Landmannalaugar: Pearl of the Highlands & Golden Circle

Photographer taking picture of Haifoss waterfall, Iceland

+23

Top Attractions:

Landmannalaugar

Hekla Volcano

Gullfoss Waterfall

Thingvellir National Park

Overview

This two-day Super Jeep tour will take you to some of Iceland’s most famous sites and natural wonders: Landmannalaugar, the central highlands, and the Golden Circle.

Tour Snapshot

Level

Easy

Availability

All year

Starting point

Reykjavik

End point

Reykjavik

Languages

English

Minimum age

All ages

What to expect

On tour

English guidance
Landmannalaugar super jeep tour
Golden Circle sightseeing

Transportation

Hotel pick up & drop off in Reykjavik
Transportation in a Super Jeep
Meet on location

Accommodation & Meals

Accommodation
Meals
Dinner and breakfast in Landmannalaugar

Route map

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

Itinerary Overview

This tour is a true Icelandic adventure in a fantastic landscape, combined with relaxation in geothermal pools.

We depart from Reykjavik and head to the geothermal area of Landmannalaugar often referred to as “The Pearl of the Central Highlands”.

Starting point

Reykjavik

End point

Reykjavik

Day 1

We will drive through the town of Selfoss and the beautiful countryside of Southern Iceland, with its thriving farms, and proceed to Mount Hekla not far from the Fjallabak Nature Reserve. Hekla is one of Iceland’s most active volcanoes and has erupted 20 times in the last thousand years. The volcano rises around 1500 metres above sea level. For many centuries the people of Iceland feared the volcano tremendously and during the Middle Ages Hekla was believed to be the gateway to hell.

Less than 20 kilometres east of Mount Hekla is the location of Landmannalaugar. The Landmannalaugar environment is literally a wonderland. The rich colours of the mountains surrounding the area and the outstanding contrasts appearing in the raven black and glittering rhyolite lava fields are truly amazing. From the edge of Laugahraun lava field, several hot-water streams spring up as well as sources of cold water that mix together to form a little warm river. The naturally warm water pool here is quite unique and an ideal place for bathing all year around, with a temperature of around 36-40 degrees centigrade even in the middle of a snowy winter.

We will drive to Lake Frostadarvatn and Ljotipollur Pool, a volcanic crater, now filled with a cobalt blue lake. It is an inactive explosion crater close to Landmannalaugar where the rust-red crater walls glisten and sparkle. From there we will head to Kylingavatn Lake.

When we arrive at Landmannalaugar we will be able to do some light hiking and sightseeing. Be sure to bring a swimsuit and to take the opportunity to bath and relax in the naturally heated water. We will spend the night at Landmannalaugar in a lodge, or if you prefer you could use the camping site. In the evening your guide will prepare dinner for you whilst you relax in the hot pools and enjoy the amazing nature around Landmannalaugar.

Departure from

Landmannalaugar

Day 2

After breakfast, our adventure continues. We will start our trip back by driving to Hrauneyjar and we will stop at the second-highest waterfall in Iceland, Haifoss, which is 122 metres tall. Haifoss waterfall is accompanied by a similar waterfall called Granni (the Neighbour) in an adjacent gorge. After a short drive from Hrauneyjar, we will stop at another waterfall, Hjalparfoss, meaning the Helping Falls. This name comes from historical times when people travelled south over the desolate Sprengisandur in the highlands it was very helpful to arrive at this lush area where their horses could graze and recover. We continue our drive to the magnificent Thjorsardalur, the valley through which Iceland's longest river Thjorsa flows.

We then continue to Gullfoss waterfall, in the river Hvita which originates from Lake Hvitarvatn on the south-east side of Langjokull glacier. Gullfoss is one of Europe’s largest waterfalls. Here we will take a short lunch break in the cafeteria at Gullfoss.

After enjoying Gullfoss we visit the active geothermal hot spring valley of Haukadalur which contains the super Geysir which very rarely spouts now, however, when it erupts steaming water is projected 200 feet upwards. The hot spring Strokkur is more active and spouts hot water about 60-100 feet upwards every 5 minutes.

Our final stop before returning to Reykjavik is Thingvellir National Park where the Great Atlantic rift is clearly visible and is slowly pulling Iceland apart. The Icelandic Parliament Althingi was established here in 930 AD. In 2004 Thingvellir National Park was added to the UNESCO’s World Heritage List.

Departure from

Gullfoss Waterfall

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.

5.0

Packing list

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

What to bring (Required)

Good hiking boots with ankle support
Warm clothes
Waterproof and breathable pants and jacket
Bathing Suit
Towel

We're here to answer your questions

The pickup time is stated on your voucher and therefore we recommend you to review your voucher carefully. We ask all participants to be ready from the start of the pickup time indicated as you may well be the first pick up of the day. Please be at your assigned location at the right pick up time that you chose when booking the tour.

Wait for your guide at your assigned pick up location.

Have your email and phone number listed with us so we can contact you if we run into any trouble finding you.

View our pick-up locations in Reykjavík.

Alcohol is prohibited on all of our tours before and during activities. If we find the participant to be intoxicated, we will prohibit them from taking part in the activity.

After the activities of the day are finished then you are more than welcome to have a drink and relax.

Yes, we do have a tour into Langjökull Ice Cave that has no minimum age and it is a fantastic option for the whole family. As a Whale Watching with our partner company Special Tours, enjoyable tour for a family traveling with young children, these guys have an enormous success rate in seeing whales (upwards of 98% in the summertime).

If you want to explore parts of Icelandic Highlands than we have our magnificent Landmannalaugar Safari tour that also offers you to bathe in natural hot springs. Almost all of our jeep tours are suitable for children over the age of 6 years old. Then we also have a relaxing experience that we highly recommend, our Golden Circle & Secret Lagoon tour.

We reserve the rights to adjust the itinerary and/or take different routes depending on conditions. Your safety is our number one priority.

Please read more information in our terms and conditions in regards to this matter.

Yes, we have specially trained and certified guide on all of our tours, expect on our self-drive tours.

All of our tours are English guided.

No, for all your questions and concerns you would need to contact our customer service.

In Iceland, the standard is 230V and 50Hz and we use F-type power sockets and plugs. If you are visiting from the UK, USA, Canada or other countries using a different voltage, Hz or plugs, therefore, we highly recommend you to bring an adaptor.

We have four different categories that help participants to get a better understanding of what to expect from the tour. The categories are Easy, Moderate, Challenging and Demanding. All of our tours are rated to make it easier for you to find a tour that suits you.

For further information about the difficulty ratings and descriptions.

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