangi
East Iceland
East is between Hofn in the south to Bakkafjordur in the north. East is famous for it’s scenery and culture. Egilsstadir is the largest town in East. If you want to stop for a night during ring road drive, this is one town to be considered. Drive was amazing with numerous waterfalls and tiny fishing villages. Some of the places to explore in East…
- Vestrahorn Mountain
- Hengifoss Waterfall
- Klifbrekkufossar Waterfalls
- Studlagil Canyon
- Petra’s Stone and Mineral Collection
North Iceland
North has many activities to do. Akureyri is the second big city in Iceland. There are Hot springs, horse back rides, water falls, Nature baths, Lava formations and valleys. Best place to stay is Akureyri. Some of the things to do in North…
- Diamond Circle
- Námafjall (Hot springs, Mud pots)
- Lake Mývatn
- Myvatn Nature Baths
- Geothermal Spa
- Akureyri
- Whale watching (Season)
- Arctic Henge
- Hvítserkur
Hofn to Akureyri Trip
Drive from Hofn to Akureyri is long about 8hrs drive with few stops. This was a long day for us. So picked only few things to do.
- Breakfast
- Drive towards second largest city Akuryeri
- Egilsstaðir
- Hengifoss Hike & falls – 35 km from the Egilsstaðir. https://www.hengifoss.is/en/hengifoss
- Rainbow Street in Seyðisfjörður
- Stuðlagil canyon
- Lunch – pack
- Dettifoss – 1 hour
- Godafoss
- Dinner
We stayed in Hotel Jökull and our friends stayed in Milk factory. We liked both hotels. Breakfast was very good.
Plan for the day.
Drive started with beautiful scenarios and curvy roads.
We stopped at Reyðarfjörður while driving to Egilsstaðir. Picked up packed lunch before going to Stuðlagil Canyon. Drive was beautiful with views and waterfalls. Our stop on the East side is only Stuðlagil canyon. But the Reyðarfjörður stop was good with rainbow street and boats.
Find a Kronan for snacks and some food.
Hengifoss falls
Hengifoss is a 35 km from the Egilsstaðir. The walk starts at the car park, 2km (1.2 miles) from Hengifoss. This puts the Hengifoss hike time at around 40-60 minutes. It’s a short trail, but it’s fairly steep. The route begins with a flight of steps and then continues as a gravel trail.
https://www.hengifoss.is/en/hengifoss
Rainbow Street in Seyðisfjörður
Due to time limit, we skipped this part of the town.
Stuðlagil canyon
Enjoy this 6.1-mile out-and-back trail near Fljótsdalshérað, Eastern. Generally considered an easy route, it takes an average of 2 h 21 min to complete.
The hike is easy with minimal elevation gain, but it is between 2.5 and 5 miles (4-8km), depending on where you park.
If you are driving from Egilsstaðir:
– Follow Route 1 until you pass the farm Skjöldólfsstaðir (you will see a guest house and a gas pump).
– About 1.5 km (0.9 miles) after passing Skjöldólfsstaðir take a sharp left turn onto road 923.
– Once you are on road 923, there are two ways to visit the canyon, one from the north side of the river and one from the south side of the river.
- To visit the canyon from the north side of the river, you drive about 18 km on road 923 to the farm Grund. From the parking lot there is about 250 m walk to a viewpoint. View point gives the top view.
- To visit the canyon from the south side of the river, you drive about 14 km on road 923 to the farm Hákonarstaði and turn left at the sign “Klaustursel”. Drive down to the river and park on a parking lot by the bridge. From the parking lot, there is about a 10 km round trip walk. With south side you can walk closer to the water and walk on the basalt formations as well. Views are amazing from the river level.
By taking a shorter 30 minute hike to the East side of the canyon by parking in the carpark over the bridge – “Parkplatz Klaustrusel”. (After Stuðlagil East side parking) From here it’s a short walk to Studlafoss waterfall, and then about 30 minutes one way to the canyon. The walk is mostly flat and easy.
You won’t need a 4×4 to get to either the east side or west side parking…. however if you go over the bridge to Parkplatz Klaustrusel the road is narrow, full of holes and very bumpy. I know people have done it in a 2WD… personally I wouldn’t like to… but it’s not an F road so you wouldn’t be forbidden by rental company.
