BusTravel Golden Circle Tour with Kerið: What to Know Before You Book

What to Expect on BusTravel's Golden Circle Tour

The Golden Circle is a loop of about 230 kilometres with three famous stops on it. For visitors staying in Reykjavík without a car, the usual choice is between hiring one and joining a coach tour. BusTravel Iceland's full-day Golden Circle tour is the most-reviewed of those coaches on GetYourGuide. It runs year-round from bus stops around the city, starts at $90 per person, and has more than 27,000 reviews, averaging 4.8.

The calendar below shows which departures still have space on your dates, and which of them start in the morning. The listing currently allows free cancellation up to 24 hours before.

Most of what people praise is straightforward. The sights are worth the day, and the guides are the best-scoring part of the tour: 4.8/5 on the listing, against 4.7 for value for money. Darren and Sven come up repeatedly in recent positive reviews, usually for the same reason, which is that they explain the geology and the history of what you are passing. Drivers are praised in recent reviews too. Several travellers mention unplanned extras, including a stop to see Icelandic horses, a pass by a greenhouse, and once an additional waterfall.

The route is broadly the same on every departure. What changes is the time you get at each stop and the size of the group you get it with. The published itinerary itemises 15 minutes at Hveragerði, 20 at Kerið, 45 at Gullfoss, 80 at Geysir and 45 at Þingvellir. That comes to 3 hours 25 minutes out of a listed 7-hour day, and the drives between the stops are not itemised at all. Both figures come from the operator's own itinerary.

For this review we read the listing, the operator's booking notes and recent traveller reports, paying particular attention to complaints about the length of the stops, the boarding process at the bus stops and the missing crater. There are five things worth knowing before you book:

• Departures at 12:00 and later do not stop at Kerið, although the crater is in the tour's name.
• The itemised stop times add up to about 3 hours 25 minutes of a 7-hour day, and short stops are the most common complaint in the lower-rated reviews.
• This is a full-size coach, usually carrying around 40 to 60 people. Seats are not allocated, so couples who board later may end up apart.
• Boarding happens at shared bus stops where several coaches load at once, and some travellers describe being sent to the wrong bus or moved between coaches at a petrol station.
• Food and drinks are not included, although the itinerary lists lunch at the Geysir stop.

The details are in the booking notes and the itinerary, but they are easy to miss if you only read the listing summary.

A morning departure gives you the full four-stop itinerary. Just expect to explore each stop largely on your own.

Coach or Small Group: Which One Suits You

Many of the practical drawbacks above are linked to travelling in a full-size coach. There is a small-group option covering the same four main stops. Nicetravel's Golden Circle and Kerið Crater small group tour caps the group at 19, includes hotel pickup instead of a shared bus stop, runs 8 hours, and costs from $124 per person. It is rated 4.8 from more than 800 reviews, and its lower-rated reviews describe different problems: an old vehicle, one missed stop, one late pickup. Recent reviews of the small-group tour mention fewer issues with boarding and seat allocation.

Choose the BusTravel coach if the $35 difference matters and you are content to do each stop under your own steam. Consider the small-group tour if you are travelling as a couple and want to sit together, if you want the guide with you at the stops, or if a hotel pickup would make the morning easier.

There are private Golden Circle tours on GetYourGuide as well. Every one we checked has either no reviews or a handful, which is not enough to recommend, so we have not linked any of them.

Five Practical Things to Check Before You Book

• Book a departure before midday if you want to see Kerið. The operator's own booking note says the crater is dropped from any departure at 12:00 or later. The tour name does not change.
• Get to the bus stop early and ask the driver which tour the coach is running. Several coaches load at the same stops and names are read out. Travellers regularly describe boarding the wrong one, or waiting while passengers are swapped between buses at a petrol station.
• Board as early as you can if you want to sit together. Seats are not allocated and the coach usually fills. Travellers who board last describe being split up for the day, sometimes in the back row.
• Bring food, or budget for lunch at Geysir. Food and drinks are in the listing's exclusions, although the itinerary line for Geysir reads "Photo stop, Lunch". Prices at the Geysir centre can be high: one reviewer reported paying around CAD 35, roughly $25 at current exchange rates, for a bowl of soup.
• Use the toilets at every stop. Do not rely on having a usable toilet on the coach. Several reviewers say there was none, while one reported that the onboard toilet was out of order. Queues at the rest stops build when more than one coach arrives together.

Booking in Winter: Daylight and the Kerið Rule

The tour runs year-round, and winter departures collect plenty of positive reviews. Gullfoss in ice is one of the things recent travellers single out.

What changes is the light. In December and January Reykjavík gets four to five hours of usable daylight, with sunrise around 11:00 and sunset by about 3:30 in the afternoon. A departure at midday leaves very little of it.

So in winter the morning departure does two jobs. It is the one that still stops at Kerið, and it is the one that reaches the stops in daylight. Later winter departures can reach the final stops in very low light or darkness. Our winter Golden Circle guide has more on conditions and driving in those months.

How the Day Runs

Pickup is from one of the numbered tour bus stops around central Reykjavík, or from a hotel if you have booked that option, and the first transfer out of the city is listed at 40 minutes. The return leg is listed at an hour. Between them come five stops, and the guide gives you a time to be back at the coach at each one.

The guide does not usually walk the group around the sights. This comes up repeatedly in the critical reviews. Several travellers expected to be shown around and were instead pointed in a direction and given a return time. Commentary happens on the coach. If you want the geology explained while you are looking at it, this is not the format.

