By Monika
How to Visit Glaciers in Iceland – Need to Know Facts, Safety Tips and Best Tours.
Iceland is called “The Land of Fire and Ice” for a good reason. 11% of it is covered by glaciers!
Those snow-capped volcanoes and are spectacular and definitely deserve a spot in your Iceland itinerary.
There are many places to safely experience the incredible glacier views for which Iceland is famous and create some unforgettable memories.
Let this article be your guide to visiting glaciers in Iceland, including need-to-know facts, safety tips, and best tours. I’ll also tell you about our own glacier experiences to hopefully help you choose yours.
Let’s take a closer look!
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- How to Visit Glaciers in Iceland – Need to Know Facts, Safety Tips and Best Tours.
Where are the glaciers in Iceland?
The short answer is everywhere! Most of the ones easily accessible for tourists are located along the South Coast of Iceland, but you’ll also find them on Snæfellsnes Peninsula and in the highlands.
Take a look at the map below to find the most popular glaciers:
How do I get to the glaciers in Iceland?
Generally, the easiest way to visit those amazing places is by renting a car and self-driving. That gives you the most flexibility to see everything you want, on your own schedule.
Rent a proper car for your adventure with a 5% discount automatically applied to your reservation from a trusted local company I always rent from – Blue Car Rental!
There are also numerous tours that you can join to visit the glaciers if you don’t have a car.
Depending on the glacier’s location there may be day trips from Reykjavik or multi-day tours for the more remote locations. I’ve listed driving times and distances, as well as available tours later in this article, under each glacier’s description.
Please remember: you can visit glaciers and their lagoons on your own and walk up TO the glacier wall, however, don’t ever try to actually walk ON a glacier without a guide and proper equipment! The glacier surface changes constantly, new crevasses form, and it is simply unsafe to be there on your own. Safety first!
Best time to visit the glaciers in Iceland
You can visit a glacier any time of the year. The quick hikes to a glacier wall or a viewpoint (described later in this article) are available all year, as are most glacier hikes, ice climbing, and snowmobiling tours.
The crystal blue ice cave tours are possible to book only in the winter months and the glacier lagoons boat tours only run in the summer months.
Always check the details with your tour provider and if you’re meeting your guide on location, make sure you check the road status and the weather conditions before you take off, especially in the winter.
What activities are available on Iceland’s glaciers?
There are many different ways you can get close to the glaciers – you can join glacier hiking tours, ice climbing, snowmobiling and glacial lagoon boat tours. You can also just take a walk TO a glacier wall if you’re not up for a hike ON it or visit a natural or man-made ice cave.
Below you’ll find a list of the most popular and accessible glaciers in Iceland with a description of activities available in each location:
Sólheimajökull glacier
Solheimajökull is one of the most accessible glaciers in Iceland near Reykjavik, and because of that, it’s a popular spot for various tours and activities. It’s a rather long glacier tongue of a much larger Mýrdalsjökull glacier.
The ash and sand that it’s covered with came from the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcanic eruption, famous for paralyzing air travel for weeks.
It is also known as “the shrinking glacier” as it has been rapidly decreasing in size due to global warming and general climate change in recent years. So go ahead and check it out while it’s still there!
How to get to Solheimajökull Glacier
Solheimajökull is located in South Iceland, and is the closest glacier to Reykjavik – just over 2-hour drive (165 km)
By car:
As I mentioned earlier, the easiest way to get there is by car. It’s a very easy and scenic drive and the glacier parking lot is located just a short distance from the Ring Road.
Coming from Reykjavik, take a well-marked left turn to rt. 221 and follow it for 5 km.
At the end of the road you’ll find yourself in a large, paved parking lot. It’s a huge change from our first visit there in 2022, where it was just a big patch of gravel with a couple of school buses converted into check-in points for Arctic Adventures and Tröll Expeditions tour companies, plus a row of really sad-looking port-a-potties!
