Iceland in August - stay in Reykjavik or do we need to travel around?

[Itstoday]

We want to go to Iceland at the end of August (I know it's late to book a holiday!) We want to make it as simple as possible, but still see quite a bit.
Would it be daft to stay in Reykjavik and hire a car to visit places or would it be better to move around. Our daughter has ASD and therefore we need to be mindful of not asking too much of her.

What we would like to do:
Secret Lagoon
Lava fields
Glazier
Whales!!
some beautiful scenery, waterfalls, geysur etc.

We are not concerned about seeing all of the Island but would like to see enough to not feel we have missed out.

Thanks.

How long are you looking at going for? We stayed in Reykjavik and hired a car over 4 days and managed to see most of the things on your list.

The waterfalls, geysers and lagoon are all within driving distance and they do whale watching trips from Reykjavik

There is a well-known circuit that goes all the way round the perimeter of the island in a hired car. You stay in a different town every night and takes 7 or 8 days. It’s absolutely brilliant with incredible sights but may be too much for your daughter, I really can’t answer that. As pp said, if that’s too much, yes you can stay in the capital and still see quite a lot. It's one of the most amazing countries we’ve ever been to. You’ll love it. The natural phenomena are truly extraordinary.

You need to get booking, though - it gets sold out in summer months.

We stayed in Reykjavik and travelled to most of that places in winter so you'll be largely fine but Husavik for whales will be a very long day so maybe spend one night there. The Hilton Nordica is good if you're driving as they have ample parking.

We split our stay between Reykjavik, and Vik on the south coast. The stay in Vik at the beginning allowed us to get to the glacier lake and Diamond beach more easily. It had its own cool, black sand beach and a volcano exhibit, which my kids loved. We did the golden triangle on the drive to Reykjavik, and the rest of the sights inc Blue lagoon from
there. The big museum (Perlan?) is worth a stop too, it’s like a natural history museum. The ice creams in the cafe at the top were the biggest we’ve ever had!
It’s a fantastic country, and we’d definitely go back.

I strongly recommend you take a week or so and move around. Day trips from Reykjavík can be very long days. It can actually be much more relaxing to keep moving in the same direction rather than having to keep schlepping all the way back to the city again.

If you can't do the whole ring road, you could go along the south coast (stay a night on the Westman Islands - they are fab and so many people skip them). Or you could go up and do Snæfellsnes and then on to either the West Fjords or Akureyri.

The south west is the most crowded corner of the country in terms of tourists and residents and it's also just not the best in my opinion, although of course it has it's high points.

I do think you may have left it too late to book for this August, though!