Almost everything in Iceland leaves Reykjavik at eight in the morning.
Which Golden Circle bus stops at the Kerid crater. What an aurora night costs when the sky closes and you go again free. Whether the Blue Lagoon or Sky Lagoon suits the day you land. Reviews of every tour you can book out of Reykjavik.
Five days out that decide a Reykjavik week.
The bookings a first Iceland trip gets built around. What each one costs, and what the travellers who took it say.
01The first full dayGolden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid CraterThingvellir, the Geysir field and Gullfoss on one loop, with the flooded crater at Kerid on the way back.
02The night huntNorthern Lights Bus Tour from ReykjavikThe bus drives to whatever patch of sky is clear. A blank night usually buys a free second attempt.
03The long drive southSouth Coast Waterfalls, Black Sand & Glacier TourTwo waterfalls you can walk behind, a black beach under basalt columns, and a glacier tongue at the far end.
04The morning at seaWhale Watching and Marine Life CruiseHumpback and minke feed in Faxafloi bay. Out of the old harbour on foot, back before lunch.
05The evening in hot waterSky Lagoon Entrance Pass With 7-Step Spa RitualA geothermal edge over the Atlantic twenty minutes from town, open late enough to fill the gap before a night flight.
The classic loop, the loop with lunch, or the loop that ends on a glacier.
Nearly every first visit does this loop, and the versions differ more than the price suggests. Four ways to spend the same day, what it costs to board each one, and what it adds to the same three stops.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · Golden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid Crater
The classic loopThingvellir, the Geysir field and Gullfoss on a full-size coach.
With the greenhouse lunchTomato soup at Fridheimar between Geysir and the Kerid crater.
With an hour on the iceThe loop plus a snowmobile run on the Langjokull glacier.
Finished in hot waterThe loop, then the Secret Lagoon or Sky Lagoon before dark.
All 71 reviews on the Golden Circle →
Reykjavik first, then whichever road the weather leaves open.
Six directions out of the city and the best day along each one. In winter the far ones close at short notice, so the near ones are worth knowing.
In Reykjavik the season picks the tour, not the other way round.
From September to April the nights are long enough to hunt the aurora and cold enough that the ice caves under the glaciers are safe to enter. From late May the dark never properly arrives: whale boats sail late, horses ride at midnight and the coast road stays lit past two in the morning. Book for the season you land in, because half of this list simply is not running in the other one.
- 1Northern Lights Bus Tour from Reykjavikfrom $73
- 2Glacier Hike, Waterfalls and Black Sand Beachfrom $186
- 3Midnight Sun Whale Watching Tourfrom $111
Two waterfalls, a black beach and a glacier, in one long day south.
Four hours of driving happen before anything else, and it is still the day returning visitors say they would repeat. The versions split on how far east they push: Vik and the black sand, the glacier tongue at Solheimajokull, or all the way to the icebergs at Jokulsarlon.
Reykjavik ends the day the way Iceland always has, in hot water.
The Blue Lagoon sits out on the Reykjanes lava field near the airport, Sky Lagoon on the edge of the city with the Atlantic at eye level, and the Secret Lagoon inland beside the Golden Circle. All three sell timed entry, and the slots that suit a flight day close first.
The most booked days out of Reykjavik.
Every Reykjavik tour we have reviewed →The tours more travellers take than anything else leaving the city, and what earns each one the slot.
1
Golden Circle Full-Day Tour with Kerid Crater
Spend 7 to 8.5 hours touring Iceland’s Golden Circle by comfortable, air-conditioned bus. You’ll see Strokkur erupt, feel Gullfoss spray, walk through Þingvellir, and peer into Kerið crater. Guides such as Barbara, Andrea, Thor, and Eagle add Icelandic stories, geology, 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
Chasing the aurora out of Reykjavik: coach, super jeep or boat.
Every aurora night →
Nobody can sell you the lights. What you are buying is the drive to the clear patch of sky, so the vehicle and the group size decide the night. Most operators put you on another evening free if the cloud wins, which is why the trip belongs early in a stay and not on the last night.
The big bus, the widest search
Fifty seats and a driver in radio contact with the other buses, which is how they end up two hours inland on a night that looked hopeless from town. Bring more layers than feel sensible.
Off the road, past where the buses stop
Modified trucks on oversized tyres go up tracks the coaches cannot take, which usually means no other headlights in the frame. Small groups, so the guide has time to set up your camera.
