The Golden Circle & Friðheimar Greenhouse

The tour kicks off with a visit to Friðheimar, where guests learn how Icelanders grow delicious tomatoes with the aid of geothermal heat, which Iceland has in abundance. The farm is home to tomato greenhouses, a horse-breeding operation and a café. Tomatoes don’t get any fresher in Iceland, and the menu takes advantage of this with items like tomato soup and creative Bloody Marys. It’s lovely to walk the grounds of the greenhouses and sample a Bloody Mary.

After Friðheimar, the tour heads to the Geysir geothermal area, where the Strokkur geyser shoots a column of water and steam up to 30 metres into the air every few minutes in a thrilling display of nature’s power. The tour continues to the golden Gullfoss waterfall, created by the Hvítá river, which tumbles and plunges below at 32 metres deep. The waterfall is postcard perfect and one of the most classic sites in south Iceland.

Rounding out the tour is a visit to the historical and geological wonder of Þingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Þingvellir is not only where democracy was born in Iceland, as it’s the site of the country’s first parliament, but it’s also an area where the American and Eurasian tectonic plates are pulling apart at a rate of a few centimetres per year.