The whole island, tour by tour.
Which Golden Circle coach gets to Gullfoss before the car parks fill. Whether an ice cave is open in April. What a whale boat out of Husavik really costs. Every tour in Iceland, reviewed.
Gullfoss, the aurora and the black sand.
Six days most Iceland trips are built around. Each one has a dozen versions on sale, and the difference between them is usually the pickup time, the group size and how far east you get.
Thingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss: pick your version.
All 56 Golden Circle tours →
One loop, three stops, and a dozen ways to run it. The rift valley where the continents pull apart, the hot spring that still goes off every few minutes, and Gullfoss dropping into its canyon. These three take the most travellers; the rest of the list splits by what you add on.
Thingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss in a day
Out past Lake Thingvallavatn to the rift, on to Strokkur while it builds, then Gullfoss with enough time to walk down to the lower viewpoint.
The three stops, then a hot spring
The same loop, finished in the old bathing pool at Fludir, where the water holds near 38 degrees and the steam drifts off the field behind it.
Add Langjokull by snowmobile
The loop until early afternoon, then up onto Langjokull with a machine each. Iceland’s second-largest ice cap, and the one stop on the day where nothing grows.
By region, around the Ring Road
Reykjavik224 tours
Akureyri36 tours
Vik27 tours
Southeast Iceland21 tours
Snaefellsnes11 tours
Husavik7 tours
South Iceland14 tours
Westfjords4 tours- All 12 regions →
From Gullfoss to the aurora: Iceland’s most popular tours.
354 Iceland reviews →The tours more travellers take than anything else on the island, and what each one gives you for the day.
1
Golden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid Crater
See Iceland’s Golden Circle by comfortable bus, with Gullfoss, Strokkur, Þingvellir, and Kerið Crater in one full-day tour.
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 by price, from a lava-show ticket to a glacier day.
Three brackets, and what each one actually buys you. The cheap end is not the thin end here: some of the best hours in Iceland are the ones you walk straight into.
Lagoon and museum tickets, the lava show, a lava tunnel, and a walk round Reykjavik with somebody who lives there.
The full-day classics. Golden Circle loops, the south coast waterfalls, whale boats, glacier walks and the aurora buses.
Small groups and private guides: ice caves under Vatnajokull, snowmobiles on Langjokull, helicopters over the eruption ground.
Almost every tour in Iceland leaves from Reykjavik.
The capital works as a pickup point as much as a city. South-coast coaches roll out before first light, aurora buses go at nine at night, and in between there is a harbour, a food walk and a church tower with the whole bay underneath it.
Iceland’s weather cancels boats, not baths.
A south-coast day can lose its glacier to fog and a whale boat can stay tied to the pier, and none of that touches the water. The lagoons run in horizontal rain, the lava tunnel sits at the same temperature all year, and the lava show is indoors with molten rock a few metres away.
Seljalandsfoss, Skogafoss, Reynisfjara: one long road east.
The road out of Reykjavik runs past a waterfall you can walk behind, a second one you can climb beside, a glacier tongue you can walk onto, and a black beach stacked with basalt columns. Most of it fits into one very long day. The rest is worth a night in Vik.
Between two continents, inside a glacier, on a horse with five gaits.
Waterfalls and whale boats exist elsewhere. Floating down the gap between two tectonic plates, walking into a glacier in January and riding a horse that tolts do not.
The Silfra Fissure
Silfra is the crack at Thingvellir where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart, filled with meltwater that spent decades filtering through lava rock. Visibility runs past a hundred metres and the water stays near two degrees all year, which is why everybody goes in wearing a drysuit. At the narrowest point you can put a hand on each wall.
- 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
Inside the Glacier
Ice caves are melted out by summer water and refrozen each winter, so no two seasons give you the same cave and none of them are there in July. Guides scout them from November and run them until the melt starts around March, driving in over the ice by super jeep. The blue is not lighting; it is what daylight does inside glacier ice.
- 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
Bred on this island for a thousand years with no outside blood allowed in, the Icelandic horse kept a fifth gait the rest of the world lost. The tolt is smooth enough to carry a full glass, and rides go out across lava fields and black sand. The horses stay outdoors through the winter.
- 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
Whales, Godafoss and Myvatn: Iceland’s quieter half.
Akureyri sits at the head of a sixty-kilometre fjord, an hour from Godafoss and two from Myvatn, where the ground steams and the craters come in rows. Further round the coast, Husavik still sends oak schooners out to the feeding grounds.
- 13-Hour Classic Whale Watching Tour by Shipfrom $108
- 2Myvatn Nature Baths Admission Ticketfrom $58
- 3Whale Watching from Downtown Akureyrifrom $104
Iceland’s aurora season runs from September to April.
All northern lights tours →
Small-Group Premium Northern Lights Tour from Reykjavik
Read our review →
#1 Northern Lights Tour In Iceland from Reykjavik with PRO photos
Read our review →Four things that will not wait until you land.
Most of Iceland can be booked from the guesthouse the night before. These cannot. They run on glacier seasons, timed entry and a lift that takes six people at a time.
- 01Katla Ice Cave and Super Jeep TourNatural ice caves only exist while the glacier is frozen, roughly November to March. There is no summer version of this one.
- 02Blue Lagoon: Admission Package with Drink, Towel, and MaskEntry runs on timed slots booked in advance. There is no queue to join at the door.
- 03Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on LocationEvery snorkeller is fitted into a drysuit, so the groups stay small and the morning slots go first.
- 04Thrihnukagigur Volcano Guided Hiking Day TripThe magma chamber is open in summer only, and the lift down carries six people at a time.
The Ring Road, reviewed stop by stop.
Reykjavik
Vik
East Iceland
Akureyri
SnaefellsnesNewest reviews, from Reykjanes to Myvatn.
Keep reading the new ones →
Katla Volcano Ice Cave – Super Jeep Tour from Vik
Read our review →
Askja & Holuhraun, Super Jeep Day Tour from Lake Myvatn
Read our review →
Northern Lights 4×4 Jeep/van Tour from Akureyri
Read our review →
Kerlingarfjöll Highlands Day Tour in a 4X4 from Akureyri
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