Best Activities for Your Iceland Elopement Trip — Beyond the Ceremony
One of the things I love most about Iceland elopements is that they’re almost never just a ceremony and portraits. Iceland invites you to stay, explore, and experience — and the most memorable elopement trips I’ve been part of have been the ones where couples treated the whole visit as a celebration, not just the day of.
Here are my favorite activities to build into an Iceland elopement trip — from gentle and restorative to gently adventurous. These are the things that make your Iceland time feel full and alive, and some of them create photographs that are just as beautiful as the ceremony itself.
Soak in a Natural Hot Spring — The Most Icelandic Thing You Can Do
Iceland sits on one of the most geothermally active zones on earth, and the result is an extraordinary gift: naturally heated water bubbling up all over the country, often in stunningly beautiful natural settings.
Reykjadalur Hot Springs is one of the most special — a geothermally heated river in a beautiful valley near Hveragerði, reached by a moderate 3km hike. You hike through a steaming landscape with bubbling mud pots on either side of the trail, and the river itself varies in temperature along its length so you can find your perfect spot. This is wild, natural, and completely magical. Pack a towel and a swimsuit, and plan to stay a while.
The Secret Lagoon (Gamla Laugin) in Flúðir on the Golden Circle is Iceland’s oldest swimming pool — a naturally heated geothermal spring you can actually swim in, surrounded by bubbling vents, wildflowers in summer, and old Icelandic wooden buildings. It’s intimate and charming, a world away from the larger commercial pools.
The Blue Lagoon near Reykjavík is Iceland’s most famous geothermal experience — silica-rich, milky blue water in a striking lava field landscape. It’s commercial and popular, but it’s popular for a reason. The Retreat at Blue Lagoon offers the most private, luxurious experience. Book well in advance.
For couples: Soaking together in a natural hot spring at the end of your elopement day — steam rising around you, golden light on the landscape — is one of the most restorative and romantic things you can do. It slows everything down and gives you space to actually feel the day.
MY Super Secret Hot Spring for AJP Couples
If you book with me – you get access to my private list of places tourists typically don’t know about! Like more secluded hot springs.
Meet the Icelandic Horses
Icelandic horses are a breed found nowhere else in the world — small, sturdy, incredibly gentle, and with the most extraordinary flowing manes and forelocks. Driving the South Coast or Golden Circle, you’ll often see them standing in roadside fields, seemingly unbothered by anything. Stop. Get out. Say hello.
For a more intentional experience, horseback riding tours are available throughout Iceland from a range of operators. The horses’ unique gait — the tölt, a smooth four-beat gait that feels like floating — makes riding comfortable even for beginners.
For elopement days: A short Icelandic horse encounter can be incorporated as a late morning activity between locations, or as a standalone afternoon adventure the day before or after your ceremony. The horses photograph extraordinarily well and the experience is deeply Icelandic.
Walk Behind a Waterfall
Two of Iceland’s most accessible waterfall experiences are on the South Coast — and both let you get close in ways that feel genuinely extraordinary.
Seljalandsfoss has a path that takes you completely behind the curtain of water — into the cave behind the falls, with the waterfall forming a veil in front of you and the green Icelandic landscape visible beyond it. You will get wet. It is worth every drop.
Kvernufoss, near Skógafoss, is a less-visited waterfall tucked into a mossy gorge where you can also walk behind the falls in a more private, intimate setting.
Both are beautiful locations for ceremony or portraits as well as pure experiential activity — walk behind a waterfall on your wedding day and then come back and look at each other. It’s one of those moments.
Explore a Glacier Up Close
Iceland’s glaciers are extraordinary — rivers of ancient ice moving imperceptibly slowly across the landscape, blue and white and completely otherworldly. The South Coast gives you access to several.
Sólheimajökull glacier is one of the most accessible glacier tongues in Iceland — a short, easy walk from the parking area takes you to the edge of the glacier where the blue-grey ice meets the volcanic rock. You can stand at the edge and feel the cold coming off it.
Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon is further east along the South Coast — a glacial lagoon filled with floating icebergs that have calved off the Vatnajökull glacier. The blue and grey ice, the dark volcanic landscape, the lagoon stretching back to the glacier — it’s one of the most extraordinary visual experiences in Iceland. Directly across the road, Diamond Beach has ice chunks washing up on black sand like scattered gems.
For elopement couples: A drive to Jökulsárlón is a half-day journey from the main South Coast locations, but many couples extend their elopement trip to include it. The photos from Diamond Beach are extraordinary and unlike anything you can find anywhere closer.
A note on Leave No Trace: Glaciers are sensitive environments. If you choose to do any glacier walking, always go with a certified guide — never walk on a glacier alone. Stay on marked paths and never touch or disturb anything. As a Leave No Trace photographer, this is something I feel strongly about everywhere we go.
Watch Geysers Erupt at Geysir
The Geysir geothermal area on the Golden Circle features Strokkur — a geyser that erupts every 5–10 minutes, sending boiling water 20–30 meters into the air with a satisfying blue bubble before the eruption. Watching it repeatedly never gets old.
The surrounding geothermal landscape — the steam vents, the brilliantly colored hot springs in yellow, orange, and turquoise, the constant sound of the earth releasing heat — is unlike anything I’ve experienced anywhere else. Plan at least an hour here.
Visit Þingvellir National Park
Þingvellir (Thingvellir) is where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet in a dramatic rift valley — and where Iceland’s parliament has met since 930 AD. Walking through the rift is walking through geological history and human history simultaneously. The canyon walls, the crystal-clear rivers, the ancient landscape — it photographs beautifully and feels deeply significant.
In summer, the snorkeling and diving in Silfra — the fissure between the tectonic plates, filled with glacially filtered water with 100-meter visibility — is one of the most extraordinary experiences in Iceland for adventurous couples.
See Puffins (Summer Only)
Atlantic puffins nest on Iceland’s coastal cliffs from May through August and are one of the most unexpectedly delightful wildlife encounters Iceland offers. The Dyrhólaey headland on the South Coast is one of the best locations — though note that the area closes periodically during peak nesting season to protect the birds.
Seeing a puffin waddling across a clifftop on your elopement day is the kind of moment that makes you laugh out loud with pure joy. It’s not something you can plan for — but if it happens, your photographer (me) will absolutely capture it.
The Golden Circle Road Trip
If you haven’t done the Golden Circle route, build it into your elopement trip — it’s one of the most rewarding half-day drives in the world. Thingvellir National Park → Geysir Geothermal Area → Gullfoss waterfall → back toward Selfoss. Three extraordinary locations, all within a comfortable loop from Reykjavík.
Add the Secret Lagoon in Flúðir as an afternoon stop for a perfect elopement day arc: morning ceremony at a South Coast waterfall, Golden Circle road trip, afternoon soak at the Secret Lagoon.
Slow Mornings — The Most Underrated Activity
Here’s the activity that doesn’t get mentioned enough: doing nothing, slowly, in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Coffee in bed in a glass cabin with the landscape outside the window. Walking to the edge of the property in the early morning quiet. Sitting by a geothermal river and watching the steam rise. These slow, unscheduled moments are often the ones couples describe most vividly when they talk about their Iceland elopement.
Build them in. Don’t fill every hour. Let Iceland be present with you.
Ready to Build Your Iceland Elopement Trip?
The most extraordinary elopement days I’ve photographed have been the ones where couples gave themselves time to actually be in Iceland — not just move through it.
Fill out my contact form → and let’s build your Iceland elopement experience together.
More from the Iceland series:
- Couples photos in Iceland: The Ultimate Guide
- The Complete Guide to Eloping in Iceland
- Best Places to Elope in Iceland: 20+ Locations Across the Whole Country
- The Best Season to Elope in Iceland
- How to Legally Elope in Iceland
- What to Wear for an Iceland Elopement — Outfits, Colors & What Actually Works
- Where to Stay for Your Iceland Elopement
- What to Pack for Your Iceland Elopement