The school buses are still there but it now also has a very nice Icelandic Mountain Guides building with real, clean restrooms.
There is a 750 ISK parking fee that you can pay on the parka.is website or through their app.
With a tour:
Take a look at the options below. These tours from Reykjavik include a visit to Solheimajökull glacier, but usually not any activities. The activity tours are listed under each attraction.
- South Coast Classic: Full-Day Tour from Reykjavik – visit the glacier and some of the most famous South Coast waterfalls during one amazing day trip.
- From Reykjavik: South of Iceland Full-Day Trip – this tour offers a visit to the glacier, but also the waterfalls, the black beach and the tow of Vik.
- From Reykjavik: South Coast Guided Group Adventure – more glacier stops and more South Coast attractions!
Things to do on Solheimajökull Glacier
You have many options of things to do here, all of them giving you a good chance to experience the glacier’s unique scenery.
1. Walk to the glacier viewing area
The easiest way to visit Solheimajökull (and suitable for anyone, including kids) is to take a walk to the glacier viewpoint.
Look for this sign for the walking path to the glacier viewpoint, located right on the edge of the parking lot closest to the Icelandic Mountain Guides base building.
It’s a 750 m long, mostly flat gravel track that takes you to the viewing area.
On your way you’ll see the glacier lagoon on your left side and if you’d like to see it up close, you can take a detour to its edge.
After about 10 minutes of walking, you’ll get to the gravel “deck” from which you can safely admire Solheimajokull in all its glory.
I was lucky to visit on a sunny day and the glacier literally glistened in the sun, despite the ash cover.
Sometimes you can see tours hiking on the glacier or getting ready, putting their gear on by the lagoon.
2. Go on a glacier hike
For our first encounter with glaciers in Iceland, we opted for a glacier hike. It was a really fun, unforgettable experience and a great way to get close to this beautiful mass of ice.
It was a particularly special experience for us, as you could say that we have a personal “connection” to this glacier – as my family was trying to fly to visit us for an important event during the air travel mess caused by the Eyjafjallajökull eruption. They made it, but I’ll always remember that time when visiting this area.
Read more about our experience in my guide to the best glacier hikes in Iceland!
Here are glacier hiking tour options that you may like:
- Sólheimajökull: Guided Glacier Hike
- Guided Sólheimajökull Glacier Hike – both of these tours are about 3 hours long, but they have slightly different start times so you can choose which fits your travel schedule better. They both also start from the glacier parking lot.
- Reykjavík: Iconic Glacier Hike, South Coast & Waterfalls – this tour offers pick up from Reykjavik and also includes stops at other beautiful attractions of the South Coast.
- Reykjavik: Glacier Hike, South Coast Waterfalls & Black Sand Beach – similar tour to the one above, with slightly different South Coast stops.
- Private Glacier Hike Experience – a great option if you are looking for a solo hiking experience.
3. Ice Climbing
This is another fun experience, a step above the glacier hiking as far as excitement level. We booked an ice climbing tour during our second trip to Iceland, on a different glacier (read more below) as it fit better with our itinerary, but the experience will be very similar on Solheimajökull.
Most tour companies have hiking and climbing activities available in both locations.
Read more about our glacier ice climbing adventure here!
Here are Solheimajökull glacier ice climbing tours you may enjoy:
- Reykjavik/Sólheimajökull: Glacier Hiking & Ice Climbing Trip – this tour departs from Reykjavik or you can meet your guide in the glacier parking lot.
- Sólheimajökull Ice Climbing Tour – this is a similar tour, with “meet on location” option only.
Safety tip: Do not attempt hiking or climbing on a glacier without a certified glacier guide!
4. Solheimajökull kayaking
This is another glacier activity only available with a guide. You get to take in the incredible views of the Solheimajökull glacier from the water while paddling in a kayak among the icebergs of its lagoon.
Book your glacier kayaking tour here.
