Diamond Circle Tour from Akureyri | Lake Mývatn & Ásbyrgi Canyon

Goðafoss, the 'waterfall of the gods', is a horseshoe-shaped fall on the Skjálfandafljót river, about 12 metres high and 30 metres wide, right beside the Ring Road. The name is tied to a well-known story about Iceland's conversion to Christianity around the year 1000. Paths on both banks give different views of the curve.

Lake Mývatn is a shallow lake in North Iceland, formed about 2,300 years ago by a basalt lava eruption. The name means 'midge lake'. It lies right on the Ring Road, about 100 kilometres east of Akureyri, which makes it the natural base for the Diamond Circle. The lake and most of the sights around it are free to visit, and it takes a full day to see the main ones.

Dettifoss is Europe's most powerful waterfall, 44 metres high on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river, and Selfoss is its wide, horseshoe-shaped neighbour upstream, about 10 metres high. The round trip on foot is around 2.5 km and about an hour, on uneven ground.

Hljóðaklettar, meaning Echo Rocks, is a group of twisted basalt formations in Vesturdalur in the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon, the eroded remains of an ancient row of craters. A 30-minute loop from the car park covers the main rocks, including the Kirkjan cave.

Ásbyrgi is a horseshoe-shaped canyon about 3.5 kilometres long and up to 1.1 kilometres wide, with cliff walls up to 100 metres high, in Vatnajökull National Park. A rock formation called Eyjan, 'the Island', splits it down the middle. Inside, sheltered from the wind, a birch and willow forest has grown up that feels quite different from the open moorland outside, and a walk leads in from the car park to the pond at the head of the canyon.

Húsavík is a fishing town of around 2,400 people on Skjálfandi Bay in North Iceland, best known as Iceland's whale watching capital. It is still a working harbour, with colourful houses on the hillside and a timber church from 1907 looking out over the water. Commercial whale watching started here in 1995, and the sheltered, food-rich waters of the bay have made it one of the most reliable places in the country to see whales.