Guide to Visiting Godafoss Waterfall – Iceland

Godfoss is a popular waterfall located in Northern Iceland, and requires no hiking. Located between Akureyri and Myvatn, Godafoss (aka – “Waterfall of the Gods”) is a quite a sight to behold, with its cascading teal waters plunging 12 meters into the river below. As one of Iceland’s most iconic landmarks, you’ll want to make a stop at Godafoss on your ring road Iceland itinerary. In this guide, I’ll give you everything you need to know about visiting Godafoss waterfall – and is Godafoss worth visiting? Let’s begin!

Table of Contents

• Where is Godafoss waterfall?
• Godafoss Waterfall – Quick Facts
• Where to stay when visiting Godafoss
• Visiting Godafoss
• What else is there to do near Godafoss?
  • What we did:
• Godafoss – Final Thoughts – Pros/Cons
• More About Iceland

Where is Godafoss waterfall?

Godafoss is located in northeastern Iceland, right in the middle of two areas tourists like to stay – Akureyri and Myvantn, each about a 30 minute from Godafoss. Godafoss waterfall is also part of Iceland’s Diamond Circle – which I haven’t done, but you can find more information here.

Godafoss Waterfall – Quick Facts

Waterfall has a 12 meter drop
Free to visit / free parking
Gift shop, restaurant/cafe and restrooms on-site.
Godafoss is open 24/7, even in winter
Time needed: About 30 minutes if visiting both east and west banks

Where to stay when visiting Godafoss

Because Godafoss is essentially equidistant from Myvatn and Akureyri, you could stay at either location. Akureyri is considered Iceland’s northern ‘capitol’ and has plenty of various lodging options from hotels to guesthouses. We stayed in Akureyri at the K16 Apartments (they were lovely!) the night before. In the morning, we checked out and headed to Godafoss.

You could also stay in Myvatn – we stayed at the Sel Hotel, which was also a good stay.

Visiting Godafoss

As you travel Rte 1 (ring road), you’ll see signs for Godafoss, so you can’t miss it. Or, just follow the crazy amount of tour buses, as they’re allll headed here. Godafoss is a main stop on any of the tours out of Akureyri. Akureyri is also a cruise port, and many of the cruisers will do tour bus excursions that include Godafoss. So in other words, this place is very, very busy – especially if a cruise is in port (which is quite often!)

But the car park is large and you won’t have any issues finding a space. There are two lots here — east and west bank — and you can park in either one – it doesn’t matter because it’s very easy to walk from one side of the falls to the other.

The walk to each of the platforms is easy and flat — anyone can do this — it’s only about a 5 minute walk, if that, and there is no danger of falling over the edge (unless you venture beyond the railing sections). Godafoss gives off a lot of mist, especially if there is any wind. Because it was raining when we visited, I couldn’t tell if we were getting hit with rainfall or waterfall mist! Just be aware that if you do visit on a sunny day, you might get a little wet.

On the day we visited Godafoss, there was a misting rain that turned into more of a driving rain the longer we stayed, so it wasn’t exactly the most pleasant experience but that’s Iceland weather for you! We still were able to visit each bank and take photographs.

You can explore all around here, walking to different viewpoints, but the weather was turning pretty nasty on us, so we hurried up and headed to the gift shop and cafe to warm up and enjoy some espresso drinks.

For a different angle, you can walk down a rocky, slippery staircase to the river and get unique perspectives — which I probably would’ve done had it not been pouring out. This path is located on the East bank of Godafoss.

The gift shop here is really good – it’s big and they have everything you can think of. But with all the tour groups coming and going, it gets very busy — especially in the bathrooms. The one good thing about the tour groups is that they are on a set schedule — they have X amount of time in that gift shop before they are herded out and stuffed back on the bus. When you do a self-drive ring road tour, you can browse to your hearts content and wait out the bus crowd to shop in peace.

What else is there to do near Godafoss?

Lake Myvatn
Game of Thrones Cave
Husavik whale watching
Visit Akureyri
Forest Lagoon
Myvatn Nature Baths
Hverfjall Crater
Viti Crater
Krafla Shower
Hverir Geothermal Area
Skutustadagigar Pseudo Craters

RELATED: All of my Iceland posts are here – check it out if you’re planning a trip to Iceland!

What we did:

We visited Godafoss first thing in the morning after checking out at the K16 Apartments in Akureyri. After Godafoss, the weather really turned on us and we were in pouring rain most of the day. We drove up to Husavik to check out the town (whale watching didn’t interest us) and then hit up Viti Crater, the weird Krafla Shower, Game of Thrones Cave , and the Skutustadagigar Pseudo Craters, and checked into our hotel (Hotel Sel in Myvatn). It was a pretty low-key day due to the rain.

Godafoss – Final Thoughts – Pros/Cons

Overall, Godafoss is a very nice, dramatic waterfall, but after seeing a bunch of waterfalls in Iceland, this would rank a bit lower on my list. It wasn’t as big as it appeared to be in all of the photos I saw. My favorite waterfall is Seljalandsfoss, followed closely by Bruarfoss, but YMMV. I would still recommend stopping here on your ring road trip, as it won’t take long, and it’s free.

Pros – Godafoss
Free to visit
East and West bank are easy to visit, no need to drive between the lots
Located right off the Ring Road, easy to get to

Cons – Godafoss
Very very busy! Tour buses everywhere
Not as big and dramatic as it looks in photos