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10 days - Independent tour with glaciers, caves, Silfra snorkelling and geothermal baths.
Take a journey into the Western Icelandic countryside on this 10-day adventure. Starting in Reykjavík and ending with a soak at the Blue Lagoon, your drive gives you plenty of time to spend at many of Iceland’s best known natural attractions, including the Kirkjufell Mountains; beautiful waterfalls, bubbling hot springs, and the famous “Golden Circle” route. Enjoy a private guided tour of Reykjavik, a Viking sushi adventure boat tour and other unique experiences.
You will also have a lot of opportunities to explore the active side of Iceland — easy glacier walks, lava caves and Silfra snorkelling.
Read about the tour here in this Sydney Morning Herald article, March 2024.
Looking for something shorter (and cheaper), see our Fire, Ice and the Blue Lagoon 5-day tour.
As a Certified B Corporation, 50 Degrees North has designed this tour using handpicked local hoteliers and suppliers who share our ethos of delivering services and activities of high social and environmental standards.
The CO2-e per person per day of all tours is carefully measured following each season. We fully offset all emissions of our tours on your behalf, and we constantly look at ways to reduce emissions where possible.
Some activities are seasonal and will be substituted depending on what you want to do and what is available. For an even more luxurious experience, please ask for for an upgrade to The Retreat by Blue Lagoon at the end of your tour. We recommend extending the stay there for 2 nights for the full experience.
On arrival at your gate, you will be met by our local host who will help you with your transfer trough the airport and onto your private transfer into Reykjavik. After settling in, start exploring this lovely capital with your private guide. Be sure to check out the design stores and cool cafes in central Reykjavik, afterwards.
In the evening you can enjoy a gourmet dinner at one of Reykjavik's many fine restaurants - taste the fresh Atlantic seafood or free-range lamb that Iceland is famous for.
This morning, experience some of Iceland’s rich and thriving bird life, as well as visit our large variety of sea-life, including minke whales, humpback whales, harbour porpoises and white-beaked dolphins among other whale species on a this fjord tour.
Your afternoon is free for exploring the city.
Pick up your car today and start your drive north towards Snæfellsnes. On the way, stop for a soak in the beautiful Hvammsvík Hot Springs. From there, continue your drive to north to Hotel Budír, boutique hotel with a charming atmosphere, great service and a restaurant renowned for its exquisite cuisine.
Spend the morning sailing around Breiðafjörður's innumerable islands, enjoying the fjord's fairytale-like scenery: variegated rock faces, areas of historical interest, along with the strongest ocean currents anywhere on Iceland's coasts.
During the summer, the area abounds with birdlife: shags, puffins, black-legged kittiwakes, arctic terns, fulmars and eider ducks. Even the king of Icelandic birds, the white-tailed eagle, sometimes makes an appearance.
A definite highlight of the tour is the short towing of the dredge along the ocean floor, when different kinds of shellfish are scooped up from the bottom of the ocean: scallops, sea urchins, crabs, starfish, sea cucumbers, some of which can be eaten fresh (scallops and sea urchins, for example).
Leave your accommodation this morning and on the way to Husafell, stop by the Tröllafossar and Barnafossar/Hraunfossar waterfalls. Iceland is world renowned for its waterfalls and these 3 waterfalls should not go unseen.
Your next adventure waits right by where you will be staying tonight: a tour inside Langjokull, Iceland’s second largest glacier. Enjoy the opportunity of a lifetime as you journey up the white slopes and go deep inside the man-made ice tunnels leading to the blue heart of the glacier. You ride in modified glacier vehicles specially made to explore the glacier environment and enjoy the view as you drive on top of the ice cap.
Experienced guides will lead the way and make sure that everyone is both enjoying themselves and learning the basics of glacier knowledge.
This morning, a short drive will get you to the Cave! Dress warmly for your guided tour of the mighty Víðgelmir lava tube. It is a very accessible cave to visit with an all-new access walkway, and state of the art feature lighting system. This is a trip that the whole family can enjoy. Includes: Helmet and headlight.
Later in the afternoon, visit the Husafell Canyon Baths. A stunning hike through remote Icelandic wilderness ends with a geothermal soak in pools nestled in a magnificent highland canyon.
On this 2-hour tour, we enjoy a relaxed walk among natural wonders not found in many guidebooks, including the spectacular two-tiered waterfall Langifoss. We’ll also learn about Iceland’s renewable energy practices, cross an icy stream of glacial meltwater and see the site to Okjökull, Iceland’s first glacier claimed by climate change. Note that the route can change due to unforeseen weather circumstances such as snow, ice, mudd or water.
