Iceland: Glacier and Ice Cave Tour—What to Expect

Iceland has some of the most stunning and easy-to-reach glaciers, making it the perfect place to see them up close. Walking on a glacier and exploring ice caves is a bucket-list adventure for many. In Iceland, you can make that dream come true and enjoy the incredible beauty and impressive geology of these glaciers.

During our Iceland road trip, we couldn’t pass up the chance to experience a glacier walk and ice cave tour. In this blog post, we’ll share what our tour was like, what you can expect from a glacier tour, the different tour options available, and whether we think it’s worth it (spoiler alert: yes, it is!). We’ll also provide other useful information so that you can choose the right glacier tour for you.

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What’s Included in This Guide

In this guide/review, we’ll cover the following topics:

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Best Time to Go on a Glacier Tour in Iceland

The best time for a glacier tour in Iceland depends on your interests. For glacier walking, you can go any season, but weather conditions are generally more favorable in spring, autumn, or summer. We visited in early April and had excellent weather. In winter, however, tours have a higher chance of cancellation due to bad weather.

For natural ice cave tours, the ideal season is November to March, as the caves are at their most impressive and accessible. If you’re visiting outside of “ice cave season” and still want to explore one, Katla Ice Cave is usually accessible all year. Alternatively, you can visit Langjökull, which has a man-made ice tunnel open all year-round.

Popular Glaciers for Tours in Iceland

Some of the most popular glaciers for glacier walking, ice cave tours and other activities include Mýrdalsjökull, Vatnajökull, and Langjökull.

The Mýrdalsjökull glacier stands out for its dark volcanic ash layers. This is popular for glacier walking and ice caves, specially Katla Ice Cave that is accessible all year round. This is located just a short distance from Vík. You can easily access the Sólheimajökull viewpoint, one of its glacier tongues, with just a small detour from the main road.

Vatnajökull is Europe’s largest glacier by volume and it’s the one we went to. It’s popular for its blue ice caves. These natural ice caves change every year and are only accessible in winter months when its safe to visit them. This is the one we went to.

In Langjökull you can find a man-made ice tunnel that is accessible all year round. This is the closest ice cave/tunnel to Reykjavik. So, if you’re just visiting the capital for a short time, this might be a good option. Langjökull is also a popular place for snowmobiling. So, most operators include both activities in the same tour—for example this tour to Langjökull includes exploring the ice tunnel and a snowmobille adventure.

Glacier Activities

So, what can you do in a glacier? Some of the most popular activities include glacier walking/hiking, ice cave tours (natural), snowmobiling, ice climbing or exploring a man-made tunnel like in Langjökull.

We chose a tour that included a glacier hike combined with a visit to an ice cave in Vatnajökull.

Where to Book Your Glacier Tour

I researched several tour providers in Iceland with highly rated tours. Some of the most popular include Icelandic Mountain Guides (the ones we went with), Arctic Adventures, and Troll Expeditions.

I usually search on GetYourGuide. After choosing a tour that interests me, I search for the website of the tour provider and check the prices there. Sometimes, it’s worth to book directly with the tour provider, but if you have discount codes for GetYourGuide, it can get much cheaper.

The Glacier Tour We Chose

We both enjoy hiking, so we wanted a tour that would allow us to spend a good amount of time walking on the glacier. We also wanted to visit an ice cave, so we chose a tour that combined both glacier walking and an ice cave visit. Additionally, since tours in Iceland can be quite expensive, we wanted to get the best value for our money and picked the longest tour with a good price-to-quality ratio.

We chose a tour from Icelandic Mountain Guides because they were the only provider offering a longer hike combined with an ice cave. We opted for the “Only the Brave” tour. The company specializes in small group experiences, and our group had just four people, which made the experience even better. The Glacier that we hiked was Vatnajökull in Skaftafell.

This tour was considered as moderately difficult because it involves going up and down the glacier with ice crampons on, which depending on the condition of the ice can be quite challenging. Additionally, it involved a total of about four hours walking. Even though everything was done in a quite slow pace, you mustn’t have any mobility issues for this tour.

If you have mobility issues, there are better tours that don’ involve much walking like the superjeep tours.

The Glacier Tour – What to Expect

We’ll quickly describe what our tour was like. Please note that all experiences will be different and they will mostly depend on the time of the year, weather, tour provider and even your guide.

