Iceland fits in a week. Choose the week carefully.
Which Golden Circle bus stops at Kerid. What an ice cave under Vatnajökull costs. Whether the aurora coach drives far enough. Reviews of every Iceland tour.
The Golden Circle, the south coast, a night under the aurora, a cave in the ice.
Four bookings a first Iceland trip is built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who went say about it.
01The first full dayGolden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid CraterÞingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss on one loop out of Reykjavík, with Kerid crater on the way home.
02The long south daySouth Coast Waterfalls, Black Sand & Glacier TourSeljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and the black sand at Reynisfjara. Two hours out, two hours back, nobody regrets it.
03The night outNorthern Lights Bus Tour from ReykjavikA coach that leaves the city glow behind and keeps driving until the sky opens. Dress for standing still in the cold.
04The ice dayVatnajökull Ice Cave Guided TourA guided walk into a blue chamber under Vatnajökull, from Jökulsárlón. Winter only, and no two years are the same.
Iceland keeps its best rooms underneath the glacier.
Vatnajökull alone covers roughly a twelfth of the country, and there is more ice to the west. Four ways onto it and into it, what it costs to join each, and how much of the day is actually spent on ice.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · Katla Ice Cave and Super Jeep Tour
Ice cavesBlue chambers cut by meltwater, frozen hard from November.
Glacier hikesCrampons fitted at the car park, a guide roped up front.
Jökulsárlón and Diamond BeachIcebergs calving into the lagoon, then grounding on black sand.
Snowmobiles on LangjökullAn hour flat out across the ice cap, suits and helmets found for you.
All 89 ice cave days →
Reykjavík for a first trip, then wherever the ring road takes you.
Two thirds of the tours here leave from the capital, but the north keeps the whales, the south-east keeps the ice and the west keeps the mountain everybody photographs. Six bases, and the best day out from each.
Golden Circle, south coast, Snæfellsnes. Most weeks have room for two.
Every Golden Circle day →
A rift valley you can walk between two continents, a geyser that fires every few minutes, and a waterfall that drops into a canyon. All of it back in Reykjavík for dinner. These three days carry more travellers than anything else in the country.
Þingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss
The three stops everyone comes for, in one drive from the capital. Most versions bolt on Kerid crater or the Secret Lagoon, and that is where the price moves.
Waterfalls and black sand
Seljalandsfoss you walk behind, Skógafoss you feel before you see it, then the basalt columns and the stacks at Reynisfjara. Two hours each way and worth the seat.
Snæfellsnes in a day
Kirkjufell, a lava tube, the black church at Búðir and cliffs full of birds. The whole country in miniature, with a fraction of the Golden Circle traffic.
Iceland’s most booked days out.
Every Iceland review →The tours more travellers take than anything else in the country, and what earns each one its slot.
1
Golden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid Crater
Join BusTravel Iceland for a 7 to 8.5-hour Golden Circle tour from Reykjavik. You’ll see Strokkur erupt, feel Gullfoss spray, walk at Þingvellir, and view Kerið crater. Guides such as Barbara, Andrea, Gary, and Thor add Icelandic history, geology, folklore, and humor along the way.
From · $82
Read our review →
2
Reykjavik Food Walk – Local Foodie Adventure in Iceland
from $146
3
Northern Lights Bus Tour from Reykjavik
from $73
4
South Coast Waterfalls, Black Sand & Glacier Tour
from $126
5
Whale Watching and Marine Life Cruise
from $87
6
Sky Lagoon Entrance Pass With 7-Step Spa Ritual
from $111
7
Golden Circle, Kerid, & Secret Lagoon Tour
from $132
8
Iceland South Coast Full Day Small-Group Tour from Reykjavik
from $139
Iceland heats its swimming pools with the ground underneath them.
The Blue Lagoon takes the postcards, but Sky Lagoon has the ocean edge, Mývatn has the north almost to itself and the Secret Lagoon is an 1891 bathing pool with a small geyser going off beside it. Book the slot, bring flip-flops.
Every geothermal bath →
North Iceland fills up with whales the moment the ice goes.
