Geysir and Strokkur

5 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

The geothermal field at Geysir lies in Haukadalur, at the foot of Laugarfell, a 187 m hill of rhyolite. Our route calculation gives about 60 km and an hour by car from Þingvellir, and Gullfoss is only 10 km further on. The Environment Agency of Iceland records the field as a natural monument of about 1.2 km², protected since 17 June 2020 to preserve its geological formations, hot springs, micro-organisms and plant life. The environment minister, Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson, signed the declaration on Iceland’s National Day.

Strokkur, the reliable one

Strokkur is the reason the coaches stop here. It erupts every few minutes all year, although the published intervals differ: Visit Iceland says every 8 to 10 minutes, Iceland Review about every 6 to 10, and other guides measure shorter gaps after a single eruption than after a double one. Visit Iceland gives a height of up to about 30 metres, and travel guides that measured many eruptions report columns well below that as well, so no two look the same. Since the next one is never far off, there is time to wait for a tall one.

The Great Geysir

Close by lies the Great Geysir. Its eruptions can reach 70 metres, Iceland Review reports, but they are infrequent and can stop for years at a time; Visit Iceland says it barely spouts. Expect to see a wide, steaming pool rather than a fountain.

Around the two big geysers lie smaller hot springs, and the protection order names them, along with their micro-organisms and plants, as part of what it guards. Strokkur’s water is boiling, Visit Iceland notes. We found no official rules on distances for the area, so our own advice is to stay on the paths and keep children by the hand.

Parking and practical points

Travel guides describe the hot spring area as free to walk around. The car park is at the Geysir Center across the road, and travel guides report that it is charged through the Parka app, so download it before you arrive if you are driving yourself. Paying by card works almost everywhere in Iceland, and foreign cash is rarely accepted.

In midwinter the light is short. On 21 December the sun rises at about 11:21 at Þingvellir and sets at about 15:24, and Geysir lies only slightly further east, so the times differ by a few minutes at most. A self-drive loop in December therefore works best with Geysir in the middle of the day. From May to early August the sky stays light late into the evening, which leaves room for a stop after dinner.

Geysir on a day tour

Every classic day tour from Reykjavík stops here, normally together with Gullfoss. Reviews of the large bus tours describe about an hour at each stop. The afternoon tour visits Geysir, Gullfoss and Þingvellir, and one reviewer noted it has three stops rather than four, with no visit to Kerið. The Gray Line tour runs about 6.5 hours and also leaves out Kerið.

On the full-day tours with snowmobiling the timetable gets tighter. One reviewer of the ten-hour trip noted only about 30 minutes at Geysir and at Gullfoss, since the glacier takes up much of the day. The small-group version travels by minibus to Þingvellir and Geysir, then by super jeep to Langjökull for an hour on a snowmobile shared by two, before Gullfoss and Kerið. It takes participants from age 8 and lends overalls, balaclavas, goggles, gloves and helmets for the ride.

Snowmobiling from Geysir

If you have a car, one glacier trip meets you at Geysir. A large truck takes the group to a base camp on Langjökull, Iceland’s second-largest glacier, for the snowmobile ride. There is no transfer from Reykjavík. The listed duration is four hours, but reviews report much longer days, waits at the base and cancellations because of the weather, so leave the evening free. Our page on snowmobiling and ice caves compares the glacier trips.

Nearby

Gullfoss is ten minutes up the road. Heading back towards Reykjavík, Laugarvatn is about 29 km away and Flúðir with the Secret Lagoon about 25 km, so either fits between Geysir and the drive home. Our page on Laugarvatn and Flúðir covers the baths there.