Getting our Equipment

For the start of our tour, the meeting point was at 9AM at the Icelandic Mountain Guides Base Camp in Skaftafell. We parked our car at the Skaftafell parking lot, which you need to pay. If you haven’t already, you can go on a short hike to the beautiful Svartifoss waterfall after the glacier tour.

After arriving and giving our names, they checked whether our footwear was suitable or not for the tour. You need boots with ankle support. If they think your boots are not appropriate they provide you with a proper ones. Then you’ll have to climb on a wooden box where they’ll check your foot size and adjust the crampons to suit you. They also put us an harness with two ropes, and provided a helmet and a pickaxe.

Getting to the Glacier

After 10 minutes, our group (consisting only of four people) and our guide was ready and we set off on a bus with big wheels that would take us to the starting point of our tour. The road to get there was a bit bumpy, but the huge tires of the bus handled it without issues. After approximately half an hour, we were out of the bus and ready for the adventure.

Testing the Ice Crampons

We walked for approximately 10 minutes to the place where we would actually walk on the ice. First, our guide explained how to put on the crampons and how to walk with them. We did some exercises going up and down on the ice and he also explained us how we could use the pickaxe if needed.

Walking on the Glacier

Around approximately 10AM, we started our hike. Our guide was exceptional, he explained a lot about the geology of glaciers, how they were formed, what it’s happening to them over time, and a lot of interesting information. You could clearly see he was passionate about his job. He also marked the pace well so that we didn’t rush, but also didn’t get too slow.

We were very lucky with the weather, as there wasn’t the slightest wind and almost no fog—quite unusual for Iceland. Additionally, our guide mentioned that the ice was in perfect condition for walking that day, which made the hike much easier. He shared that on one occasion, the ice was so hard and the wind so strong that the hike took eight hours instead of the usual four.

The glacier and the surrounding landscape were truly beautiful, but I found the blue-toned crevasses to be the most stunning part.

We also saw several tunnels in the ice, formed by melting water, where we could actually hear the water flowing. Our hike included going real close to the crevasses and passing through some narrow glacier walls.

The Via Ferrata

After walking for approximately one hour and twenty, we went on a small and easy via ferrata (a protected climbing route that uses fixed anchors and cables).

I love this kind of adventures and it was not described in the tour so I was quite surprised for the best.

The Ice Cave

After the via ferrata, we arrived at the ice cave. The ice caves can change every year, and guides have to search for new ones. The tour company we went with was the only one with a permit to go to this place at the time.

The ice cave was quite small inside and we could only venture out a little bit into it. Additionally, there was a stream of water running through the cave (that’s what creates it).

The further you go, the darker it gets. So, the most beautiful part is at the entrance where the sun shines and makes the blue of the ice more vivid. We spent here a bit of time taking pictures and admiring the cave.

After a quick break to eat, we returned along the same trail, appreciating the stunning glacier views even more. We felt super lucky to have such clear weather with the best views of the glacier ahead.

At around 2PM we were back on the bus to return the equipment and end up our tour.

If you parked at Skaftafell, you can go on a short hike to the beautiful Svartifoss waterfall after the glacier tour.

Glacier Walk and Ice Cave Tour—Is it Worth it?

Absolutely. Iceland has the most easily accessible glaciers and this is definitely a unique experience that I truly recommend. Our tour, as well as all tours in Iceland are quite expensive, but this one was worth every cent. If you like nature, geology, hiking and photography you should definitely go on this kind of tour.

Book Your Glacier Walk and Ice Cave Tour in Iceland

To book your Glacier tour, you can check the tours provided by Icelandic Mountain Guides (the ones we went with), Arctic Adventures, Troll Expeditions, and others. You can also check some of the most popular tours available on GetYourGuide.

• Skaftafell: Ice Cave Tour and Glacier Hike
• Katla Ice Cave with Super Jeep
• Langjökull ice tunnel and snowmobile adventure

Wrapping Up

We hope you found our overview about our glacier walk and ice cave tour useful and that it convinces you to book your experience on the glacier.

If you’re planning a trip to Iceland, make sure to read our detailed travel guides and itinerary:

• South Iceland Itinerary: Ultimate 7-Day Spring or Autumn Road Trip
• Iceland Golden Circle Self-Driving Itinerary (with Map)
• Renting and Driving a Car In Iceland: 13 Essential Tips
• Planning a Trip To Iceland: 25 Things You Should Know
• >> All our Iceland Travel Guides <<

Finally, you can use our links to book your accommodation, and activities and find cheap flights. You won’t pay more for it and you’ll be supporting our work.