3-Day South Coast & Golden Circle Tour: Glacier hike and ice cave

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Free cancellation

1/14

Duration3d

GroupUp to 18

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Walk on a glacier and inside an ice cave on the same tour—most other three-day trips don't offer both.

A 3-day tour of Iceland's South Coast and Golden Circle that includes a glacier hike on Vatnajökull, a guided visit to Katla ice cave, and a boat ride among icebergs at Jökulsárlón. Pickup from Reykjavik, two nights in 3-star hotels, English-speaking guide, and all glacier safety equipment are included. Minimum age is 13.

Step-by-step itinerary

Day 1 — Golden Circle

Visit Thingvellir National Park
See Gullfoss waterfall
Explore Great Geysir area

Day 2 — South Coast

Pick up in Reykjavík and travel south
Visit Seljalandsfoss waterfall
Visit Skógafoss waterfall
Hike on Skaftafell glacier

Day 3 — South East Iceland

Visit Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and boat ride
Visit Reynisfjara black sand beach
Explore Katla Ice Cave

The Experience

You get picked up in Reykjavik in a small minibus and head straight south to Seljalandsfoss, where you can hike behind the waterfall if you bring a raincoat—the trembling ground and the roar of water falling 60 meters make the moment stick. The route continues to Skógafoss, another major waterfall tucked in a gorge, and then to Skaftafell National Park, where you meet a trained glacier guide, strap on helmets, harnesses, crampons and ice axes, and spend an hour and a half walking on Vatnajökull, Europe's largest glacier. The ice itself is the thing: you are standing on it, feeling how it moves, seeing the crevasses and the scale of it.

Day two takes you to Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, a 200-meter-deep basin fed by an outlet glacier where enormous icebergs float south year-round. You walk alongside the lagoon in the silence of the landscape, then board a boat to drift among the ice. The third day brings you to Katla ice cave beneath Mýrdalsjökull glacier—a guide meets you in Vík and takes you into the shimmering blue formations inside the ice itself. Before heading back to Reykjavik, you stop at Reynisfjara, a black sand beach where basalt columns rise from the cliffs and puffins nest in the summertime from June to August.

The Golden Circle stops—Thingvellir National Park, where Iceland's parliament was founded in 930 a.d. and where two tectonic plates are visibly moving apart; Gullfoss, the waterfall fed by meltwater from Langjökull glacier; and the Geysir geothermal area where Strokkur erupts every five minutes up to 40 meters—are woven into the first day. Wi-Fi and Icelandic music play on board. You stay two nights in 3-star hotels, one in South Iceland and one in the Southeast.

What’s included

Pickup and drop-off from designated bus stops in Reykjavik.
two nights' accommodation in 3-star hotels.
glacier hike with all safety equipment (helmets, harnesses, crampons, ice axes).
Katla ice cave guided visit.
Wi-Fi and Icelandic music on the minibus.
English-speaking guide throughout.

Good to know

Easy physical levelPublic transport nearby

Operated by Troll Expeditions

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you want to walk on a glacier and explore an ice cave in one trip—most three-day South Coast tours offer one or the other, not both. The fixed itinerary and included guide mean you don't arrange the glacier logistics or the ice cave access yourself; the minibus picks you up and the timing holds the whole route together across three days.