5. Snowmobile tours on Eyjafjallajökull glacier
If glacier hiking or ice climbing is not something you’re interested in, you can also book a snowmobiling tour on the Eyjafjallajökull volcano glacier. You meet your guides not far from the famous Seljalandsfoss waterfall, at Brú Base Camp, only a 35-minute drive from the Solheimajökull parking lot.
Once there, you will board a Super Jeep that will take you up the glacier slopes to your snowmobiling location. That location changes according to the season, and it also determines the length of the tour.
When you reach the top of the glacier, you get to enjoy amazing panoramic views of the Icelandic South Coast.
For a similar experience with a start point closer to the Solheimajökull glacier, book a snowmobiling tour on Mýrdalsjökull – it starts at the Mýrdalsjökull base, just a short 11-minute drive from the Solheimajökull parking lot.
6. Visit Katla Ice Cave
Not far from Solheimajökull glacier is the town of Vik, where you can book a tour to the most popular and the most famous ice cave in Iceland – the Katla Ice Cave. It is one of the two ice caves in Iceland that are safe to visit all year, even in the summer (the second one is the Langjökull Glacier Tunnel – read more about it later in this post)
Most tours depart from Vik but you also have options for full-day tours from Reykjavik.
Vatnajökull glacier
Vatnajökull is the largest glacier in Iceland and also in Europe. It covers over 8000 square kilometers of land which is about 8% of the entire country.
It is the main feature of the Vatnajökull National Park, which includes the Skaftafel Nature Reserve (often mistakenly called Skaftafel National Park) and both Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón glacier lagoons. It is the second easiest accessible glacier in Iceland.
How to get to Vatnajökull glacier
Just like with Solheimajökull, the best way to visit the Vatnajökull glacier is by car. Depending on what you’d like to do, there are different locations to access your activities. The two most popular starting/meeting points are Skaftafel Visitors Center (Skaftafellstofa) and Tröll Expeditions Skaftafel base parking lot. Always check with the tour company!
The parking for Skaftafel Visitors Center is a large gravel lot, easily accessible from the Ring Road. You do pay a 1000 ISK parking fee, either on the Parka.is website, via the app, or onsite at the pay kiosks.
Helpful hint: if you happen to visit Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon on the same day as at Skaftafel, the parking fee for one of these locations will be automatically discounted by 50%.
There are no day tours that visit Vatnajökull glacier from Reykjavik.
Things to do on Vatnajökull glacier
Again, there are many options for glacier activities here. As I mentioned earlier, the Vatnajökull ice cap is the biggest one in Europe and has a lot of smaller outlet glaciers (also called glacier tongues), with their own names and access points/parking lots. I’ll list the most popular and easily accessible later in the article.
1. A walk to the glacier wall
This easy but very rewarding hike starts from the Skaftafel Visitors Center (the trail is marked as S1) and it will bring you to the Skaftafellsjökull glacier and its lagoon.
This sign posted right outside the door to the Visitors Center always has current details about the trails and the weather conditions.
The trail a mostly flat, wide gravel path, accessible for all ages and abilities. The walk takes about 30 minutes one way.
It’s marked with numbered posts and has a few benches along the way if you need to rest. You will also see a small but pretty waterfall on your left before you reach the glacier.
You can get pretty close to the wall and the lagoon, which is always exciting. just make sure you observe the posted safety warnings.
Once you’ve had your fill of the incredible views, you can either retrace your steps or continue to your right (when facing the glacier) for another 1.6 km and make it a loop trail back to the visitors Center.
We visited on an extremely windy day, so we just went back the same way we came.
2. Go on a glacier hike
Like Solheimajökull, Vatnajökull glacier is a very popular spot for glacier hiking. Remember to book a tour with an experienced guide for your safety!
There are different levels of difficulty and tour length, so that everyone can find a suitable option. You can also combine the hike with visiting an ice cave or a glacier lagoon. Just make sure you check the meeting point for the tour you chose!