Out of the old harbour, away from streetlights
Faxafloi bay puts black water and open sky between you and the city glow ten minutes after casting off. Shorter than the bus hunt and warmer than it sounds, because the suits are thick.
What a day out of Reykjavik actually costs.
Every tour on the site grouped by price. Iceland is expensive and the gap between a coach seat and a small bus is usually an hour of waiting rather than a different place.
City walks, museum entries, the hop-on bus and the folklore tours around the centre.
The full-day standards: the Golden Circle loop, the south coast run, whale boats and lagoon entry.
Ice caves, glacier snowmobiles, helicopter hops over the volcano and the multi-day rings.
Four Reykjavik bookings that will not wait.
Most of this city can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on entry slots, safety windows and a calendar that takes no interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Katla Ice Cave & South Coast Waterfalls TourA natural ice cave is only safe from roughly November to March, and each winter melts the old one and carves a different one. Outside that window the trip does not exist.
- 02Silfra: Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on LocationDrysuit places are capped per guide and the fissure sits inside a national park with a daily limit of its own. Summer mornings go weeks ahead.
- 03Small-Group Golden Circle, Blue Lagoon with Ticket & Kerid CraterEntry is a timed slot rather than a queue, and the late slots that suit an evening flight out of Keflavik are the first to close.
- 04Northern Lights Bus Tour from ReykjavikThe clear nights are the whole season. One cancellation pushes everybody onto the next clear evening, so leave the spare nights at the end of the trip.
Whales and puffins leave from the old harbour, ten minutes on foot.
Humpback and minke feed in Faxafloi from spring into autumn and the boats are back before lunch. The puffins nest on Akurey, close enough that the short cruise runs an hour. Between June and August both sail under a sun that never quite sets.
Every trip out of the old harbour →
Three things you can only book in Iceland.
Glaciers, hot springs and volcanoes turn up in plenty of countries. Snorkelling between two continents, walking a kilometre inside a drained lava tube and riding a horse with a fifth gear do not.
The Silfra Fissure
Silfra is the gap between the North American and Eurasian plates, 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 a drysuit. In places the crack is narrow enough to touch both walls at once.
- 1Silfra: Snorkeling Between Tectonic Plates – Meet on Location★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 5,001 reviews
- 2Silfra Fissure Snorkeling between Two Continents★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,712 reviews
- 3Silfra Drysuit Snorkeling with Free Photos – Meet on Location★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,299 reviews
The Lava Tunnels
Raufarholshellir is a drained lava tube half an hour from the city, more than a kilometre of tunnel left behind when the roof cooled and the molten rock underneath kept running. Iron and sulphur have stained the walls red and ochre, and in winter ice columns grow up from the floor under the collapsed skylights.
- 1The Lava Tunnel Tour – Raufarhólshellir★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,373 reviews
- 2Snæfellsnes Day Trip with Vatnshellir Lava Cave★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 1,108 reviews
- 3Raufarhólshellir Lava Tunnel by Bus★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 793 reviews
The Icelandic Horse
The breed has been closed to imports since the tenth century, and it kept a gait no other horse kept: the tolt, a running walk smooth enough to carry a full glass. Rides leave from the lava fields above the city and take complete beginners, because the horses are small, sure footed and entirely used to the weather.
- 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
Reykjavik on the day the weather cancels the bus.
The centre is walkable in an afternoon and the good things are indoors: a food walk through the old streets, a show that pours molten rock in front of a seated audience, and museums honest about how strange the country is.
- 1Reykjavik Food Walk – Local Foodie Adventure in Icelandfrom $146
- 2Reykjavík Small group Walking Tour – by CityWalkfrom $53
- 3Guided Foodie Walking Tour with 6 Tastingsfrom $142
By direction out of the city
By kind of day: ice, water, horse or hot spring
Four days out of Reykjavik, in the order most people take them.
Faxafloi bay
Northern lights
Blue LagoonThe newest Reykjavik tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Leidarendi Cave: Lava Tunnel Caving from Reykjavik
Read our review →
Buggy & Golden Circle Full day adventure from Reykjavik
Read our review →
Blue Lagoon: Retreat Spa Experience & Private Changing Suite
Read our review →
Silfra: Leidarendi Lava Caving & Snorkeling Tour with Photos
Read our review →
Authentic Reykjavik Food Tour with Flea Market Delights
Read our review →
