Þingvellir National Park

Þingvellir is one of the easiest national parks I've visited in terms of access. It's the first stop on Iceland's famous Golden Circle route, about 45 minutes' drive from Reykjavík, and most visitors combine it with the Geysir geothermal area and Gullfoss waterfall in a single day trip. I did the lot, and it worked well.

What makes Þingvellir unusual is that it packs geological, historical, and natural significance into a relatively compact space. The park sits on the rift valley where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are pulling apart, and you can literally walk between them. It's one of the only places on earth where this is visible above sea level, and once you're down in the Almannagjá gorge with 40-metre cliff faces rising on either side, the scale of what's happening beneath your feet starts to sink in.

The highlights

I started at the Hakið viewpoint and visitor centre at the top of the gorge, which gives you a sweeping view over the rift valley and Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest natural lake. The exhibition inside is well done, with interactive displays and VR goggles that place you in the middle of an old parliamentary debate. It's a good place to get your bearings before heading down.

From there, I walked down into the Almannagjá gorge itself. The path is well maintained and runs about 1.2 kilometres between the tectonic plates, which is a strange thing to type and an even stranger thing to experience. Along the way you pass Lögberg (the Law Rock), marked with a flag, where Iceland's parliament, the Alþingi, first met in 930 AD. It's considered one of the oldest parliaments in the world and essentially the founding site of Icelandic democracy. Standing there, knowing that people have been gathering at that exact spot for over a thousand years, is quietly powerful.

Further along the gorge I reached Öxarárfoss, a waterfall that cascades about 13 metres over the edge of the rift into a rocky pool below. It's not the biggest waterfall in Iceland, but the setting, framed by dark volcanic rock and the walls of the gorge, makes it one of the most photogenic.

I also stopped at Peningagjá, the "money fissure," a crystal-clear, water-filled crack in the rock where visitors have been throwing coins and making wishes for years. You can see them glinting at the bottom through the impossibly clear water. A small thing, but a nice moment.

The Þingvellir Church (Þingvallakirkja) sits near the lake shore and is one of the oldest church sites in Iceland, though the current building dates from 1859. It's tiny and understated, but worth the short walk from the main trail.

Snorkelling Silfra

The standout experience was snorkelling the Silfra fissure. Silfra is a crack between the two tectonic plates that's filled with glacial meltwater filtered through porous lava rock over decades, giving it visibility that can exceed 100 metres. It's one of the clearest bodies of water on the planet. You're kitted out in a drysuit (the water sits at around 2 to 3°C year-round, so you'd last about five minutes without one) and then you float through the fissure for 30 to 40 minutes, drifting between the continents. The colours are unreal, deep blues and greens with basalt walls dropping away beneath you. It's completely surreal and one of the most memorable things I've done on this project.

The lake and the trails

Beyond the main gorge, there are hiking trails that extend along the Þingvallavatn shoreline and out towards the remains of abandoned farms (Hrauntún, Skógarkot, Vatnskot), where you can still see the ruins. The lake itself is home to brown trout and various forms of Arctic charr, and the surrounding birch woodlands are pleasant to walk through, especially in autumn when they turn golden.

Why it's worth the visit

Þingvellir is one of those rare parks where the geology, the history, and the things you can actually do all come together in one place. Walking between tectonic plates, standing where the world's oldest parliament met, snorkelling through glacial water with 100-metre visibility, and throwing a coin into a fissure for luck, all within a couple of hours of each other. It's accessible, it's varied, and it doesn't require a full day to appreciate. If you're in Reykjavík, there's no reason not to go.