The highlight of our excursion is a serene soak in the Húsafell Canyon Baths, a surreal hot spring paradise that has to be seen to be believed. Enjoy half an hour of relaxing, recharging and breathing in the pure Icelandic air before heading back to Hotel Húsafell.
This tour can also be done as a private tour, please ask us for more details.
Snorkelling in Silfra is today's adventure and one of Iceland's best-kept secrets. Iceland straddles the rift between the Eurasian and North American continental plates and you can see the rift for yourself on this snorkelling trip. You are provided with a dry suit, as the temperature of the water is around 2 degrees. You then get to float on the lake's surface, peering into the depths through pristine water that takes twenty years to filter down from a glacier through volcanic ash. By the time it reaches Silfra, the water is so transparent that people have been known to get vertigo as they hover on the surface, floating as if on air over the fissure below.
After, explore the Golden Circle area before heading to your next destination along the South Coast.
After breakfast, join a Glacier Experience with Glacier Walk. The glacier hike is an adventure like no other with this popular activity only available in a very few parts of the world. You will see how the primal elements shape and affect the glacier, creating mesmerizing labyrinths of ice ridges and deep V-shaped crevasses that crisscross and scar the surface of the ice. Not to mention the big sinkholes, called “moulins”, that sometimes have drilled their way through the glacier, draining the meltwater of the ice through little waterfalls and streams.
The glacier also carries with it, ash from volcanic eruptions from the distant and not so distant past, you might even be lucky enough to be able to collect a little sample of the Eyjafjalljökull volcanic ash from 2010. At the glacier edge, we lace up our crampons and following the guide exploring this otherworldly natural wonder; a rugged, raw and ever changing hub of ancient frozen water.
After breakfast, make your way to the Blue Lagoon for a relaxing experience. (Return your hire car at the Keflavik Airport tomorrow morning.)
PREMIUM PACKAGE INCLUDED IN YOUR BLUE LAGOON VISIT:
Please ask us about an upgrade to The Retreat, a 5* experience right by the Blue Lagoon. If staying at The Retreat, we recommend extending your stay to 2 nights for the full, relaxing experience.
After breakfast, return your car at the airport and travel home. You will be meet at the airport by our local host for smooth sailing through the airport.
Price per person, twin share. Due to the current volatility of the Icelandic Króna (ISK) and car hire costs, this price is indicative.
Adding Activities:
Along our self-drive routes of Iceland, there are many different options for things to do, with new activities becoming available virtually every second month. If you are trying to decide which self-drive itinerary to do, based on activities available, let us know and we will give you more specific details.
If you are travelling during the peak period, we suggest asking us about what you might like to book beforehand. But, each traveller is different and a lot of the experience of Iceland is just to be there and take things as they come. We do suggest doing a little research yourself if you have a particular focus and then let us help you out.
Driving in Iceland:
A hire car cannot be driven in the Highlands area. In regards to gravel roads; technically you’re not recommended to take a hire car on gravel roads, but in Iceland you may not have a choice. Some guesthouses are located on gravel road. Consider getting extra car insurance with gravel protection if it is something that might worry you. Ask us about what car would suit you - as it depends on the time of year and where you want to go!
When driving in Iceland, plan that all your destinations are going to take longer to reach than planned. Most of the time it is because you are going to make unanticipated stops to check out a waterfall, a viewpoint, a museum, or a shop. Sometimes it is also that traffic is just slow, animals may be crossing the road, or there is bad weather. If you build some extra time into your day, you won’t have to be rushing around at the end of the day.
For more Iceland driving rules and tips and to stay up to date on road conditions, check out the Road Conditions website and for all kinds of safety and travel information in Iceland check out the Safe Travel website. Bookmark both of these websites before you start your drive in Iceland.
Bookmark both of these websites before you start your drive in Iceland.
This new hot springs centre has eight natural hot springs that evolve into the ocean with temperatures ranging from ocean temperatures (around 10°C) to 42°C in the old original hot spring. It is included in many of our tours and was awarded 'best thing to do in the world' by TIMEOUT magazine in 2023.
Iceland is world famous as a 'Northern Lights' travel destination. Between mid-September to early April each year, travellers flock to this island to search each evening for the magical lights in the sky.
Our guest, Barry Stone, spent 8 days on our Iceland Circle self-drive this year. Here is his story.
