town · Iceland · Golden Circle
On the route
- Time needed
- 30 min – 6 h
- Price
- Free — No charge to stop in town; the Reykjadalur trailhead car park fee was not readable on an official page on 2026-11-01.
- Season
- Year-round; the Reykjadalur trail is sometimes closed to protect the ground, posted on safetravel.is.
- Access
- On the Ring Road about 45 km east of Reykjavík at the foot of the Kambar hill; the Reykjadalur trailhead is just north of the town.
- Checked
- 1 November 2026
63.998, -21.187 · Iceland
Hveragerði
Photograph: Steam rising from the valley above Hveragerði with greenhouses below — Hornstrandir1 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Hveragerði is the greenhouse town at the bottom of the Kambar hill, the first settlement on the Ring Road east of Reykjavík and about 45 km from it by the regional tourist office's figure. It is a stop rather than a destination for most routes: the tourist information centre is at Breiðamörk 21, there is a fuel station on the main road, and the reason to turn off is the Reykjadalur valley path to a warm river, which starts at a car park just north of town.
Visit South Iceland, read today, describes Reykjadalur as the most popular hiking area in Ölfus, says the trail can be closed and sends visitors to safetravel.is to check whether it is open, and asks walkers to stay on the paths because the vegetation is fragile. That is the safety line here: the ground is geothermal, the boardwalks exist for a reason, and closures follow wet spells and thaw.
From Hveragerði the Golden Circle is a short drive north through Grímsnes and Selfoss is a few minutes east, so the town fits the first or last hours of a Golden Circle or South Coast day. The Raufarhólshellir lava tunnel is on road 39, west of the town towards Þorlákshöfn.
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What you can do from Hveragerði
- Raufarhólshellir lava tunnel
A one-hour guided walk into a lava tube off road 39, tours on the hour 9:00–17:00 daily, 8,900 ISK adult; 40 minutes' drive from Reykjavík.
other · Iceland55–60 min · Mid costadds 2 h 50 to a day - Reykjadalur hot river walk above Hveragerði
An uphill valley walk from Hveragerði to a warm stream you can bathe in, free to bathe, closed at times to protect the ground; 50 minutes' drive from Reykjavík.
hike · Iceland3–4 h · Price not publishedadds 5 h 40 to a day
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