One of the most unique activities you can do on a visit to Iceland is to do a glacier hike and ice cave visit. Glaciers are shrinking every year so see them now to enjoy them at the current state while you can. There are many glacier hike and ice cave visit tours available – going with a guide is a must as they have the experience to keep you safe. Tours are also highly dependent on weather, and the ice caves with the beautiful blue ice generally are accessible starting in fall through spring and not during the summer. That said there are some caves accessible in the summer as well – just with less blue. Our visit was in mid-October, and although the sun did not come out until later, we were still able to admire the unique blues of the ice even in the overcast sky and were grateful it wasn’t raining or snowing and not too windy either.
The farther you get from Reykjavik the better the ice caves will likely be – so pay attention to where your tour will start and go, and if possible which outlet glacier. The marketing names for the ice caves, ranging from “Crystal Blue” to “Sapphire” or “Blue Ice” variations, make it hard to differentiate, and some require hiking in, others use a super jeep or snowmobile or other vehicle to reduce walking. The amount of time or size of the cave varies not just from cave to cave but also every year.
One of the ice caves on Langjökull Glacier is a manmade cave that is more of a tunnel. I think the natural glacier caves on Vatnajökull are preferable, though many more hours away versus easily do-able from Reykjavik. You probably want an ice cave of Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest glacier, covering 10% of Iceland, and which has around 30 outlet glaciers. My impression is that the glacier hike and ice cave visit tours that leave from Jökulsárlón are larger ice caves then from Skaftafell or the ones on Katla from Vik. I also believe the Katla ice caves have less blue and more black ice from being part of Katla volcano. You will likely need to stay overnight somewhere in the Southeast coast the day before your hike in order to do the tours on Vatnajökull.
The tour we went with Troll Expeditions was a glacier hike and ice cave visit from the Skaftafell Terminal. We hiked to the glacier past initial areas of volcanic and mossy fields so viewed the green moss landscape up close and the glacier from afar before actually walking on the glacier ice itself. Don’t walk on precious moss. Moss is slow growing (1 cm each year), and has short roots, so walking on the fragile moss can pull it up and kill it, and it take decades or even centuries to grow back. Moss could also be hiding sharp edges or crevices or holes in the lava field. So only visually enjoy the moss fields and stay on the trails.
Of the 4 hour tour, probably about an hour was spent being fitted for our crampons and getting other gear like a helmet with headlamp, harness, and ice axe; driving to and where we were dropped off to start our hike; and returning our equipment. So about 3 hours of actual physical activity, and maybe 20 min actually in the ice cave. Our group was broken into two so half of us (we were in the first group of 9 of us, total group size for the tour was about a 15 people) entered first as it is a small cave. Then we switched where we exited and then toured and hiked the glacier with one of the two guides.
Here is a look at the hole that is the entrance to the ice cave we visited, and some of the photos inside the ice cave. The guides come check out the ice cave every morning before tours arrive to assess the conditions, since they can change anytime and overnight or even within the same day based on melting or shifting in the ice. They also had already left some portable lights to illuminate some parts of the ice cave.
Wear waterproof clothing in case you need to do any scooting on the hike, and waterproof hiking shoes. If you don’t have any some tours allow you to rent them at the sample place you get the other gear. A hat and gloves can keep you warm, but also control your hair craziness if it’s really windy on the glacier, and/or protect your hands in case you fall or slip and grab onto rocky wet walls or ground. There may be cases you need to pass through a tighter fit in ice caves so in particular waterproof pants that you can squat in and move easily in are better then jeans that can get wet and stay wet for a long time.
It’s likely your starting point at the center is the only bathroom stop until after the tour. Some people carried small backpacks, but we didn’t see many people need to access them – even if you get a little thirsty, we were encouraged to try chipping a small piece of ice and drink 1,000 year old water from the glacier. Definitely make sure your camera and phone batteries are fully charged so you don’t miss capturing the spectacular blues on the glacier and in the ice cave. Pro tip: you may have to experiment with your camera settings (I was just using my phone) and/or turning your headlamp off to try to capture the colors you see with your eyes in the photo in the cave.
The glacier we are on was used as a filming location for Batman Begins and also as inspiration for the Wall in Game of Thrones, can you see it?
Walking with crampons, stamping with the pointed teeth of them into the ice as you hike with every step, and going up and down angled ice is quite a workout. We always traveled single file following our guide to make sure we were also walking on solid portions of the glacier, using our ice axes to steady ourselves or pick off a chip of ice to drink. In a funny moment as we were turning to start walking off the glacier, we encountered some ice stairs the guides maintain and someone asked if it was natural.
I would encourage anyone to check out the glaciers and ice caves- climate change is science and real – to catch them as they retreat and will become smaller and over time smaller and less accessible for us to view.
Other Iceland Posts
- Early Morning Things To Do for when you arrive early in the morning or are jet-lagged and up early
- Rainy Day Reykjavik Recommendations for when you want indoor options for things to do
- Golden Circle Highlights, including one stop that may not be quite as famous but is well worth it
- South Iceland Highlights Part 1: Waterfalls and Black Sand Beach
- South Iceland Highlights Part 2: Glaciers and Diamond Beach
- South Iceland Highlights Part 3: Glacier Hike and Ice Cave
- Reykjavik Vibes
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