Langjökull Ice Cave & Deildartunguhver: Reykjavik Day Tour

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Free cancellationTravelers' pick

1/19

Duration10h

GroupUp to 19

LanguagesEN

PickupAt your hotel

Walk Inside a Glacier: Langjökull's 600-Meter Ice Tunnel from Reykjavik

You're picked up from your Reykjavik hotel and driven to Deildartunguhver hot spring, Hraunfossar waterfall, and a local horse farm before boarding a modified glacier vehicle to explore the 600-meter ice tunnel inside Langjökull. Crampons, snowsuits, and a guide are included; the whole day runs from early morning to evening, and you don't arrange transport or entry separately.

10h

Step-by-step itinerary

Langjökull glacier and nearby sights

Visit Deildartunguhver hot spring
See Barnafoss waterfall
Explore Hraunfossar waterfalls
Visit local horse farm
Explore Langjökull ice tunnel

The Experience

The driver picked us up outside the hotel in Reykjavik at dawn, and within twenty minutes we were already talking to him about the glacier like we'd known him for years. He mentioned that most people come to Iceland to see it from a distance, but this tour takes you underneath it — literally inside the ice. That's when it clicked: we weren't just driving out to look at Langjökull, we were going to walk through tunnels carved into the glacier itself, 600 meters of them, all man-made and engineered right into the frozen mass. The modified glacier vehicle we'd be riding in later was already waiting, but first came the stops that frame the whole day.

Deildartunguhver hit different than I expected. Standing at Europe's most powerful hot spring, watching water emerge at 97 degrees Celsius, you feel the raw geology of Iceland in a way that's hard to describe without sounding like a postcard. The guide explained how this water gets piped 64 kilometers away to heat homes in Akranes — it's not just a tourist photo, it's infrastructure. Then we drove to Hraunfossar, where a series of waterfalls pour out of the lava field that sits on top of Langjökull, and the water is that impossible blue-green color because it's literally coming from the glacier above. We stopped at a local horse farm too, which broke up the day in a way that felt unplanned, even though it was on the itinerary.

The ice tunnel itself is what stays with you. You get fitted with crampons and a snowsuit — they have extras if you didn't bring your own — and then you step into the tunnel carved into the glacier. The blue glow is real, not a filter. The guide walks you through the geology as you go, pointing out the layers and explaining how the tunnel was engineered without damaging the ice structure. It's about 600 meters of walking, which sounds longer than it feels because you're too busy looking at the walls around you. The whole experience from Reykjavik takes a full day, and by the time you're back in the city that evening, you've seen three completely different landscapes and been inside one of them.

What’s included

Your day includes hotel pickup from Reykjavik, sightseeing stops at Deildartunguhver thermal spring and Hraunfossar waterfall, a visit to a local horse farm, a guided exploration of the 600-meter ice tunnel inside Langjökull glacier, crampons and snowsuit rental, boot covers, an air-conditioned vehicle with WiFi on board, and return transport to your hotel in the evening.

Good to know

Easy physical level

Operated by Arctic Adventures

Is this one for you?Book this if you want to see Iceland's glaciers from the inside without arranging your own transport, glacier vehicle access, or safety equipment — the guide and modified vehicle handle all three, which is what makes a full-day glacier experience possible in one departure from the city.