Crystal Ice Cave Tour in Vatnajökull Glacier With Super Jeep Ride

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Top Attractions:

Vatnajökull Glacier National Park

Overview

Don't miss a unique opportunity this summer! This natural glacial ice cave typically closed due to seasonal conditions, is open now and reveals stunning blue ice.

Want to experience Iceland’s bluest ice cave in years? Then step into a crystal ice cave at Vatnajokull, Europe’s largest glacier, to explore the country’s best shades of icy blue from the inside out.

Tour Snapshot

Duration

2-3 hours

Level

Easy

Availability

january - april, october - december

Group

Small (12)

Starting point

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

End point

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

Languages

English

Trip style

One-day tours

Minimum age

6 years

What to expect

On tour

A Guided Visit to an Ice Cave
All required safety equipment
English Speaking Licensed Adventure Guide
All Necessary Glacier Gear

Transportation

Meet on location
Meet us at the starting point in Jokursarlon glacier lagoon
Pick up & drop-off in Reykjavik

Accommodation & Meals

Accommodation
Meals
We recommend you bring your own snacks

Route map

Check the itinerary to find out the details of your adventure.

2-3 hours

Itinerary Overview

This tour starts from Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, one of Iceland's amazing natural wonders. There you'll meet your friendly tour guide, and hop into a super jeep for a ride to the foot of one of Vatnajokull's outlet glaciers! Once there, we embark on a short walk to the ice cave.

After a short hike (approx. 20-30 minutes), we'll step into the magical ice world to admire the dazzling crystal ice cave. The cave glints with many wondrous colors, from sapphire blue to brilliant white. Your guide will tell you all about Iceland's ice caves and their majestic structures.

The crystal ice cave of Vatnajokull Glacier changes with each passing winter. So every year you join our tour, you'll see an entirely different ice cave!

Make sure to wear warm winter clothing, a hat that fits under a helmet and last but not least, don't forget your camera.

After this blue ice experience, we head back to the location where you were picked up, hoping that this tour will bring you memories that you treasure for a lifetime. A truly unique experience that should not be missed on your visit to Iceland!

Starting point

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

End point

Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon

What makes Ice Caves blue?

The color and transparency of the ice caves has everything to do with time, pressure, and secrecy. The weather and sun with its damaging ultra violet rays transforms the outer surface of glacial ice into whitish ice.

As the glacier travels and winds its way down the slopes of mountain ridges, the air bubbles trapped in the ice are squeezed out, and the size of the ice crystals increases, making it clear. The real beauty of the centuries old compressed ice of a glacier lies underneath the damaged outer surface.

This intense blue color can be seen for example in ice caves and on floating icebergs that reveal their lower side when they have recently rolled over or split in two.

Your expectations

Your tour guide is a highly qualified mountain guide expert, and ice cave expert. It's in his hands to decide each time which cave is best to visit depending on weather conditions and other issues.

New caves are searched for and discovered each autumn, to be visited in the winter. They are normally found in various different locations on the south side of glacier Vatnajokull and its outlets.

Sometimes the caves are very special, sometimes not as special, but become very special in the right light and conditions. Some caves we find are very stable and we can go in there in any weather, but others are less safe and we might not even go there at all, even if they are very beautiful.

Some of the caves are only accessible in temperatures below zero, such as when there is water on the ground that needs to be frozen all over in order for us to walk into the cave.

Note: The actual view of an ice cave may look different from pictures since ice caves are a natural phenomenon and are constantly changing. How they look may vary depending on the season, time of the day, lighting, and other factors.

Pick-up Information

We’ll collect you at Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, which is around a 5 hours’ drive from Reykjavik.
We do not offer pick-up from Reykjavik on this tour.
We will drop you back in the same place that we collected you from, Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon. We don't provide transport back to Reykjavik on this tour.

Practical Information

Ice caves are located inside glaciers and are usually well below freezing.
We strongly recommend wearing warm and water-resistant clothing, along with sturdy hiking shoes.
A helmet is required for the tour (provided by us), thus we recommend that you wear a small hat that can fit underneath it.

Please Note

We recommend that you arrange accommodation somewhere close to Vatnajökull, because the road conditions in Iceland can be unpredictable during the winter in Iceland.
It will take you around 5 hours to drive back to Reykjavik, but the roads might be difficult in the Icelandic winter and it might take much longer.
We also offer more complete two/three-day tours which include the Crystal Ice Cave
Check-in is no later than 15 minutes before the tour starts.
We reserve the right to change the ice cave that will be visited, according to the weather conditions at the time.
We reserve the right to cancel the tour, if we feel that your safety is in jeopardy

Arctic Adventures

Arctic Adventures is a top Icelandic tour operator known for its small-group experiences. Since 1983, they’ve specialized in guiding travelers through Iceland’s wild terrains, from glaciers to volcanoes. Their tours are all about adventure and sustainability, led by expert guides who make sure every trip is safe, fun, and memorable. Arctic Adventures combines deep local knowledge with a strong commitment to nature, making them a trusted choice for anyone looking to explore Iceland up close and responsibly.

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Packing list

Get ready for your trip, here are some items, you should not forget.

What to bring (Required)

Waterproof jacket
Rent with us, +29 USD per person
Waterproof pants
Hiking boots
Rent with us, +29 USD per person
Headwear
Gloves

We're here to answer your questions

Iceland is known for unforeseeable weather. It is likely that you can see all 4 seasons in one day.

Dressing for that kind of weather can always be demanding, so we suggest dressing in layers. 3 or 4 upper layers are highly recommended, for example, a light t-shirt (preferably wool) next to the skin, then a fleece or heavy wool garment topped off with a waterproof windbreaker.

