Iceland is an incredible destination for couples wanting to elope. Over the past years, Iceland has grown a lot as a travelling destination, and also as an elopement and wedding destination. It was stated that in 2022 Iceland had been having 1.6 million tourists travelling in the country! So is there a way to avoid a large number of tourists on your elopement day especially if you are eloping during summertime which is the busiest season?

Yes, there are a couple of ways to do it and you can read about them in this blog post: How to avoid tourist crowds on your Iceland elopement day.

Lands in Iceland that are public and private.

The lands in Iceland are mostly owned by the farmers and the state of Iceland. Even the most famous black sand beach Reynisfraja is owned by many different farmers. Many popular places (for example Seljalandsfoss) have been turned into public access. This means anyone can visit them, have their pictures taken and get married there without permission. These are the places where usually the tours do take place and over the years they have become super popular.

This means that especially during the highest tourist season (summer time) many public lands places (in the South Iceland region) are heavily overrun and it can be difficult to find some privacy for your Iceland elopement ceremony or pictures if you want to have your pictures taken in the most popular spots. Many public lands don’t require payment for car parking which makes these places also heavily overrun.

Private lands in Iceland are kept private and do not allow anyone to enter the lands. Some private lands (for example Stokksness) do allow access but they do require payment entry before entering the beach. This kind of private land does allow you to have more privacy for your Iceland elopement day.

Iceland tourist crowds according to the time of year.

The time of the year does affect you a lot while planning your Iceland elopement and if you want to avoid tourist crowds. Summertime is the most visited time of the year.

If you want to avoid big crowds at your Iceland wedding, think carefully about what you’re looking for in an elopement location.

Since July is a typical holiday month you can expect that July will be super packed with many people visiting Iceland. August is also very popular for visiting Iceland and because of that, there can be sometimes a bit of a problem to find rental cars and places to stay over night. Especially South Iceland, Blue Lagoon, Golden Circle, Black Sand Beach and Jökulsarlon are heavily overrun.

Choose a less-visited region for your elopement in Iceland.

As mentioned above especially places like South Iceland (Golden Circle, Black Sand Beach, Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Jökursarlon) are heavily overrun during summertime. South Iceland is known as a region where tourists go to visit while enjoying a longer travelling weekend.

You might want to consider having your elopement day in less visited areas by tourists; for example the Highlands, East and North regions and Westfjords. Yes, it takes a bit more driving to reach these regions but they truly give you more chance of not ending up in huge tourist crowds during your elopement day.

Here are some examples of places to have your elopement day in the region:

Iceland elopement locations in the east region:

Iceland elopement locations in north region:

Iceland elopement locations in Westfjords:

Iceland elopement locations in the Highlands: