Iceland Ring Road & Northern Lights

Duration: 9 Days | 8 Nights
Destination: Reykjavík - Akureyri - Lake Mývatn - East Fjords - Jökulsárlón - South Coast - Golden Circle
Departure & Return Locations: Keflavík International Airport (KEF)
Group Size: Maximum 30 travellers
Minimum Age: 8 years
Departure Day: Every second Friday
Season: September to April

The full circle of Iceland, done in winter. Most ring road tours run in summer, when the light never really goes; this one runs in aurora season, which means the same 1,800 kilometres of volcanoes, fjords, glaciers and waterfalls, plus five evenings of guided Northern Lights searching from countryside hotels. You cross the north to Akureyri and Lake Mývatn, bathe in geothermal water with the whole valley below you, drop into the East Fjords, reach the icebergs at Jökulsárlón, and come back along the south coast and the Golden Circle. It is a complete lap, not a highlights reel.

We have added a night in Reykjavík before the coach departs. Flights from Australia arrive after roughly 24 hours in the air, and the standard version of this tour puts you on a bus at 09:00 the next morning. The extra night is built into the price shown — you arrive, sleep, and have a full free day in the capital before the touring starts.

Tour Highlights:
• A complete circuit of Iceland's ring road in six days of touring
• Five evenings of guided Northern Lights searching
• Two national parks, including Vatnajökull — the second largest in Europe
• The Golden Circle: Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss
• Mývatn Nature Baths, geothermal bathing with a view over the lake district, towel included
• Dimmuborgir lava labyrinth and the bubbling mud pools at Námaskarð
• Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon and the Diamond Beach
• The Icelandic Lava Show — real molten lava poured in front of you
• Icelandic horses and a geothermal greenhouse at Friðheimar
• One pre-tour night in Reykjavík included, so you land a day early

Day 1: Arrival in Reykjavík (-)
Land at Keflavík International Airport and transfer to your Reykjavík hotel by Flybus shuttle. Nothing is scheduled today. This is the night we add to the standard programme, and it exists so that the long-haul flight and the first day of touring are not the same 24 hours.
Overnight: Hotel Reykjavik Marina

Day 2: Reykjavík at Your Own Pace (B)
A free day in the capital before the tour begins. The Marina sits on the old harbour, so the whaling boats, the flea market and the Grandi district are on the doorstep, and Hallgrímskirkja and Laugavegur are a fifteen-minute walk uphill. If the aurora forecast is good, this is also a first chance to see it — ask at reception.
Overnight: Hotel Reykjavik Marina

Day 3: Volcano Crater, Fjords & the North (B, D)
Meet your guide at 09:00 and head west through Borgarnes, stopping for an easy climb up the Grábrók volcano crater, which sits in the middle of a lava field. Further north, Glaumbær is one of the country's finest surviving turf farms — a row of gabled houses packed with earth and grass, lived in until the 1940s and now a folk museum.
The afternoon runs through fjord country and over a series of mountain passes to Akureyri, the capital of the north, at the head of Eyjafjörður. Dinner is included tonight.
Overnight: Berjaya Iceland Hotels, Akureyri — 415km

Day 4: Akureyri, Lake Mývatn & Geothermal Baths (B)
Morning in Akureyri, with the fjord view from above the town. From April to October there are optional whale watching trips from the harbour between 09:00 and 12:00.
In the afternoon, Goðafoss — the waterfall of the gods, named for the pagan idols thrown into it when Iceland converted around the year 1000. Then Lake Mývatn, a geological oddity in every direction: the lava pillars at Kálfaströnd, the pseudo craters at Skútustaðir, the Hverfjall tephra cone. The day ends in the Mývatn Nature Baths, geothermal water at around 38°C with the whole lake district in front of you. The Northern Lights search begins as it gets dark.
Overnight: Berjaya Iceland Hotels, Mývatn — 120km

Day 5: Lava Labyrinth, Hot Springs & East to the Fjords (B)
The morning is spent walking through Dimmuborgir, the dark castles: a collapsed lava lake left standing as pillars, arches and hollows, and by tradition where the trolls live. In the afternoon, the Námaskarð geothermal field on the far side of the pass — ochre and sulphur ground, bubbling mud pools and steaming vents, with no vegetation for hundreds of metres.
Then east, across uninhabited highlands that look convincingly lunar, to East Iceland.
Overnight: Berjaya Iceland Hotels, Hérað — 250km

Day 6: The East Fjords (B)
A full day among the fjords of the east coast — steep-sided inlets with small fishing villages at the end of twisting roads — including a stop at a remarkable private stone and mineral collection. By afternoon, Vatnajökull comes into view, the largest glacier in Europe, visible across the whole southeast. The day ends at Höfn, the langoustine capital of Iceland.
Please note that this day in particular can be reordered for daylight and weather.
Overnight: Hotel Höfn — 260km

