Borgarnes is a natural base for the inland sights of Borgarfjörður and the start of the Snæfellsnes peninsula. The classic day from here loops east along Route 50 to Deildartunguhver, Europe's highest-flow hot spring, then to Reykholt (home of the medieval historian Snorri Sturluson), and on to the Hraunfossar and Barnafoss waterfalls, where countless small streams flow out of a lava field.
The Langjökull glacier and the ice tunnel at Húsafell are an hour further inland. To the west, the start of the Snæfellsnes peninsula — Eldborg crater, the Gerðuberg basalt columns, and the church at Búðir — is within an easy half-day.