Humpback and minke off Skjálfandi and Eyjafjörður from April, blue whales in June if the year is kind, puffins on the cliffs until early August. Reykjavík boats run the same season, and the old harbour is a ten-minute walk from the city centre.
- 1Whale Watching and Marine Life Cruisefrom $87
- 23-Hour Classic Whale Watching Tour by Shipfrom $108
- 3Whale Watching Cruise on the Amelia Rose Yachtfrom $107
The aurora runs on cloud cover, not on luck.
September to April, a clear sky and no city glow. That is the whole equation. Coaches, small-group jeeps and boats out on Faxaflói all chase the same forecast, and the difference between them is how far the driver is willing to go to find a gap.
What a day in Iceland actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. Iceland is an expensive country to eat in and a surprisingly cheap one to bathe in.
City walks, museum entries, bathing pools and the run in from Keflavík.
The full-day loops: Golden Circle, the south coast, the whale boats in the north.
Ice caves, glacier hikes, Silfra dry suits and the snowmobile hour on Langjökull.
Three things that happen in Iceland and nowhere else.
Waterfalls and whales turn up all over the north Atlantic. A gap between two continents you can swim down, a room inside a moving glacier and a horse with a fifth gear do not.
The Silfra Fissure
Silfra is the crack where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart, filled with meltwater that has spent decades filtering through porous lava. Visibility runs past a hundred metres and the water holds at about two degrees all year, which is why everybody goes in wearing a dry suit. The current does the moving; you mostly float and look down.
- 1Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on Location★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,001 reviews
- 2Fissure Snorkeling Tour with Underwater Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 2,731 reviews
- 3Silfra Fissure Snorkeling between Two Continents★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,712 reviews
Blue Ice Caves
Meltwater cuts tunnels through the glacier all summer and they freeze hard enough to walk into around November. The ice sealing them is old and dense enough to swallow every colour except blue. Caves collapse and reform, so no two winters give you the same one, and guides survey them again every season before anyone goes in.
- 1Katla Ice Cave and Super Jeep Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 2,110 reviews
- 2Vatnajökull Ice Cave Guided Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 2,046 reviews
- 3Ice Cave Tour and Glacier Hike★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,746 reviews
The Icelandic Horse
The breed has been closed to imports since the tenth century, and a horse that leaves the island is never allowed back. On top of walk, trot, canter and gallop it has the tölt, a running walk smooth enough that riders demonstrate it holding a full glass. Most stables within an hour of Reykjavík will take somebody who has never sat on a horse.
- 1Red Lava Horse Riding Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,383 reviews
- 2Icelandic Horse Riding Tour in Lava Fields★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,356 reviews
- 3Icelandic Horseback Riding Tour with Pickup Option from Reykjavik★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,145 reviews
Four Iceland bookings that will not wait.
Most of this country can be sorted from a guesthouse kitchen the night before. These four run on timed entry, signed paperwork, a season and a road that stays shut for most of the year.
- 01Small-Group Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon with Ticket & Kerid CraterEntry is by timed slot and the useful hours go weeks ahead in summer. Arriving without one does not work.
- 02Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on LocationDry-suit places are capped per guide, and there is a height, weight and swimming declaration to sign before anyone gets in the water.
- 03Katla Ice Cave and Super Jeep TourThe natural caves are a winter product, roughly November to March. Outside that the glacier is melting and they are shut.
- 04Landmannalaugar Day HikeThe highland roads open when the snow clears, usually late June, and close again in September. Before that there is no way in.
Iceland cancels tours. Keep the indoor day ready.
Wind shuts the south coast road, cloud kills the aurora, and a bright summer morning can be horizontal rain by lunch. The answer is under a roof or under the ground: hot water, lava tubes, a museum and a long table.
By place, capital to Westfjords
By kind of day: ice, water, sky or road
Reykjavík, the Golden Circle, the south coast, the lagoon: the week almost everybody drives first.
South coastThe newest Iceland tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
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Short Glacier Encounter Walk with 4×4 Transfer
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Half-Day Vatnajökull National Park Glacier Hike
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