Jeans are not recommended for our trips as they are not suitable for the weather conditions, they become very heavy, cold and uncomfortable to wear when they get wet.

Lightweight hiking pants, track pants or long cotton pants are convenient and wear wind/waterproof pants over them. There is high UV and sunlight reflecting off on the glacier so we highly recommend using sunglasses and sunscreen even if it is cloudy.

You will need sturdy hiking boots that fit crampons for the glacier hiking tours. If you do not own a pair then we rent out suitable hiking boots as well as a waterproof raincoat and trousers.

It is good to bring your own backpack on our full day or half day tours. It’s the best carry-on for a small lunch, extra clothes and other necessary items.

The scenery on the tour is full of stunning, scenic views that are photographable so you should definitely bring your camera along.

This is surely a personal choice, we do not deny pregnant women on our glacier trips but we highly recommend you to take a closer look at our trip description and difficulty ratings, they will hopefully give you a better idea. We also recommend you to contact your physician, as pregnant women’s health can be quite different. If you have any further questions or concerns then feel free to contact us.

Lunch is not provided on any of our trips, therefore we recommend you to bring your own lunch especially for the longer trips, snacks and a bottle of water (you can refill it on the trip).

Crampons make you enable to walk on the glacier ice without slipping. They are metal spikes that we attach to the soles of your hiking shoes.

Yes, we have specially trained and certified glacier guide on every glacier tour that we offer. And for our 3rd party tours we only partner with operators that meet our quality and safety standards.

Yes, we provide you with all the necessary glacier gear for our glacier hiking tours. Ice axe, crampons, harness, and helmets are provided. This will help you to complete the tour safely. The minimum shoe size to attach crampons is EU 35.

Iceland is known to have a lot of snow and when the snow stays long enough in one place than it turns to ice. Over long periods of time, the ice layers up becoming huge blocks called glaciers. It forms to create ginormous glaciers that sweep across huge masses of land. Iceland is home of the largest glacier in Europe that is called Vatnajökull. The Glacier Guides can tell you more about and everything you need to know about the Glaciers.

Rain is common in Iceland but we never let the rain be in our way to go forward with our tours.
That’s why we highly recommend appropriate clothing so you can be warm and dry on the tours.
Nature is out of our control and therefore we need to adapt to the weather. Your safety is our first priority so if your safety is compromised by going on the tour then we will cancel it and you will get full reimbursement.

You can book almost all of our trips here on our website. You will find a booking window on each tour page and the best and safest way is to book and pay is directly through our website.

1. You can pay directly through our website. That is the easiest, safest and fastest way to reserve and pay for your adventure. If you choose this way then you will receive a voucher as a confirmation via email. Which you will need to bring with you on your trip.

2. You can pay via phone, our phone number is +354 562 7000. Please be noted, however you pay, you will always get a voucher. It is important to have your voucher ready for your tour so please remember to print it out or make sure that you can show it through your electronic device.

You will receive a confirmation email after you have made the booking. If you think that you have made a booking and haven’t received an email confirmation then you may please contact us via email with an inquiry through our contact form, and we will figure it out together.

All charges are made in the tour operators currency: For tours in Iceland it's Icelandic krona, ISK, but for tours in Canada/Greenland it's either USD or CAD.

On Adventures.com you can view an estimate of prices in EUR and other currencies. This is only to help you understand the approximate price.

Your credit card will always be charged in the operators currency.

Keep in mind that your card issuer may charge you a foreign transaction fee.

We do not require minimum participants on most of our tours but there is a minimum of 2 people for a few of our trips. If you are traveling solo and interested in a tour that requires more than 2 participants than we can take down your information and contact you if more people book the tour.

We can arrange private departures as per customer request. Almost all of the tours that we offer can be arranged as a private tour. If you prefer to have a private tour arranged than you may feel free to contact us through email info@adventures.com

Unfortunately, we don’t have any waiting list for our tours. Availability is found on our website in the availability sheet where all updates will automatically be made to the sheet listed in each tour description. We have a variety of different adventure tours around Iceland so there is a big chance that you find a similar version of the tour that you were originally looking for.

If your tour that you have booked is canceled on our behalf than you will receive a 100% refund. The refund process is different depending on the way you booked the tour.

If you booked the tour through our website then we will start the refund process as soon as we know if you will not be rescheduling and you will receive a separate email with a confirmation about that your refund has been processed.

If you booked the tour via booking agent than you will need to contact them directly to receive the refund. We will confirm with them about your canceled tour and then the refund process will start on their end. Extreme Iceland only receives the payment when the tour has finished, that means that your payment still remains with the booking agent and therefore, the refund can only be processed directly from their end.

The minimum age requirement is decided by our operational managers and is dependent on each activity and its difficulty ratings and can, therefore, vary between tours We put great value towards safety for our customers and the minimum age policy falls under this. Therefore we can not accommodate a person that has not reached the age limit on the tour.
We ask you to try to understand that this is based on safety procedures and we can therefore unfortunately not make any exceptions on this rule.

We can unfortunately not accommodate you and your group if the number of your group extends the number of available seats left on the tour. Our website shows the correct number of available seats left. It is impossible to squeeze additional participants onto sold out departures as we have really strict policy measures as to how many participants are assigned to each guide on our tour departures. Therefore we hope that you understand as this is of course done with our customer's safety in mind.

Still not convinced?

Customer Care

For Iceland, Scandinavia & Baltic tour

Open daily from 6:00 AM to 10:00 PM GMT

Address

Köllunarklettsvegur 2

104 Reykjavík

+354 562 7000

What Our Travelers Are Saying About Crystal Ice Cave Tour

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