Iceland has an absurd number of waterfalls, for a straightforward reason: heavy precipitation lands on high ground, glaciers melt continuously, and the whole island is stepped with basalt escarpments that were once coastlines. The result is that water is almost always falling off something. These twenty are the ones worth building a route around, grouped by where you will find them.
South Coast classics
1. Seljalandsfoss — sixty metres, with a path running behind the falls. The defining feature is also the warning: you will be soaked, so bring waterproofs and protect your camera.
2. Gljúfrabúi — hidden inside a cleft in the cliff a five-minute walk north of Seljalandsfoss. You wade a shallow stream to get in, and most visitors never find it.
3. Skógafoss — sixty metres tall and twenty-five wide, with a thick permanent spray that throws rainbows on any sunny day. 527 steps climb to a platform at the top.
4. Kvernufoss — fifteen minutes on foot from the Skógar museum, similar in character to Seljalandsfoss with a walk-behind ledge, and reliably deserted.
5. Svartifoss — in Skaftafell, framed by dark hexagonal basalt columns. A 1.8-kilometre uphill walk. Its columns inspired the design of Hallgrímskirkja.
6. Foss á Síðu — a thin ribbon falling beside the Ring Road near Kirkjubæjarklaustur, which in a strong wind blows visibly back upwards.
The Golden Circle and the south-west
7. Gullfoss — the Hvítá dropping around 32 metres in two stages into a canyon, moving enormous volumes of meltwater in summer. Upper and lower viewpoints, both worth it.
8. Öxarárfoss — in Þingvellir, tumbling into the Almannagjá rift on the walk down from the visitor centre.
9. Brúarfoss — startlingly blue, at the end of a marked trail of around 3.5 kilometres each way from a dedicated car park. Do not attempt the old route through private farmland.
10. Faxi — wide, low and gentle on the Tungufljót, with a salmon ladder alongside, five minutes off the Golden Circle and almost always empty.
11. Háifoss — at 122 metres one of the tallest in the country, plunging into a gorge in Þjórsárdalur beside its neighbour Granni. The access track is rough; a 4x4 helps.
12. Hjálparfoss — a twin fall dropping through twisted basalt in the same valley, easy to reach and a lovely picnic stop.
The north
13. Dettifoss — Europe’s most powerful waterfall by volume, 44 metres high and 100 metres wide, feeding off the glacial Jökulsá á Fjöllum. The west bank (road 862) is paved; the east bank (road 864) is gravel and gives the classic angle.
14. Selfoss — a wide, low fall a short walk upstream from Dettifoss, and far prettier than its more famous neighbour.
15. Goðafoss — the "waterfall of the gods", around twelve metres high and thirty across, named for the lawspeaker who is said to have thrown his pagan idols into it when Iceland adopted Christianity around the year 1000.
16. Aldeyjarfoss — a white torrent surrounded by extraordinary dark basalt columns on the edge of the highlands, reached by a gravel road south of Goðafoss.
The west, the Westfjords and the east
17. Hraunfossar — not one waterfall but a kilometre-long series of clear blue rivulets seeping out from under a lava field into the Hvítá. Barnafoss, a violent narrow chute, sits immediately upstream.
18. Glymur — around 198 metres, long regarded as Iceland’s tallest, at the head of Hvalfjörður an hour from Reykjavík. The hike takes three to four hours and involves a log crossing and a fixed rope.
19. Dynjandi — the great tiered fan of the Westfjords, roughly 100 metres tall and widening as it descends, with six smaller falls below it on the walk up.
20. Hengifoss — 128 metres in the east near Egilsstaðir, falling against a cliff striped with red clay layers between basalt flows. Litlanesfoss, framed by tall columns, is on the same trail.
Worth knowing: Iceland’s actual tallest waterfall is now Morsárfoss, at around 228 metres, which only appeared as the Morsárjökull glacier retreated and was confirmed in 2007. It is not easily accessible, which is why it is a footnote rather than a stop.
Practical tips
Waterproofs matter more here than anywhere else in your itinerary — not for rain but for spray, which at Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss reaches much further than it looks. A microfibre cloth for your lens is the single most useful accessory you can carry.
Paths beside waterfalls are permanently wet and frequently icy from October to April; microspikes turn the steps at Skógafoss and the lower path at Gullfoss from hazardous back into ordinary. Stay behind ropes and off wet rock at the lip, where the fatalities happen.
Most major sites now charge for parking, usually enforced by number plate recognition, so pay at the machine or online rather than assuming. Drone use is restricted or banned at many of them, including within Vatnajökull and Þingvellir national parks — check the signage before you launch.
Finally, go early or late. Between 10am and 4pm in summer, Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss are genuinely crowded; at 7am they are close to empty, and the light is better anyway.
Written by
Erika Sand
Erika has spent the last decade driving, hiking, and hot-spring-hopping across Iceland in every season. She writes NRF.is’s itineraries, guides, and trip reports to help travelers see the country safely, affordably, and without the tourist-trap detours.