Day 7: Vatnajökull, Jökulsárlón, Diamond Beach & the South Coast (B)
Start at Jökulsárlón, a lagoon of icebergs calved from an outlet glacier and drifting toward the sea, with seals working the channel. Across the road, the Diamond Beach, where those icebergs wash back ashore onto black sand.
The road runs along the southern edge of Vatnajökull National Park and out across the Eldhraun lava field — moss over the largest lava flow in recorded history — then along the black sand desert of the south coast under a wall of cliffs, glaciers and waterfalls. At the Icelandic Lava Show, basalt is melted to 1,100°C and poured in front of the audience; you feel the heat from your seat. Later, the basalt columns and black sand at Reynisfjara near Vík, then Skógafoss, 60 metres in a single drop, and Seljalandsfoss, which you can walk behind if you are prepared to get wet.
Overnight: Stracta Hotel, Hella — 380km

Day 8: Icelandic Horses & the Golden Circle (B)
The Golden Circle, starting at Friðheimar, where you meet the Icelandic horse — a breed kept pure by law for a thousand years, with two gaits no other horse has — and tour a geothermal greenhouse growing tomatoes year-round on volcanic heat. On to the Geysir field, where Strokkur erupts every five to seven minutes, and Gullfoss, the golden falls, dropping 32 metres in two stages into the Hvítá canyon.
Inland to Þingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the seat of the world's oldest parliament and the one place you can walk in the rift between the North American and Eurasian plates. Back to Reykjavík with a short city tour on arrival. Optional evening Northern Lights excursions can be booked at the hotel, weather permitting.
Overnight: Hotel Reykjavik Marina — 160km

Day 9: Departure (B)
Transfer by Flybus shuttle from your hotel to Keflavík International Airport.

Tour Price
• Prices are per person, twin share, for the travel period selected above.
• Single travellers: a single supplement applies and is mandatory. Approximately A$2,220 in September, A$1,540 in October, A$1,140 from November to December and A$1,220 from January to April.
• Children aged 8 to 11 sharing a room with two adults receive a 20% discount on the tour component. Please enquire.
• Triple rooms are available on request. Configuration varies by property — an extra bed, a family room, or a double plus a single.
• All prices are subject to availability and may be withdrawn or varied without notice. Prices are guaranteed once your booking is confirmed and paid in full by the due date.
• Rates are based on the current EUR to AUD exchange rate and 11% Icelandic VAT, and may be adjusted for extreme currency movement or changes to Icelandic taxes and nature-site fees.
• Itineraries are subject to change without notice due to weather, road conditions or other circumstances outside our control. Iceland in winter is genuinely unpredictable and days are occasionally reordered — this is a ring road tour, so a closed mountain pass changes the running order.

Inclusions:
• 8 nights accommodation at comfort tourist-class hotels
• 8x breakfast
• 1x dinner
• 6 days fully escorted coach touring with an English-speaking guide/driver-guide
• Arrival and departure airport transfers by Flybus shuttle
• Five evenings of guided Northern Lights searching
• Glaumbær turf farm and folk museum
• Mývatn Nature Baths entry, towel included
• The Icelandic Lava Show
• Icelandic horse stables and geothermal greenhouse at Friðheimar
• Stone and mineral collection, East Fjords
• All entrance fees

Additional Pack Ya Bags inclusions:
• One extra night in Reykjavík before the tour begins, at the same hotel as the first night of the programme, with breakfast — so you arrive a day ahead of the coach departure rather than the morning of it. The standard version of this itinerary does not include this night.
• A free day in Reykjavík to recover and see the city, built into the schedule rather than sold as an add-on.

Complimentary on tour:
• Free Wi-Fi on the coach
• Use of snow and ice grippers for your shoes (winter departures)
• Use of a flashlight (winter departures)

Optional extras, bookable in advance:
• Private airport transfer in place of the Flybus shuttle — approximately A$290 per car each way, or A$580 return, for 1 to 6 people
• Additional nights in Reykjavík before or after the tour
• Whale watching from Akureyri on day 4, April to October, paid locally
• Northern Lights evening excursions from Reykjavík on day 8, bookable at the hotel

Exclusions:
• International and domestic airfares
• Travel insurance
• All meals not listed under inclusions. Budget roughly ISK 8,000 to 10,000 per person per day for lunches and dinners
• Single supplement, where a single room is required
• Optional activities and any additional services
• Tips and personal expenses
• Anything not specifically mentioned as included

Please note:
• Departures run every second Friday from September to April.
• Minimum age is 8 years. The tour is not recommended for younger children.
• The boat trip among the icebergs at Jökulsárlón operates from May to October and is not part of winter departures. September and early October departures may include it, subject to weather; please ask at the time of booking.
• The Northern Lights are a natural phenomenon and cannot be guaranteed. This itinerary is built to maximise your chances — five of the eight nights are spent outside Reykjavík, away from light pollution — but solar activity and cloud cover are outside anyone's control.
• Guides are English-speaking. Vegetarian and vegan meals can be arranged with notice; please advise dietary requirements at the time of booking.
• A non-refundable deposit of up to 20% may be required within 72 hours of confirmation to hold your seats. Final payment is due 6 weeks before departure.
• Cancellation charges apply: 20% of the tour cost is retained for cancellations 6 to 8 weeks before departure, and 50% from 6 weeks until 28 days before departure. No refund is available for cancellations inside 28 days, for no-shows, or for a tour begun but not completed.
• We can hold a reservation for 72 hours while you arrange flights.
• Travel insurance is not included and is strongly recommended.

Please refer to our Standard Booking Conditions for booking terms and conditions.