From Akureyri Port: Diamond Circle Guided Day Trip w/ Lunch
Lunch includedCruise pier80 minutes at the falls
From $209 per person
The Diamond Circle and Where Dettifoss Sits on It
Dettifoss is the loudest stop on a route that only became a route in 2020. The Diamond Circle is North Iceland's answer to the Golden Circle. Almost every guided departure that reaches the falls is doing some version of it, and that is why your tour gives the waterfall forty minutes rather than two hours.
Short answer. A 250-kilometre loop through Goðafoss, Lake Mývatn, Dettifoss, Ásbyrgi and Húsavík, designated an official Icelandic tourist route on 6 September 2020. A full day covers it; a comfortable day covers four of the five.
What the Diamond Circle is
An official Icelandic tourist route, opened on 6 September 2020 after years of road building. The key piece was the paving of Route 862, the same 55-kilometre stretch that put Dettifoss within reach of an ordinary hire car. Before that, joining these five places into a single day meant gravel and a lot of faith. The circle runs about 250 kilometres, and you can drive it from Akureyri or Húsavík in one day or two.
The five are not five versions of the same thing, which is what makes the route work. You get a waterfall with a story, a volcanic lake district, the loudest waterfall in the country, a canyon with a legend, and a whaling town that stopped whaling and started watching.
The five stops, in the order a day tour takes them
- Goðafoss. Twelve metres high and about thirty across, on the Skjálfandafljót, forty minutes out of Akureyri. Usually the first stop and usually the shortest, at thirty-five to forty-five minutes.
- Lake Mývatn. Not one stop but four or five: the Skútustaðagígar pseudo-craters, the Dimmuborgir lava formations, the Grjótagjá cave and the Hverir mud pools. Your tour picks two or three of them.
- Dettifoss. The far point of the circle and the longest drive between stops. Between thirty and ninety minutes here, depending entirely on which departure you booked.
- Ásbyrgi. Forty-five minutes to an hour in the horseshoe canyon. You are usually taken to the Botnstjörn pool, beneath the hundred-metre cliffs at its head.
- Húsavík. Twenty minutes to an hour and a half in the harbour town, and the stop most often cut when a day runs late.
Driving it yourself versus taking a tour
| Driving it | On a day tour | |
|---|---|---|
| Time needed | One long day, or two comfortable ones | 7–10 hours, fixed |
| Cost | Fuel and a hire car | From $209 per person |
| Stops | Whichever you like, as long as you like | Set by the operator, 5–7 of them |
| The road call | Yours, at 7am, on a road you do not know | Made for you, with a refund if it is no |
| Winter | Route 862 out of winter service January to early April | The operator decides and cancels if needed |
| What you miss | Nothing, if you have the day | Húsavík, usually, when the day runs late |
The honest position: if you are driving the Diamond Circle yourself in July, it is a genuinely good day out and you do not need us. Between October and May, or with a ship to catch, the calculation reverses.
How long each stop is worth
| Stop | Worth | What most tours give it | Why the gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goðafoss | 30–45 min | 35–45 min | About right; it is a compact site |
| Skútustaðagígar | 45 min | 15–35 min | The full crater walk needs longer than the viewpoint |
| Dimmuborgir | 1 hour | 20–50 min | The marked loops run from 15 minutes to over an hour |
| Hverir | 20–30 min | 20–30 min | About right; it is small and exposed |
| Dettifoss | 1–2 hours | 30–90 min | Selfoss is 0.6 km further and most days do not allow for it |
| Ásbyrgi | 1–3 hours | 45–60 min | The longer trails need half a day |
| Húsavík | 2–3 hours | 20–90 min | A whale-watching sailing is three hours on its own |
The pattern is consistent. A nine-hour circuit gives you the shape of the route, not the depth of any one part of it. For a first visit that is a fair trade. If you came for the waterfall, it is not — which is why you should pick your departure by its minutes at Dettifoss rather than by its price.
What gets cut when the day is short
Húsavík, almost always. It sits furthest out on the return leg and offers the least to photograph in twenty minutes. After that, Ásbyrgi. Cruise departures cut hardest, because your sailing time is not negotiable. On the private departure one traveller fitted a ten-hour itinerary into the seven hours their ship allowed, and chose which stops survived.
If you only care about the waterfall. Book a departure that is not attempting the whole circle. The tours that stay on the Mývatn side give Dettifoss ninety minutes rather than forty, and Dettifoss tours from Akureyri sorts them by exactly that number.
Which tours cover the whole circle
Four of the departures listed attempt all five stops: two coach circuits from the cruise pier, one small-group day with pickup included, and the private departure. The rest stay on the Mývatn side. They trade Ásbyrgi and Húsavík for more of your time at the falls and the craters.
For the falls themselves, Dettifoss Tours compares every departure by the minutes it gives you at the rim. For the other four stops in detail, what is near Dettifoss, and for the road you will be on, roads and access.
Tours that take in the whole circle
