Þingvellir National Park

6 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Þingvellir is usually the first stop on the Golden Circle, because it lies closest to the capital. Our own route calculation gives about 48 km and 47 minutes from central Reykjavík, without stops and in good conditions. The park fills a rift valley that runs south from the Langjökull glacier to Mount Hengill. On its western side rises Almannagjá, a gorge that the park describes as the eastern edge of the North American plate. Below it spreads Þingvallavatn, at 84 km² the largest lake in Iceland, home to brown trout and four forms of Arctic charr found nowhere else.

The assembly plains

The name means “assembly plains”. Around 930 the Alþing, a general assembly, was founded here, and it met every year until 1798. During the Commonwealth period up to 1262 its centre was the Lögberg, or Law Rock, where the laws were recited from memory each year, while the Lögrétta acted as the law-making body. Around the year 1000 the assembly adopted Christianity. In 1874 Icelanders gathered at Þingvellir for a national festival at which the country’s first constitution was handed over.

A law of 1928 made the area the permanent property of the nation under the Alþing’s care, and the park’s brochure dates the national park itself to 1930. Today the Þingvellir Committee, which reports to Parliament, manages it. UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List in 2004 as a witness to Norse culture and a national shrine, with the cliffs of the rift valley as the backdrop to the open-air assembly.

Hakið and the walk into Almannagjá

Most visitors begin at Hakið, the visitor centre at the top of Almannagjá, next to car park P1 and a viewing platform over the gorge. It opens from 09:00 to 18:00 between April and October and from 09:00 to 17:00 between November and March, with shorter hours over Christmas and New Year. The exhibition “Heart of Iceland” takes about 40 minutes and covers continental drift, the Lögrétta, archaeology and how Þingvellir has been pictured over the centuries. It needs a ticket, which you can buy online or at the desk; children up to 17 enter free.

From the platform a path leads down into the gorge itself, and the park’s own photo shows the walkway running along the middle of Almannagjá. The paths around the assembly site are well signed. Further out, trails lead to the abandoned farms of Hrauntún, Skógarkot and Vatnskot, and the park publishes maps of them as PDF and image files. Riders may use only three routes (Langistígur, Skógarkotsvegur and Nýja-Hrauntúnsgata); all other trails are for walkers.

The church and the ranger walks

Þingvallakirkja stands within the old assembly site. The present building dates from 1859 and its bell tower from 1907, and the sagas say a church has stood here since 1017. It opens from 1 June to 31 August when a park ranger is present.

In the same months rangers lead free walks in English every day, at 10:00 from the church and at 14:00 from Hakið. There is no need to book, and every walk enters Almannagjá. The park’s page on ranger walks has the current details.

Parking at P1, P2 and P5

The park charges a parking fee per vehicle, graded by the number of seats, and one payment covers the day at all three car parks. P1 at Hakið reads number plates with a camera and checks them on the way out. Machines stand at the visitor centre, at the toilet building next to it, at P2 below Öxarárfoss and at P5 by Valhöll, and you can also pay online through Checkit.is. Holders of a disability badge do not pay but need to register their number plate at the visitor centre or by email.

Which car park you choose depends on the plan. P1 suits the viewpoint and the walk down the gorge, P2 lies east of and below the waterfall, and P5 is the nearest to the church and to Silfra.

Snorkelling and diving in Silfra

Silfra is a water-filled fissure at the edge of Þingvallavatn. The park sets the rules: divers need a licence at the level of an autonomous diver plus a dry suit certificate or proof of ten logged dry suit dives in the last two years, solo diving is banned and the maximum depth is 18 m. The water stays at 2–4 °C, so full cold-water protection is required, and snorkellers may wear a thick wetsuit instead of a dry suit. Operators ask every guest to fill in a medical form. Our page on Silfra snorkelling and diving compares the tours in detail.

Most Silfra tours run all year and last about three hours from the meeting point, with roughly 45 minutes in the water. Age, height and weight limits differ by operator; most snorkelling tours start at 12, and the scuba dives at 17 or 18.

On a day tour

Every classic Golden Circle day tour from Reykjavík stops at Þingvellir, usually as the first or last halt. Reviews of the large bus tours mention about an hour at each stop, which is enough for the gorge and the viewpoint but not for the exhibition or the outer trails. Some tours include the park’s visitor fee in the price. A small group or a private tour gives you more say over the time spent here.

Light and seasons

The park is open all year, but daylight changes the visit. On 21 December the sun rises at about 11:21 and sets at about 15:24, and the walls of the rift can hide it from the valley floor even earlier. From early June to early July the sky does not get darker than civil twilight, so an evening walk through Almannagjá is easy. The park’s rules apply in every season: do not damage the vegetation, light no fires and camp only on the marked sites.