Epic Travel → Europe → Iceland → Southwest Iceland → Geysir

Location: Golden Circle, Southwest Iceland

Time Required: 30 minutes

Red Tape/Notes: Open 24 hours a day; admission is free.

What’s Nearby?: Thingvellir, Gullfoss, Faxi, Friðheimar, Hrunalaug, Reykjavík, Eldhestar

When you go to visit Geysir, you’re more likely to be watching Strokkur than Geysir. Although both are the same location, Geysir (which was the namesake for the generic word “geyser” that we use for all periodically erupting hot springs), erupts infrequently, sometimes stopping for years at a time. When it does erupt, it hurls boiling water up to 70 meters in the air (although an earthquake in the year 2000 apparently caused an eruption that last for two days with heights up to 122 meters). It’s currently considered largely inactive, although it did erupt twice in February/March of 2016. Even if you’re not lucky enough to witness a rare Geysir eruption, you can still enjoy watching Strokkur erupt, who is much more cooperative and erupts at regular intervals every 6-10 minutes, typically with heights of 15 to 20 meters.

Epic Travel → Europe → Iceland → Southwest Iceland → Geysir