Golden Circle & Kerið Crater Tours
Twelve tours that add the Kerið crater to the standard loop, from 78.47 EUR. The crater is 270 m across, 55 m deep, and charges 700 ISK to walk in.
The Golden Circle is a 230-kilometre loop east of Reykjavík with three fixed stops, and Kerið is the fourth that operators add or leave out. That choice is what separates the twelve tours on this page from the rest of the Golden Circle market: every one of them stops at the crater. It is a small detour off Route 35 and it changes the character of the day, because Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss are a rift, a hot spring field and a waterfall, and none of them is a volcano.
What separates the twelve is almost never the route. It is what has been bolted onto the end. The bare loop with the crater is 78.47 EUR. Add the Secret Lagoon and it is 115.51, the Sky Lagoon 219.55, the Blue Lagoon 228.37. One adds a tomato greenhouse, another the Brúarfoss walk. Underneath, the same coach drives the same road, so the honest question is not which tour is best but which afternoon you want after Gullfoss.
Golden Circle Afternoon: Kerid Only on the 10:30 Departure
A later start for people who want one, with the same three stops in a different order. Kerid crater, though, is only included on the 10:30 departure.
Golden Circle and Kerid: Strokkur Every 7 Minutes, a Crater 55 m Deep
The original Geysir stopped erupting; Strokkur next to it goes every 7 to 10 minutes. Gullfoss in two steps, and a crater 55 metres deep to look into.
Golden Circle and Kerid, Then Your Choice of Lagoon: Blue or Hvammsvik
End the day in whichever hot water you pick. Hvammsvik mixes geothermal water from 1,400 metres down with the Atlantic; the Blue Lagoon is the other option.
Golden Circle and Kerid with Blue Lagoon Comfort: Towel, Mask and a Drink
Every admission is paid before you go, and the Blue Lagoon ticket is the Comfort one: a towel, one silica mud mask and one drink come with the entry.
Golden Circle by Minibus: Kerid Crater and the Blue Lagoon to Finish
A small minibus on the busiest route in Iceland, which changes how long each stop lasts. Kerid crater on the way, and the Blue Lagoon at the end of it.
Golden Circle, Kerid and the Blue Lagoon by Minibus: Back at 19:00
Twenty-four seats at most, five stops, and a fixed departure from the Blue Lagoon at about 19:00. Strokkur throws water 20 metres up; Kerid is 6,500 years old.
Golden Circle, Kerid's Iron-Red Slopes and Two Hours at the Sky Lagoon
Two hours at the Sky Lagoon with the ticket included, seven-step ritual and the bar inside a cave. Kerid's red slopes come from the iron in the rock itself.
Golden Circle Small Group: Kerid at 270 m Wide, and Iceland's Newest Geyser
Eight hours with the full Kerid crater, 270 metres wide with a lake in it, and an optional stop at Eilifur, the newest geyser in Iceland, plus its bakery.
Golden Circle with a Tomato Farm and a Dairy: Kerid's Intact Caldera
Ice cream at a working dairy, a greenhouse talk and Icelandic horses at Fridheimar, and the one crater in the Western Volcanic Zone that kept its caldera.
Golden Circle with the Secret Lagoon: Iceland's Oldest Swimming Pool
The Secret Lagoon is the oldest swimming pool in Iceland, fed from a hot spring. Plus Kerid crater, Gullfoss, and the plates pulling apart at Thingvellir.
The Golden Circle with Brúarfoss, Iceland's Bluest Waterfall
A small-group minibus around Thingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir, with the blue water of Brúarfoss and the Kerið crater added. Back in Reykjavík around 5 p.m.
The Golden Circle with the Secret Lagoon and Kerið, by Minibus
Thingvellir, Gullfoss and Geysir by minibus, then the Secret Lagoon, the oldest man-made pool in Iceland, and the Kerið crater on the way back to Reykjavík.
