Highlands Expedition

Welcome to Iceland. Your private driver-guide meets you at Keflavik International Airport (KEF) and routes you through the Blue Lagoon — 20 minutes from the airport, pre-booked with a private cabana, the perfect first-night antidote to a long transatlantic flight. By late afternoon, check in to your Reykjavik hotel in the 101 postal code. The highlands await — tonight is recovery and preparation.

A full day in the capital before the highland interior begins. Morning: private walking tour covering Hallgrimskirkja (tower elevator for the city panorama), the Sun Voyager waterfront sculpture, and the Old Harbor. Afternoon: Harpa Concert Hall facade and Perlan — the observation deck with the Northern Lights planetarium show that explains the aurora mechanics useful for the highland nights ahead.

Evening: the Reykjavik food scene. Your specialist has the reservation. Early night — Day 3 heads into terrain that requires a clear head.

The classic Golden Circle day before the highlands begin. Thingvellir National Park — UNESCO-listed, mid-Atlantic ridge visible above water, Althing Parliament site from 930 AD. Geysir geothermal area with Strokkur erupting every 6–10 minutes. Gullfoss — the two-stage Golden Waterfall plunging 105 feet into a canyon.

Late afternoon: Secret Lagoon at Fludir, a 1891 geothermal pool more intimate than the Blue Lagoon and the right reset before the highland push begins tomorrow. Return to Reykjavik.

The highland interior begins. Your super jeep driver-guide collects you after breakfast — the vehicle switch from the Reykjavik car to the highland super jeep (Toyota Land Cruiser or similar, 38-inch tyres, raised suspension, snorkel) happens at the edge of the F-road network. Route F208 through the Fjallabak Nature Reserve is the approach to Landmannalaugar.

En route: a stop below Hekla, Iceland's most active volcano (still smoking gently, last major eruption 2000, the lava fields from multiple eruption events visible from the road). The landscape transitions from coastal green to highland ochre — rhyolite mountains, lava fields, obsidian outcrops. Arrive Landmannalaugar in the afternoon. Acclimatisation hike up Brennisteinsalda — the most colorful mountain in Iceland, its flanks striped red, yellow, green, and orange by hydrothermal mineralization. Soak in the natural geothermal hot spring at the trailhead. Mountain hut dinner and early night.

A full day in the rhyolite heartland. Landmannalaugar sits in a bowl surrounded by lava fields (the 1477 Laugahraun obsidian flow is just beyond the huts) and multicolored peaks. The signature hike is the Brennisteinsalda loop — 4 hours, crosses geothermal vents steaming from the ground, passes sulfur deposits, ridgelines with views of the entire highland plateau.

Afternoon: shorter walking in the lava field. The Laugahraun obsidian flow is extraordinary up close — black volcanic glass, still sharp, erupted 545 years ago and barely weathered. Evening: the natural hot spring at the hut, the highland silence, and the possibility of Northern Lights on dark-sky nights.

The most remote day of the trip. The Sprengisandur route (F26) crosses the highland interior from south to north — 124 miles of volcanic desert with no services, no settlements, and no phone signal. Your super jeep handles the river crossings (unbridged, knee-deep, cold) and the sand and gravel terrain. The landscape is Mars: black sand plains, distant glacier caps, occasional volcanic intrusions.

The drive takes 6–8 hours with stops. Arrive at the Dreki mountain hut at the edge of the Askja caldera system in the early evening. Dinner at the hut. The Askja caldera is visible from the approach road — tomorrow you descend into it.

The centerpiece of the highlands. Askja is a nested caldera system — the outer caldera formed in a 1875 eruption that blanketed northern Iceland in ash and triggered mass emigration. Inside the outer caldera is Öskjuvatn lake (Iceland's deepest lake, 220m), and inside the lake is the Viti explosion crater, formed in the same 1875 event. Viti is filled with geothermal mineral water at about 25°C — the descent is steep and loose-gravel (about 30 minutes each way) but the swim in the milky blue water is one of the more extraordinary things possible in Iceland.

Afternoon: the return drive passes below Herdubreid — the table mountain known as the Queen of Mountains (1,682m), a dramatically isolated tuya volcano rising from the lava plain. Drive back toward Myvatn area for the overnight.

Dettifoss is Europe's most powerful waterfall — 193m wide, 45m drop, and the volume of water (up to 1,500 cubic meters per second at peak melt) produces a thunderclap heard from miles away and spray that soaks the east bank viewpoint completely. The east bank approach road (Route 862) is gravel, manageable in the super jeep. Approach timing matters — morning light comes from the east and hits the spray directly.

Afternoon: Lake Myvatn, Iceland's volcanic lake. Myvatn means 'midge lake' in Icelandic — the midges are real in summer (bring a head net), but the volcanic landscape around the lake is extraordinary: Hverir geothermal field (boiling mud pots and sulfur fumaroles), Dimmuborgir lava formations (the 'dark castles'), and Grjotagja cave with its geothermal spring pool (made briefly famous by a certain television drama). Check in to a Myvatn lodge.

A full Myvatn day before the return south. Morning: Myvatn Nature Baths — the northern equivalent of the Blue Lagoon, smaller, less commercial, with the highland volcanic landscape as backdrop. Afternoon: Godafoss, the Waterfall of the Gods. In year 1000 AD, the Lawspeaker Porgeir Ljosvetningagodi returned from the Althing having declared Iceland officially Christian, and threw his Norse god statues into this waterfall — hence the name. The falls themselves (12m drop, 30m wide, two channels) are among Iceland's most beautifully photogenic.

Evening: Akureyri, Iceland's second city, 45 minutes from Myvatn. Final dinner of the highland chapter.

Akureyri morning: the botanical garden (the world's northernmost, remarkable for its latitude), the Akureyri Church above the town, and the Naustid harbor. Late morning: Akureyri Airport for the 45-minute domestic flight to Reykjavik, connecting to your international departure from Keflavik.

Ten days from the Blue Lagoon to the Askja caldera — the part of Iceland most travelers never see. Your Juniper specialist remains reachable throughout departure day. Safe travels home.