The Golden Circle Tour With a Chinese-Speaking Guide and a Lagoon Stop
One operator runs a Golden Circle tour with a Chinese-speaking guide that also stops at Laugarás Lagoon: Magic Iceland Travel, ten hours from Reykjavík, $234.27 per person. It is guided entirely in Mandarin, the customer service handling pick-up speaks Chinese too, and it visits two places the English-guided departures drive straight past — Brúarfoss, the turquoise waterfall on the Brúará, and the Kerið crater. The trade is time in the water: one hour at the lagoon rather than two.
The Tour at a Glance
Check Dates on the Mandarin-Guided Departure
Live availability for the Magic Iceland Travel tour. Pick-up starts at 9:00 and the collection route runs in a set order, so choose the point nearest your accommodation when you book.
What This Tour Is
One Operator, One Language, Six Stops
Magic Iceland Travel is the only company selling a Golden Circle day from Reykjavík that is guided in Mandarin from start to finish and finishes at Laugarás Lagoon, the bathing lagoon that opened on the Golden Circle in October 2025. The commentary, the safety briefing and the practical instructions all run in Chinese, and the company also staffs Chinese-speaking customer service for the pick-up itself, which is the part of a group-tour morning that most often goes wrong when you cannot follow the driver.
Pick-up begins at 9:00 from 42 listed points around Reykjavík — a mix of hotels and city bus stops — and the day runs about ten hours door to door. The coach is new, air-conditioned and has WiFi and panoramic windows; tea and hot water are provided on board. There is a lunch stop at Geysir, where you buy your own food. What waits at the end of the day is set out in the Laugarás Lagoon guide.
The operator publishes its stop times, which not every company does: 45 minutes at Þingvellir, a photo stop at Brúarfoss, 1 hour at Geysir with the lunch break inside it, 30 minutes at Gullfoss, 1 hour at Laugarás Lagoon and 20 minutes at Kerið crater on the way home.
The listing is new and carries no reviews yet. That is worth knowing rather than worrying about: the English-guided tours to the same lagoon hold 4.6 to 5.0 from between 6 and 15 reviews each, because every one of these products was built after the lagoon opened.
The Day, Stop by Stop
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09:00
Pick-up in Reykjavík
Forty-two collection points. Chinese-speaking customer service handles the coordination if you cannot find the stop.
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50 min drive
Þingvellir National Park
Forty-five minutes, guided: the rift valley between the North American and Eurasian plates, and the site of the Alþingi, founded in 930.
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45 min drive
Brúarfoss
Photo stop at the turquoise falls on the Brúará. Not on any of the English-guided departures.
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30 min drive
Geysir geothermal field
One hour, including the lunch break. Strokkur erupts every 5 to 10 minutes; the original Geysir beside it is mostly dormant.
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15 min drive
Gullfoss Waterfall
Thirty minutes on the paths above the canyon, where the river drops a combined 32 metres in two tiers.
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40 min drive
Laugarás Lagoon
One hour in the water on the Birki admission: upper pool, infinity edge over the Hvítá, the stair behind the 6.6-metre waterfall.
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25 min drive
Kerið crater
Twenty minutes at the red-rimmed volcanic crater with the blue lake in the bottom.
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75 min drive
Back to Reykjavík
Drop-off at the same 42 points, early evening.
The Two Stops Nobody Else Makes
Brúarfoss, the Turquoise One
Brúarfoss is small — a set of low cascades rather than a drop — and its reputation rests entirely on colour. Glacial meltwater carrying rock flour turns the channel a blue that photographs as if it had been edited. For years it was genuinely hard to reach: a round trip of about 7 km from a farm track, much of it across land the owners would rather you left alone. Since spring 2023 a private access road runs to a car park at Hlauptunga, and the walk from there is a maintained path of roughly 200 metres, five minutes. Cars pay 750 ISK to park; on a guided tour that is the operator's problem, not yours.
It is a photo stop on this tour rather than a walk, which is the right call in a ten-hour day. It also sits close to the road between Þingvellir and Geysir, so it costs the itinerary almost nothing.
Kerið, on the Way Home
Kerið is a volcanic crater 55 metres deep, 170 metres wide and 270 metres across, formed somewhere between 6,400 and 9,000 years ago, with steep red-brown scoria walls and an opaque blue-green lake 6 to 14 metres deep depending on the groundwater. A path runs around the rim in about fifteen minutes and steps drop to the water on one side. Unlike most Golden Circle sights it sits on private land — Arctic Adventures bought it in 2023 — and charges 700 ISK at the gate, so check whether your guide covers it or you pay on the day.
