This is a follow up question on JonathanReez's question How crowded are Iceland's main sites during summer?
Iceland is getting more tourists year on year - according to a report from the Icelandic Tourist Board, in June 2017 more than 200k tourists visited Iceland. This can lead to crowding in the main attractions (e.g. Gullfoss, Geysir, Þingvellir) on the Golden Circle, a heavily advertised route visited by numerous tourists (whether in tours or on their own wheels), at certain times of the day.
Naturally, this leads to suggestions that people can have a better experience if they time their visit to avoid the crowd. Examples include this review article, this TripAdvisor discussion, this magazine article, and of course an answer here posted by myself, who visited in Summer 2018.
The question is then: What are the opening times of these main attractions (Gullfoss, Geysir, Þingvellir) in summer (June - August)? Do some natural attractions close after business hours?
Surprisingly, the internet is providing little authoritative information, perhaps because people think it is blindingly obvious. What we know so far for certain is:
- The waterfall at Gullfoss is open 24/7:
WHEN IS GULLFOSS OPEN?
Gullfoss Kaffi schedule can be found here: http://www.gullfoss.is/cafe/
Gullfoss Waterfall is open 24/7, it is a public open area.
...and the Kaffi is open between 10:00 and 19:00 as it currently stands.
- The service centre at Þingvellir National Park, which functions as a pit stop, opens between 09:00-22:00:
The Service Centre in Þingvellir National Park is at Leirar, close to the camping grounds. [...]
Summer opening (June - August): 09:00 - 22:00.
... which we can infer that the national park is open for at least this hour. There are no gates around the national park, nor signs that indicates the opening time that I am aware of, and I have assumed that nothing will stop me from getting in there at midnight (which is when the Sun sets but hovers just below the horizon in mid-June).
- There seem to be no official website for Geysir. Though again there are no gates around the entrance, and it is near impossible that Strokkur stops erupting after business hours.