Iceland Walking Tour

Categories Adventure & Eco Travel Escorted Tours

WALKING, TOURING AND WHALE WATCHING

The world at your feet, with an average of three hours walking a day in some of the most beautiful parts of Iceland. Highlights include visiting three National Parks Þingvellir, Skaftafell and Jökulsárgljúfur, the wonders of Landmannalaugar and Lake Mývatn, for its latitude the most fertile area in the world. There are waterfalls including the awesome Dettifoss, the most powerful in Europe. The tour includes, weather permitting, a 3 hour whale watching cruise sailing from Húsavík.

Lots to see but little to carry, as the tour bus will convey your luggage. Accommodation is provided in hotels with private facilities. The hotels used on tours are often “summer hotels” used most of the year as boarding schools or country hotels which are simple and clean.

HIGHLIGHTS AND VALUES

- We only stay in four hotels which means less packing

- Visit two National Parks

- Whale watching tour, weather permitting

- Glacier walk, weather permitting

- Soak in two nature baths

- Visit to a remote farm in the highlands of Iceland

- Boat trip on glacial lagoon among floating icebergs

- Enjoy lunch at the Sænautasel farm

- Average of three hours walking a day, with longer hikes on day 2, 4 & 9

- Small group tour, maximum 18 passengers

Tour conducted in English and German

Itinerary

Arrive Reykjavik and transfer to hotel on your own.

WATERFALLS, GLACIAL WALK, LAVA BEACHES & BIRD CLIFFS

We travel from Reykjavík along the south coast which is lined with mountainous cliffs and magnificent waterfalls. You’ll experience a guided glacial walk in South Iceland before we explore a black lava beach with bird cliffs. We stay for the next two nights in the southern part of Vatnajökull National Park region.

The whole day is spent hiking through Skaftafell and Vatnajökull National Park..

We drive south of Vatnajökull, Europe´s largest glacier which dominates the landscape with its glacial tongues. Next, amongst the icebergs, enjoy a boat trip on the Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon. We then continue through the beautiful Eastern fjords. We spend the next two nights in the neighbourhood of Egilsstaðir.

A full day hiking in the beautiful Eastern mountains

Today we walk up to Hengifoss, one of Iceland's highest waterfalls. In the very remote area in the highlands of Iceland we enjoy lunch at Sænautasel, an old farm that was the main model for the setting of the novel: Independent People by Nobel Prize Winner Halldór Kiljan Laxness. Continuing on, we come to Möðrudalur, a farm that has been inhabited from the early Icelandic settlers through to the present day. Our route takes us through desert landscape before reaching our accommodation for the next three nights in Northeast Iceland.

From the picturesque village of Húsavík we start the day with a 3 hour whale watching cruise, weather permitting. A short drive brings us to Lake Mývatn, a unique area that features strange lava formations, attractive bays, pseudo craters and prolific bird life. We stroll through the lava field of Dimmuborgir and have a walk to the rim of the ash crater Hverfjall. As a reward for all that walking, we can relax in Mývatn Nature Baths, in the late afternoon.

We visit Hljóðaklettar with its strange formations and the magnificent and puzzling canyon Ásbyrgi, said to be a hoof print of the eight legged horse of the ancient God Óðinn. We walk along the west bank of the mighty Jökulsá river, not far upstream we see Europe´s most powerful waterfall Dettifoss at the northern part of Vatnajokull National Park.

We visit Goðafoss waterfall and then travel south across the highland desert on the Kjölur trail. There are wonderful views of the distant ice-caps and we stop at the hot springs of Hveravellir. This region is shrouded in mystery, with folktales of ghosts, giants and outlaws. You’ll experience one of Europe's last wildernesses! We end the day with a visit at Gullfoss waterfall and Geysir hot springs. We spend the next two nights in South Iceland.

Today we travel to the geothermal area of Landmannalaugar, a jewel in the Icelandic landscape. The surrounding rhyolite mountains have the feel of another planet, ranging in colors from beige to red and from blue to black. After a long hike we can relax and enjoy a bath in a natural hot river.

Optional horseback riding tour in the morning before we travel to the historic sites of the first Icelandic Parliament at Þingvellir National Park. Here we have the last hike of our tour before returning to Reykjavík late afternoon.

Services end after breakfast.

Notes