Þingvellir National Park
The ground here is literally pulling apart. Stand in Almannagja Gorge and the rock walls on either side of you belong to different continents — North America to your left, Eurasia to your right — drifting a few centimetres further from each other every year. The valley floor has already dropped three to four metres since people first gathered here in 930 AD.
This is where Iceland held its parliament, the Althing, for nearly nine centuries of open-air debate, law-making and dispute. The turf-and-stone booth remains are still here, along with a wooden church from 1859 and a fissure you can snorkel through between two tectonic plates.
💛 What travellers fall for
People who come back tend to time it for September — the crowds thin out, the birch scrub turns copper and rust, and the light on the gorge is something else entirely. The free ranger-led walk at 10 AM from Þingvallakirkja is worth the hour; rangers know which booth foundations date to which century and will point you to things you'd walk straight past.
The story behind Þingvellir National Park
In 930, Icelandic chieftains chose this rift valley as the site of the Althing — an annual open-air assembly where laws were recited aloud from the Lögberg, or Law Rock, disputes were settled, and the country's affairs were governed without a king. It continued meeting here until 1798, making it one of the world's longest-running parliamentary traditions.
Iceland became a national park by legislation in 1928 — the first in the country — and the Þingvellir Commission was established in 1930 to administer it. The site gained further recognition in 2004 when UNESCO added it to the World Heritage List. On 17 June 1944, Icelanders gathered here again to declare the foundation of their republic.
Good to know
Þingvellir is 45 km from Reykjavik — about 45 minutes on Route 1 then Route 36. No direct bus runs here, so you'll need a car. Parking costs 1,000 ISK and covers all lots for the day. Budget 90 minutes for a quick circuit; 4–5 hours if you're snorkelling Silfra.
Summer brings long days — near-continuous daylight around the solstice — and temperatures of 10–15°C, with midday crowds to match. Autumn (September–October) offers quieter paths and striking colour on the low vegetation. Winter is cold and potentially icy underfoot, but the long dark nights make it the best season for seeing the Northern Lights over the rift valley.
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What travellers say about Þingvellir National Park
Wonderful national park with a beautiful landscape view. Here you can see the 2 continental plates, European-Asian and American one. You can see the cracks in the earth, a dormant volcano in the far back, and admire the nature. It is very cold and the air is strong. On top you and at the bottom are toilets. Parking costs around 1000 kr.
This is *the* place to visit if you're visiting Iceland - it's a spectacular rift valley 5 or 10km wide with most attractions on the western side - it's the site of the Icelandic parliament and summer residence. Also geologically spectacular, with deep clear water-filled chasms you can dive in, eg. at Silfra. Large campsites with plenty of availability. Don't miss this.
This place has got lot to offer. Natural beauty, lake, waterfall, historic value, and lot more. It’s also the site of first Parliament meeting place when Iceland became independent from Denmark in1944. It’s also of geological importance as line of American and Eurasian Plates cross the land. There’s also an Exhibition Centre explaining history of the place.
The views were absolutely outstanding. It was a little bit of a walk from the parking lot to the monument, and you need to pay for parking, but there are plenty of bathrooms and a cool museum when you arrive. It was freezing cold, but we had such a good time taking in the history and the nature of it all.
We have visited this park a few years ago with a tour bus and I was not overly impressed. This time we took our time and stopped at multiple parking lots and walked around to see the historical sites, the path between tectonic plates and the waterfall. It is a beautiful park with a variety of things to see so I highly recommend it if you can spend a couple of hours here.
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