Departures also run late when passengers come back late. When the tour runs behind, some reviewers say the later stops can feel shorter, and a few describe getting back well before the advertised finish.

Stop 1: Hveragerði

A 15-minute break in a geothermal town about 40 minutes out of Reykjavík. This is a comfort stop. There is a walk you could start here, and travellers who tried it in winter describe having to choose between the walk and the toilets. Fifteen minutes does not cover both.

Stop 2: Kerið Crater

Twenty minutes at a 270-metre-wide volcanic crater with red walls and a lake at the bottom, and the shortest stop of the day. That is enough for the rim viewpoint and photographs. It is not enough to walk the rim and go down the steps to the water, which takes closer to 45 minutes. Our Kerið crater guide has the timings if you would rather do it on a self-drive day.

This is also the stop that is not always there. Any departure at 12:00 or later skips it, which the operator states in the booking notes and which several travellers only discovered on the day.

Stop 3: Gullfoss Waterfall

Forty-five minutes at the biggest sight on the route, timed from the moment the coach stops, and the walk to the falls comes out of it. There is a descent and a set of steps, and in winter the path ices. Travellers who want both the lower viewpoint and the upper one describe moving fast to get them.

Stop 4: Geysir

Eighty minutes, the longest stop of the day, and the one where the itinerary and the inclusions do not quite line up. The line reads "Photo stop, Lunch", but food is excluded, so a good part of the longest stop is a paid lunch break in a café and a shop.

Strokkur erupts every few minutes, so an 80-minute stop covers several eruptions, and travellers report watching it go up half a dozen times. The complaint that recurs is the balance: 80 minutes here, against 45 at Gullfoss and 45 at Þingvellir, with the meal attached to the longest one. If you eat quickly you get a generous amount of time at the geysers. A sit-down lunch uses up a significant part of the 80-minute stop.

Stop 5: Þingvellir National Park

Forty-five minutes and a walk between the tectonic plates, at the end of the day. Some travellers rate it the highlight of the route and some find it less immediately impressive than the waterfall or the geysers. The stop makes much more sense with some historical and geological context. Without much of that, it can feel like a short walk through a broad rift valley. Our Þingvellir guide covers the walks and what is where.

The coach does not always return to the car park it dropped you in. A few reviewers mention confusion about the return point or the departure time here, so double-check both before you walk away from the coach.

Other Experiences You Might Enjoy

Plenty of visitors pair the Golden Circle with a soak at the Secret Lagoon or the Blue Lagoon, a snorkel between the plates at Silfra, or a lunch in the tomato greenhouses at Friðheimar. The widget below shows live availability for experiences departing Reykjavík.

Common Issues to Know About

Issues Specific to Large Coach Departures

• Boarding at shared stops. Several BusTravel coaches load at the same bus stops, and passengers are called by surname. Travellers describe missing their name, boarding the wrong coach, or being moved between coaches at a petrol station after the tour had started. Similar reports appear in reviews going back several years.
• Seating. There are no allocated seats, and on a full coach the last people on take what is left. Couples separated for a seven-hour day is one of the most frequent single complaints, along with the seat-swapping disputes that follow at each stop.
• Group size. Reviewers describe groups of roughly 40 to 60 people. The listing does not give a number. At that size the guide stays with the coach instead of walking with the group.
• Waiting for late passengers. With a group that size someone is usually late back, and the time comes out of the later stops.

Other Things That Vary

• The guide. Guides score 4.8/5, the highest-rated part of the tour, and the critical reviews still return to guiding more often than to anything except the timing. Some travellers describe a guide who says little beyond return times. Others describe a day of geology and Icelandic history. Both accounts are common enough to treat this as a variable.
• The coach. Most reviews describe a comfortable, well-heated bus. A minority describe an older vehicle with no charging points, heating that could not be turned down, or a breakdown. Breakdowns appear a handful of times across several years.
• Extra stops. Guides sometimes add an unlisted stop for Icelandic horses or a greenhouse. Most travellers who mention it enjoy it. A few would rather have had the minutes at Geysir.
• Weather. The operator can cancel for heavy rain or storms, with a refund or another date. Short of that the tour runs, and every stop is outdoors.

So — Would We Book It?

Yes, with one condition: book the morning departure.

At $90 for four stops, transport and a guide, this is close to the lowest-cost way to see the Golden Circle without driving, and it is rated 4.8 across more than 27,000 reviews. The stops are short and the coach is large, and the itinerary and the booking notes are reasonably honest about both.

Book this tour if you want the four main stops in a day at the lowest price, you are happy to explore each one on your own, and you can take a morning departure.

Book something else if you are travelling as a couple who want to sit together, you want a guide with you at the sights, or you only have an afternoon free and Kerið matters to you. The small-group alternative covers the same four stops for about $35 more. If you would rather have the day at your own pace entirely, our tour versus self-drive comparison works through the real costs.

Whichever you book, check your pickup point the evening before, and at Þingvellir write down the time and the place the guide gives you.

How We Put This Together

Nobody on our team has taken this tour. This review is built from the current GetYourGuide listing, the operator's published itinerary and booking notes, and recent traveller reports in English, including the lower-rated ones where the practical problems tend to appear. The rating, review count and price were checked on 25 September 2026, and all three move, particularly the price, which varies by season and departure.

We earn a commission if you book through the links on this page, at no extra cost to you. It does not change which tours we recommend or what we say about them.