Ratings collected by Viator and Tripadvisor
The four stops, and what each one actually is
Þingvellir is where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge comes ashore. The North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart underneath the valley and the ground between the faults has dropped as they separate, which is why you walk in through Almannagjá, a wall of basalt that is the eastern edge of the North American plate. Iceland's parliament met on this floor from 930 until 1798, at the Lögberg, and the Silfra fissure on the north shore of Þingvallavatn is the crack that divers and snorkellers go into. The water in it is glacial meltwater that has spent decades filtering through lava, which is why the visibility is measured in tens of metres rather than metres.
Geysir is the field, not the performer. The great Geysir gave every language on earth its word for the phenomenon and has been largely dormant for years. The one that goes off is Strokkur, a few dozen metres away, on a cycle of roughly five to ten minutes. Everyone stands in a ring around it with a phone up, and it always waits until half of them have given up.
Gullfoss drops the Hvítá river in two stages into a canyon that runs at right angles to the flow, which is why the whole waterfall seems to disappear into the ground when you approach it from the car park. It is spray in your face in summer and a wall of ice sculpture in February.
Kerið is the only volcanic stop. It is a maar, blown out by steam rather than built up by lava, one of four craters strung along an 800-metre fissure, and around 6,500 years old. The wall is red scoria and black basalt, the floor holds a shallow aquamarine lake, and one side slopes gently enough that a path runs down to the water. You can walk the rim in twenty minutes and be back on the coach.
The stop where nobody knows when to look
Strokkur is the most photographed and least photographed thing in Iceland at once. It fires every five to ten minutes, so the wait is short, but there is no countdown. The tell is the water in the vent: it domes upward into a blue blister a second or two before it goes, and if you are watching your screen instead of the hole you will miss it and wait another eight minutes.
Two practical points that guides repeat because they have to. The ground either side of the marked path is thin crust over water at around 100 °C, and people have been burned stepping off it for a photograph. And the plume goes wherever the wind sends it, which on a bad day is directly over the viewing side. Stand upwind. Boiling geothermal water on a phone screen is the most common minor casualty of a Golden Circle day.
The ticket at Kerið, and why it surprises people
Almost nothing in Iceland charges for access to nature. Most of the country is common land or national park, the parking at Gullfoss and Þingvellir is the only cost at either, and visitors arrive with the reasonable assumption that a crater in a field is free.
Kerið is not. The land is privately owned, it was bought by an Icelandic tour operator in 2023, and there is a hut at the gate charging 700 ISK per adult. On a coach of forty people this is trivial in money and awkward in practice, because it happens at the one stop where nobody expected to reach for a card. Some listings state that the entrance fee is included and some quietly do not, and the ones that do include it are worth the small premium purely for not having a queue at a hut in the wind.
The dispute over charging at Kerið has run since 2013 and is a genuinely Icelandic argument: the law gives the public a right to cross uncultivated land, the owners charge for the path and the car park rather than the view, and nobody has settled it in court.
What separates twelve tours down the same road
Three variables move the price, and only one of them changes what you see.
Vehicle size. The large-coach versions are 78.47 and 81.12 EUR. Minibus and small-group versions run 95 to 136. On a route with four stops, a lot of stepping on and off and a guide who has to be audible, the smaller vehicle is the upgrade most people notice. The ratings agree: the minibus listings here sit at 4.8 to 5.0, the coaches at 4.7 to 4.8.
Whatever comes after Gullfoss. This is the biggest single number on the page. The bare loop is 78.47 EUR. The Secret Lagoon adds about 37, the Sky Lagoon about 141, the Blue Lagoon about 150. The most reviewed product on this page is the Blue Lagoon version at 228.37 EUR with 6,330 reviews at 4.9, so nobody is being short-changed. They are simply buying a spa afternoon with a sightseeing morning in front of it.
