Silfra Fissure Snorkeling Day Tour

silfra-fissure-golden-circle-snorkeling-diving-tour

Snorkeling-Silfra-Fissure-Thingvellir-Iceland-5

Top Attractions:

Thingvellir National Park

Silfra Fissure

Ready to snorkel between two continents? Gear up in a dry suit and enter the Silfra Fissure, a crack between the North American and Eurasian plates in Thingvellir National Park. Glide through glacier-clear water, float past shifting lava walls, and explore a natural wonder with visibility up to 150 meters (490 feet). See why Silfra ranks among the world’s top adventures!

Tour Snapshot

Duration

3 hours

Level

Moderate

Availability

All year

Starting point

Thingvellir National Park

End point

Thingvellir National Park

Languages

English

Trip style

One-day tours

Minimum age

12 years

On Tour

Snorkeling Between the Tectonic Plates
Þingvellir National Park (Thingvellir)
Silfra Fissure
High Quality Dry Suits
Warm and Cosy Undergarment

Transportation

Pick Up from Reykjavik
Meet on location

Meals & Accommodation

Meals
We recommend you bring your own snacks.
Accommodation

Route Map

Use our interactive map to investigate the details of your adventure.

Download the guide

3 hours

Route Overview

Your adventure begins at Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site about 45 km (28 miles) from Reykjavík. Here, you’ll explore a narrow volcanic canyon filled with crystal-clear glacial water, winding through an ancient lava field.

Before entering Silfra, your guide will help you gear up with a dry suit designed to keep you warm in the glacial water. Then, you’ll hear about the park’s unique geology and get a safety briefing on your equipment and tour. Once ready, it’s a short 150-meter (490-foot) walk to the entry point.

Mask and fins on, you’ll enter the glacial waters and start your snorkel between two tectonic plates! As you glide through this surreal underwater canyon, with visibility often stretching up to 150 meters (490 feet), you’ll float through some of the clearest water on Earth. Expect about 30–40 minutes of snorkeling through Silfra before finishing in the Silfra Lagoon.

After exiting the water, it’s a 400-meter (1,300-foot) walk back to the parking lot. You’ll change out of your gear and warm up with hot chocolate and cookies—the perfect way to wrap up this unforgettable Icelandic experience!

About Silfra Fissure

Silfra is located in Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The fissure opened after a powerful earthquake in 1789, tearing the land apart where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates meet. Since then, the plates have continued to drift away from each other at a rate of about 0.79 inches (2 centimeters) per year.

The water in Silfra comes from Langjökull Glacier, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) away. It filters through underground lava fields for up to 100–200 years before reaching the fissure, creating crystal-clear water with up to 150 meters (490 feet) of visibility.

As you snorkel through Silfra, you’ll discover spectacular rock formations, vibrant algae, and some of the clearest water on Earth. The route flows through four sections:

Silfra Big Crack – A narrow passage where the tectonic plates are closest.

Silfra Hall – A wider area with impressive underwater rock formations.

Silfra Cathedral – A deep, open corridor with striking visibility.

Silfra Lagoon – A shallow, calm section known for its bright algae.

The slow-moving glacial water, surreal colors, and underwater scenery make Silfra one of the world’s most extraordinary snorkeling spots.

Meeting Location

Meeting point 

The Silfra car park in Thingvellir National Park is the meeting point. Please be ready in the Silfra car park to meet your guide 15 MINUTES before your tour is due to begin. 

Driving directions to the meeting location 

If you choose the meet-on-location option, the meeting point is Silfra Car Park in Thingvellir National Park. Click here for driving directions to park your car (parking “Thingvellir P5”). To meet your guide: Walk 400m back along the road until you reach a smaller car park with all the snorkel and dive vans, and look for your guide. Please be ready in the Silfra car park to meet your guide 15 MINUTES before your tour is due to begin. 

For GPS: 64°15’23.508″N 21°6’58.676″W 

Pick-Up Information

For those who have chosen to be picked up in Reykjavík, the pick-up time is 8:00 am and 11:00 am. Picking everyone up can take up to 30 minutes. Your patience is greatly appreciated! Available pick-up points
If you choose the Reykjavik pick-up option, then you will return to Reykjavík around 1:30 pm / 5:30 pm approximately.

Important

To participate in the tour, you must read and sign the medical statement form in our Snorkeling Handbook before booking. Medical approval from a doctor is required if you have any medical conditions. 

Participants need to be comfortable in the water and be able to swim.

You cannot participate if you are pregnant due to the small risk of cold water entering the suit. 

Dry suit sizes: The gear sizes reflect what is available on the market, and it is essential that guests are within the size parameters. This ensures the safety equipment can serve its purpose and keep guests from getting cold in the glacial water. 

Weight limit: 99-265 lbs (45-120 kg) 

Height limit: 4'11" - 6'7" (150-200 cm) 

English: It is essential that you can both understand and communicate in English to participate in the tour. 

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

What To Bring (Required)

Warm fleece
Towel

We're here to answer your questions

All relevant information for the tour can be found in our snorkeling handbook.

Yes, you are allowed to bring your camera along, but we recommend to have a waterproof one if you want to have it in the water with you.

If you are planning on meeting us at the location than the meeting point is at the Silfra car park, in Thingvellir National Park.

GPS: 64°15’23.508″N 21°6’58.676″W

Please note that the National Park charges a small parking fee of 500 ISK.
We kindly ask you to be at the Silfra car park at least 15 minutes prior to your tour starts,

Our guides normally have an underwater camera and usually, take photos during the tour without any fees. If you are interested in photos please let your guide know before you go into the water and after the tour, the guide will provide you the code to the folder which includes all the photos from that day.

Kindly note that photos cannot be guaranteed. Our customers’ safety and well-being are our first priority, and therefore the guide will focus on snorkelers as a priority when in the water and will be taking photos when everyone is comfortable.

Unfortunately, you cannot wear glasses as the glasses don’t create a seal between your face and the mask. We recommend wearing contact lenses instead.

You are not allowed to participate in our snorkeling tour if you are pregnant as it can put your baby in high risk.

Yes, you must be able to understand English to a participant. The tour is directed in English.

Some snorkeling tours match with a dive tour, and then you will be in the same area at the same time. You will, however, be in separate groups with separate guides, and won’t be in the water exactly at the same time.

You need to be more than 12 years old ( guardian’s approval needed for minors under 18) and you need to know how to swim independently. Because of the dry suit sizes, there are height-weight limitations. The minimum height is 150 cm, and the minimum weight is 45 kg. The maximum height is 200 cm, and the maximum weight is 120 kg.

The minimum height is: 150 cm (4’9)

The minimum weight is: 45 kg (99 lbs)

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The maximum height is: 200 cm (6’5)

The maximum weight is: 120 kg (265 lbs)

Yes, you must be able to swim independently without a lifejacket and feel comfortable in the water to take part in the tour.

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

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