Horse riding on a Golden Circle day

5 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

On these tours you are collected in Reykjavík, spend one to two hours on horseback at a riding farm and also see Þingvellir, the Geysir area and Gullfoss. The farms are Laxnes in the Mosfellsdalur valley and Eldhestar. That makes for a full day of nine to eleven hours.

Laxnes and the Golden Circle

The full-day ride at Laxnes Horse Farm starts with hotel pickup in Reykjavík. At the farm you ride for one and a half to two hours over hills and through grassland, with an easy river crossing on the way, before the bus heads to Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss. The whole day takes eleven hours. A guide, the riding equipment and WiFi on the bus are included. Riders must be at least 7 years old, and the tour is not open to anyone over 120 kg.

The long day is the main thing to weigh up. The Golden Circle sights come after the ride, so in the darker months the last stops come close to sunset: on 21 December the sun sets at Þingvellir at 15:24.

Eldhestar and the Golden Circle

The Viking horse riding and Golden Circle tour visits Eldhestar instead. The schedule allows 120 minutes for the guided ride, no previous riding experience is required, and the minimum age is again 7. The bus also covers Þingvellir, Gullfoss and the Geysir area, with the national park fee included. The meeting point is the BSÍ bus terminal in Reykjavík, with pickup from hotels, cruise ports and set meeting points in the city. The day lasts about nine hours on a bus that can hold up to 50 people. Lunch is not included, so plan a stop to buy food or bring your own.

Choosing between the farms

The Golden Circle rides at Laxnes and Eldhestar differ less in the riding than in the day around it. The Laxnes tour collects you from your hotel and runs to eleven hours, with the river crossing as part of the route. The Eldhestar tour is about two hours shorter and works from the BSÍ terminal, cruise ports and city meeting points, which helps if you arrive by ship, and it travels in a bus for up to 50. Each takes riders from 7 and supplies the equipment. The ride with Silfra pairs the horses with a snorkel in water of 2 to 4 °C rather than a sightseeing loop.

Horses also appear on some ordinary day tours. The minibus day with Kerið and Friðheimar includes a horse farm with a demonstration, and the Chinese-guided tour stops at a horse farm too; you will find them on our page on Golden Circle tours.

Riding and snorkelling in Silfra

The horse riding and Silfra combination joins a ride at Laxnes with drysuit snorkelling in the Silfra fissure at Þingvellir. You are collected in Reykjavík, and the day takes five to eight hours. Because of the snorkel, the minimum age rises to 12, and the snorkelling rules apply as well: you need to swim and understand English, and height and weight limits apply for the suit. The tour page gives two different weight limits for the ride, so check before you book if you are close to them. Our Silfra page explains what the snorkel involves.

Meeting the horses without riding

If you would rather watch than ride, the Golden Circle day with a horse farm visit stops at a farm where you can meet, pet and feed Icelandic horses. The rest of the day covers Þingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss and Kerið over eight hours. Reviews describe a long but varied day and suggest bringing snacks, and one mentions a big hill at a stop, where guests who struggle with walking may prefer to stay on the bus. On a wet day in October the horse visit took place in a car park with three horses, so this suits travellers who mainly want the Golden Circle with a short stop at the paddock.

The Friðheimar greenhouse in Reykholt, a lunch stop on several day tours, also puts on a horse show with commentary in fourteen languages. Its website does not list the show times.

There is also the one-hour ride with Geysir views, where a small group rides with the farm owners, looks out over Geysir and the volcanoes and warms up with a hot drink in a coffee shop afterwards. The tour page does not give the exact location of the farm, so check where it starts before you plan the rest of your day around it.

Bringing riding gear to Iceland

Icelandic horses are not vaccinated, and the food and veterinary authority MAST enforces strict rules on riding equipment brought into the country. Used saddles, bridles, nosebands, pads, rugs, whips and used riding gloves may not be imported at all. Used riding clothes and boots must go through a washing machine or dry cleaning before you travel. Anything that cannot be washed, helmets and boots included, has to be cleaned with detergent, dried, sprayed with a 2 per cent Virkon S solution and left for at least five days before it comes into contact with horses in Iceland. The tours provide riding gear, so the simplest answer is to leave your own at home.

Riding in Þingvellir and what to wear

Inside Þingvellir National Park, riding is allowed only on the Langistígur, Skógarkotsvegur and Nýja-Hrauntúnsgata routes; the other paths are for walkers. None of the tours on this page rides in the park itself.

The tour pages give no season for the rides, and the weather can change during a single morning. Visit South Iceland advises layers with wool close to the body, a windproof and waterproof jacket and rain trousers, and sturdy shoes with a good grip; in winter it also recommends ice grips or anti-slip soles for your shoes. For travelling with children, see the Golden Circle with kids.