Departure time. Two listings run as afternoon tours, at 81.12 EUR for six hours. In June that is a good idea and gives you a lie-in. In December it means arriving at Gullfoss in the last of the light and driving back in the dark, and the same money buys a morning departure that sees all four stops properly.
| What you get after Gullfoss | Listings | Price | Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nothing, straight loop with the crater | 3 | 78.47 to 104.93 EUR | 4.7 to 4.8 |
| Brúarfoss waterfall walk | 1 | 95.00 EUR | 4.9 |
| A farm or greenhouse lunch | 1 | 128.99 EUR | 4.9 |
| Secret Lagoon | 2 | 115.51 to 136.40 EUR | 4.9 |
| A geothermal lagoon, unnamed in the title | 1 | 131.38 EUR | 4.8 |
| Blue Lagoon transfer or ticket | 3 | 132.26 to 228.37 EUR | 4.8 to 4.9 |
| Sky Lagoon ticket | 1 | 219.55 EUR | 5.0 |
Winter, summer and the length of the day
The Golden Circle runs every day of the year and the road is kept open as a matter of national habit, so there is no closed season to plan around. What changes is the light and the surfaces. In midsummer the loop can start at nine and finish in full daylight at seven. In December there are roughly four usable hours and the whole itinerary shuffles into the middle of the day.
Winter genuinely changes two of the four stops rather than shortening them. Gullfoss half-freezes into something better than its summer self, and the path to the lower viewpoint closes when it ices, so you see it from above. Kerið's lake freezes and the red walls go grey and white, which is a different picture from the one that sold you the tour. The path down to the water gets slippery and is sometimes roped off. If the crater is the reason you picked this page, book between May and September.
Questions people actually ask
Is Keríð included in every Golden Circle tour?
No. The classic Golden Circle is three stops, Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss, and the crater is an optional fourth. The twelve tours on this page all include it, which is the whole reason they are grouped here. If a listing elsewhere does not name Kerið in the title or the itinerary, assume it drives past.
Do I have to pay to enter Keríð?
Yes, 700 ISK per adult. The crater sits on privately owned land, which is unusual in Iceland, and there is a hut at the entrance. Some tours build the fee into the price and say so; others expect you to pay it yourself. It is a small amount and a genuinely annoying surprise, so check the inclusions line.
Is Keríð actually a volcano?
It is a volcanic crater, but not the cone-shaped kind. Kerið is a maar, formed when rising magma met groundwater and blew a hole in the ground with steam rather than building a mountain with lava. It is one of four craters along an 800-metre fissure and roughly 6,500 years old. The red walls are scoria, the black bands are basalt, and the lake on the floor is groundwater rather than rain.
Can you walk down into the crater?
Yes. One side of the rim slopes gently and carries a stepped path to the water's edge, and the full circuit of the rim plus the descent takes about twenty to thirty minutes, which is roughly what tours allow. In winter the path ices and is sometimes closed, so the crater becomes a look from the top.
How much does a Golden Circle tour with Keríð cost?
From 78.47 EUR for the coach version of the loop. Small-group minibuses run 95 to 136 EUR. Anything from 132 upward has a thermal lagoon attached, and the top of the range at 228.37 EUR is the Blue Lagoon with entry included. The route is identical across all of them.
How long is the day?
Six to eight hours for the loop itself, and up to ten once a lagoon is added. The afternoon departures are six hours. The driving is about 230 kilometres in total and none of the individual legs is long, but four stops with parking, walking and a photograph queue at Strokkur fill a day comfortably.
Morning or afternoon departure?
Morning, unless you are travelling between May and August. An afternoon start is pleasant in the long summer light and a mistake in winter, when it means seeing Gullfoss in dusk and Kerið in the dark for the same 81.12 EUR that buys a full morning tour.
Data verified on. Prices, durations and ratings read from the twelve Golden Circle products on this site, 12 August 2026. Keríð dimensions, age and entry fee from the published record for the crater.