For an idea of what a glacier hike may look like, read about our experience on Solheimajökull.
Here are some options for glacier hiking tours on Vatnajökull glacier. They are actually called “Skaftafel glacier hike” tours.
- Skaftafell National Park: Falljokull Glacier Easy Hike – a 3-hour easy glacier walk suitable even for children over 8 years old.
- Skaftafell National Park: Falljokull Glacier Advanced Hike – a 5-hour tour with more time spent hiking on the glacier.
- Skaftafell: Vatnajökull Glacier Explorer Tour – a more advanced 5.5-hour hike, with a minimum age of 14 years old.
Important: because of the location of the glacier, there are no day tours from Reykjavik that include a Vatnajökull glacier hike.
3. Ice climbing
It’s a super fun, popular activity and one that my son had his heart set on since our first trip to Iceland.
So when we returned the following year, we booked our tour. We had no climbing experience and loved every minute of it. It’s a glacier hike with a stop at a climbing wall prepared by your guides, where everyone gets a chance to try their ice climbing skills.
Read more about this tour and our ice climbing experience in this guide.
4. Vatnajökull glacier snowmobiling tours
Snowmobiling tours are also available on Vatnajökull glacier, and you don’t need any prior experience to enjoy them. You will get instructions and a safety briefing before you take off for the exciting scenic ride.
5. Visit an ice cave
Vatnajökull Glacier is home to another famous natural ice cave in Iceland ‘the crystal blue ice cave”. This cave is only accessible in the winter months, from October through April, and most tours start from Jökulsárlón Glacier lagoon.
Vatnajökull outlet glaciers
Svinafellsjökull glacier
The parking lot for this glacier tongue is only a short 8-minute drive from Skaftafel Visitors Center. It’s a small gravel lot, free of charge.
There is a path to the glacier right from the lot and it only takes a few minutes of walking to get to the glacier wall.
You can get very close to the actual glacier and the walk is easy and very scenic. It’s also possible to hike between Skaftafel Visitors Center to Svinafellsjokull.
There are signs for this hike at the Svinafellsjökull parking lot and according to Google Maps, the hike will take about 1 hour 20 minutes to complete.
Kviarjökull
This is another outlet glacier with easy access and free parking. It’s located just off the Ring Road, about 25 minutes from Svinafellsjökull.
Helpful hint: make sure you put “Kviarjökull bílastæði” in your GPS (which means “Kviarjökull parking”) and not just Kviarjökull, otherwise it will tell you that you have arrived while you’re still on the way.
The turn is marked by a sign for Kviamyrarkambur.
Just follow the gravel road for a couple of minutes and at its end you’ll reach the small parking area. You’ll recognize it easily as it has a part from an abandoned ship displayed next to an informational sign at the edge of the lot.
From the parking lot just follow a path towards the glacier. We did not go all the way to the very end of the trail as it was an extremely windy day and we had already visited both the Skaftafellsjökull and Svinafellsjökull, but on a nice day or if you’ve not seen the other two glaciers, I’d definitely recommend the entire walk.
Fjallsjökull
This glacier tongue is accessible right from the parking lot of Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon and offers a more private, smaller group opportunity for a glacier hike and other exciting activities due to its secluded location.
You’ll find all the information you need about the lagoon, the glacier, and the best tours in my “Ultimate Guide to Visiting Glacier Lagoons in Iceland”
Langjökull glacier
Also known as “the Long Glacier”, it’s the second-largest glacier in Iceland. It covers about 935 square km, and it’s located in the Icelandic Central Highlands.
If you’ve driven road F35 – that’s one of the ice caps you see on your way. You can also see it from the Golden Circle, where some of the tours start from.
