Kerið

Kerið is the add-on at the Selfoss end of the Golden Circle, a crater lake beside route 35 that costs twenty minutes and fits any loop in either direction. It is the one Golden Circle stop on private land with an admission charge, which is why it is here as a planning fact rather than a sight.

The practical line, from kerid.is today: the landowners charge "a small service fee of 700 KR" per person for the crater and the lake, with free parking and toilets on site; group rates are listed separately for coach operators. Pay at the hut at the car park. There is no café and no fuel; Selfoss, fifteen minutes south, has everything.

How long: the rim path is a level fifteen-minute circuit; the steeper path down to the water adds ten minutes and is the part that ices first. Quietest in the morning before the Reykjavík coaches reach it on the clockwise loop, which is usually mid-afternoon, and in the evening on the way back.

On the clock, Kerið sits about 15 minutes north of Selfoss and 45 minutes south of Geysir on route 35, so it is the natural last stop on a clockwise day before the Ring Road home, or the first on an anticlockwise one.

Safety: the inner slopes are loose scoria and the lake is deep; stay on the paths, and in winter treat the rim path as an ice walk. Phone signal is good.