It works best exactly where this tour puts it: last, in late-afternoon light, when the red rim takes colour and the coach is twenty-five minutes from the lagoon and seventy-five from Reykjavík.
One Hour at the Lagoon: What That Buys
Enough for the Water, Not for the Restaurant
The admission included here is Birki, the entry tier: the whole outdoor area, a personal locker, and shampoo, conditioner and shower gel in the showers. It does not include a towel. Renting one at the lagoon costs ISK 1,200, about $10, and the same for a swimsuit if you forget one, so pack a towel and save the queue.
An hour is enough to shower, get in the upper pool, walk down the stair behind the 6.6-metre waterfall to the lower terrace, do one round of sauna and cold plunge, and get out with time to dry. It is not enough to eat at Ylja, the restaurant by chef Gísli Matt, where swimwear is not allowed and you would need to change first.
The water sits at 38–40 °C, comes from the Laugarás geothermal field cooled with glacial water from the Hvítá, and carries no chlorine — the full guide to the lagoon covers the tiers, the hours and the drive. Everyone showers without swimwear before entering — standard in Icelandic pools and enforced here. The minimum age is 8.
- Bring: swimwear, a towel, a bag for wet things
- Rent at the door if you forget: towel or swimsuit, ISK 1,200 each
- Skip: the restaurant — an hour will not cover it
- Prioritise: the upper pool and infinity edge first, then the sauna on the lower level
Where the Lagoon Stop Is
Skálholtsvegur 1, 806 Selfoss — the village of Laugarás on the east bank of the Hvítá, forty minutes from Gullfoss and twenty-five from Kerið.
Included, Not Included, and the Alternatives
What the $234.27 Covers
Included: the Mandarin-speaking guide, transport in a new air-conditioned coach with WiFi, tea and hot water on board, and admission to Laugarás Lagoon on the Birki pass. The six stops are all covered. Free cancellation runs up to 24 hours before departure and nothing is paid at booking.
Not included: meals and drinks, including the lunch stop at Geysir, anything from the bars at the lagoon, and personal spending. Children under 8 cannot come, because the lagoon does not admit them.
If the Language Is Not the Deciding Factor
This is the most expensive of the four tours that reach the lagoon, and the one with the least time in the water. If you are comfortable with an English guide, the same road costs less: BusTravel Iceland runs a small-group minibus at $202.96 that includes the Lerki admission with a towel and a bar drink and gives the lagoon two hours, and Glaciers and Waterfalls charges $208 and adds lunch in a tomato greenhouse. Both are compared in the guide to all four departures.
What none of them offers is Brúarfoss, Kerið, or a guide speaking your language for ten hours. If any of those three matters, this is the tour.
Chinese-Guided Golden Circle Tour: Questions
Is there a Golden Circle tour guided in Chinese?
Yes. Magic Iceland Travel runs a ten-hour minibus day from Reykjavík guided entirely in Mandarin, covering Þingvellir, Brúarfoss, Geysir, Gullfoss, Laugarás Lagoon and the Kerið crater, at $234.27 per person. It is the only Chinese-guided departure that includes the lagoon.
How much time do you get at Laugarás Lagoon on this tour?
One hour, on the Birki admission. That covers a shower, the upper pool, the stair behind the waterfall and one sauna and cold-plunge round. The English-guided departures give the lagoon two hours instead, but skip Brúarfoss and Kerið.
Is a towel included?
No. The included Birki tier covers entry, a locker and toiletries but not a towel. Renting one at the lagoon costs ISK 1,200, about $10, and a swimsuit is the same. Packing your own is the simpler answer.
Is there help in Chinese with the pick-up?
Yes. The operator staffs Chinese-speaking customer service specifically for the pick-up, which runs from 9:00 across 42 points in Reykjavík. The guide then works in Mandarin for the rest of the day.
What does the tour include besides transport?
The Mandarin-speaking guide, a new air-conditioned coach with WiFi and panoramic windows, tea and hot water on board, and entry to Laugarás Lagoon on the Birki pass. Meals are not included; there is a lunch stop at Geysir where you buy your own.
Are there reviews for this departure?
Not yet — the listing is new. For comparison, the English-guided tours to the same lagoon hold 4.6 to 5.0 from between 6 and 15 reviews, all of which are recent, because every one of these products was created after the lagoon opened in October 2025.
Can children join?
From age 8 only, and 8- to 15-year-olds need an adult with them. The limit comes from the lagoon rather than the tour operator, and it applies to every Golden Circle departure that stops there.