Directions to closer parking lot –
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3YmYS1wkP8H2K9SDA
Basalt formations, Canyon view, river water gives an unique experience. This location is definitely recommend. Enjoy and explore.
Diamond Circle
We picked Dettifoss and Godafoss passign by Myvatn. We finished our trip to Stuðlagil canyon and started driving back on Ring road. Took at a route to Dettifoss. We plan to drive back and fourth to this location.
PC: Online
Dettifoss waterfall
Dettifoss means ‘The Collapsing Waterfall‘. We called it as dirty falls as the water color is not clear due to the power of water flow. Dettifoss is the second most powerful waterfall in Europe and most powerful in Iceland.
Dettifoss is fed by the powerful glacier river Jökulsá á Fjöllum which flows from the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull. The thunderous fall has an average water flow of 193 meters cubed per second (6,186 cubic feet). It is 100 meters (330 feet) wide and plummets 45 meters (150 feet) down into Jökulsárgljúfur canyon. This canyon is in the northern part of the greater Vatnajökull National Park, the largest national park in the country, thus Dettifoss is well protected.
Summer is the best time to visit this water falls. Winter these roads might be closed due to snow and weather.
The entire loop, from the parking lot to Dettifoss to Selfoss to the parking lot, is a 2.5 km walk and takes about one hour. Lot of insects in this area and recommend to cover your face fully. There are 2 paths you can take for views. West side and East Side. East side takes you through the Selfoss and less spray of water. We took the West side hike to see the full front view of the water fall. Walking path was flat and some places there were up and down.
Why we picked West side? East side we need to drive more and parking lot on east has limited number of vehicles. It takes more time on East. West has both upper and lower/full view points of the falls. A glimpse of the Selfoss from West.
Námafjall
After Dettifoss we drove back and came back to Ring road. Next quick stop was Námafjall Geothermal Area. This is located in Northeast Iceland, on the east side of Lake Mývatn. This area is also known as Hverir, you will see many smoking fumaroles and boiling mud pots, surrounded by sulphur crystals of different colors. This sulphur gives the area an overwhelming smell of egg.
We stopped for few mins here.
Goðafoss waterfall
As we continue to drive towards Akureyri through Lake Myvatan, we stopped at the Goðafoss . This place is not to be missed…Goðafoss means “Waterfall of the Gods”.
This waterfall is very close to ring road and easily accessible. Plenty of parking. We took the first exit which gave left side view. This is the best side for full water fall and cave views. By the time we went the gift shop was closed.
We hiked from parking to the waterfall along the river and the weather and views were awesome with sun light. It’s easy and flat walk, not more than 10 mins.
Saw the other side (West probably) had some benches to sit and enjoy the views and parking was very close. West is after you cross the bridge.
Akureyri
Second largest city after Reykjavik. Akureyri is also capital of North Iceland. We reached the hotel right in the middle of the town. Very good location, guess the stairs are so small, we had tough time carrying our suite cases and bags. But place was clean and all the facilities were there as advertised.
Day 2 in Akureyri..
- Breakfast
- Akureyri
- Horse back ride
- Lunch – Akureyri Fish & Chips (Best ones)
- Drive from Akuryeri to Hvammastangi – 2 hr 23 min (202 km)
- Hvítserkur
Relaxed morning and breakfast today in Akureyri.
We walked in the main street of Akureyri Downtown. We stayed in one of these buildings.
More colorful pictures from Akureyri.
Horse ride in Akureyri. We called day before and confirmed the booking. They were able to accommodate us.
After lunch we started drive to Hvammastangi. It’s about 2 and half hours. Out cottage was amazing. Birds and their sounds, sheeps and horses every where. Amazing scenery with mountains and clouds. There were atleast 8 beds in that house. But we family of 4 took that house, it called Ósar Hostel . I would definitely recommend it.
It is very close to the Rhino rock/Hvítserkur.
Hvítserkur is a 15 m high basalt stack along the eastern shore of the Vatnsnes peninsula, in northwest Iceland. The rock has two holes at the base, which give it the appearance of a dragon that is drinking.
We walked through the fields and then along the shore to reach the rock. Some people were coming down from the view point. It looked little hard to slide/get down from viewing platform. Instead of going back long route, we decided to climb up and walk on the road.
A small water fall next to the viewing platform.
What would I do differently?
Busy long day 1. Ideally split the day in to 2 days. one day for East and another day for North. But given the time I would not regret with the stops we choose.