How to get to Langjökull glacier
The two main access points to Langjökull activities are the town of Húsafell and the Golden Circle (mainly Geysir and Gullfoss)
The easiest way to explore it is by car – it’s only a short drive from Reykjavik to the tour meeting points. However, most tours offer a pick-up from Reykjavik, so if you haven’t rented a car, you can still enjoy a glacier experience on Langjökull.
Need help renting the right car for your trip to Iceland? Read this guide for useful information and tips!
Things to do on Langjökull Glacier
1. “Into the Glacier” Ice Tunnel tour
This is by far the most popular activity on this glacier. It starts from Húsafell where you get picked up in a specially modified glacier truck, which brings you to the cave entrance.
It is a man-made ice tunnel that you can explore year-round by joining an exciting tour.
I haven’t done it yet but it’s definitely on my list!
2. Snowmobiling tours
These tours are available either from Gullfoss Waterfall or from Geysir Hot Springs area on the Golden circle.
You are transported from the meeting point to the glacier by your tour company and usually have about 60 – 90 minutes of snowmobiling before you head back down to the base.
It’s also possible to combine this activity with a day tour of the Golden Circle or with a visit to the Langjökull. Glacier Tunnel.
3. Monster truck tour
If you’re not a fan of snowmobiling or Ice Cave visits, this may be a good tour option for you.
This tour will take you to a scenic spot on Langjökull in a specially adapted monster truck, where a pop-up cafe is set up with hot drinks and famous Icelandic pastries, which you can enjoy while taking in the incredible glacier views.
If the weather conditions are good, you’ll also get a chance to experience sledding on the glacier and even play some glacier golf!
For “all you need to know” information about the glacier hikes in Iceland, a glimpse into what you can expect, and a helpful report from our own hiking and ice climbing experiences, read my guide to the best glacier hikes in Iceland.
Snæfellsjökull glacier
This ice-covered volcano is located on Snæfellsnes Peninsula in West Iceland and is the highlight of Snæfellsnes National Park – one of only 3 National Parks in Iceland.
As one of the highest glaciers in Iceland, standing over 1400 m (4700 ft) tall, it can be seen all the way from Reykjavik’s shore on a clear day.
As you can see from the photo above, the snow cap was hidden by clouds during our visit, but you can view this glacier from almost anywhere on the peninsula!
Made famous for being mentioned in Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” novel, Snæfellsjökull is also believed to be one of the world’s ancient energy centers.
How to get to Snaefellsjokull glacier
It’s not as easily accessible as the other glaciers described in this article.
If you have a proper vehicle, you can take route 570 connecting Ólafsvík and Arnarstapi and drive this challenging mountain road – it brings you as close to the glacier as it gets.
It used to be an F-road, however it got reclassified as a regular road due to improvements in recent years. I haven’t driven it, but from everything I’ve read, it is still a rough road and not for the faint of heart due to it being steep. I’d definitely recommend a 4X4 vehicle and some thorough research before you attempt it.
Things to do on Snaefellsjokull glacier
There aren’t as many opportunities for visiting this glacier, but there are some! You can book a Glacier Hike from Arnarstarpi or sign up for an exciting snowcat tour.
Glacier lagoons
For those looking for a less adrenaline-powered glacier experience, I strongly recommend visiting a glacier lagoon.
There are two main (and best-known) glacier lagoons, located only about 15-minute drive from each other, and both are easily accessible from the Ring Road: Fjallsárlón Lagoon and Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon.
For more information about glacier lagoons and how to best experience their unique beauty read my “Ultimate Guide to Visiting Glacier Lagoons in Iceland”
As you can see, you have a ton of choices when it comes to exploring the glaciers in Iceland. Just make sure you do it safely!
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For more Iceland inspiration and travel guides click HERE.
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About Monika
An avid traveler and a passionate trip planner, mildly obsessed with being organized and prepared 🙂
Well aware of how precious travel time is, I’m here to share my experience and help you get the most out of your vacation time.
“Taking the hassle out of trip planning”
