Volcanic Wonders and Magical Nights | Winter Adventure from Reykjavik - 8 days

Über die Reise

Nothing will be left out during this week in Reykjavik! You will go on an adventurous glacier hike, listen to the murmuring of the North Atlantic, explore volcanic landscapes, and follow the Northern Lights. Culture and relaxation will not get short shrift on this trip either! You will be introduced to old Icelandic culinary traditions and experience Icelanders’ love of bathing and swimming in geothermal waters.

Breathe the clean air and enjoy the panorama of majestic mountains and the blue sea in the world´s northernmost city! The proximity to nature makes Reykjavík unique. You don´t have to travel far to feel like you are the only person in the world or to experience some of Iceland´s trademarks. This tour combines city pleasures with natural wonders that will leave you with unforgettable memories.


Highlights

  • Hunt for the Northern Lights
  • Glacier walk
  • Culinary experiences
  • Geothermal baths

Leistungen

  • 7 pre-booked nights with breakfast in hotels or guesthouses (your preference)
  • Airport transfers
  • Four-hour Food Walk with tasting (Day 2)
  • Bus tours (Day 3, day 5 & day 7)
  • Refreshments and tasting local cuisine in Friðheimar and a two-course dinner in Efstidalur (Day 3)
  • Admission to the Wellness Spa Fontana, towel included (Day 3)
  • Appropriate gear for the glacier hike (Day 5)
  • Traditional Dinner with dessert (Day 5)
  • Helmet with headlamp for the cave excursion (Day 7)
  • English-speaking guides on all daytrips
  • Reykjavík City Card valid for 24 hours
  • Icelandic VAT and accommodation tax
  • Insolvency insurance

The itinerary is flexible and can be customized. We do not guarantee sightings of the Aurora Borealis. It is a natural phenomenon and depends on solar activity. A fairly clouldless sky is essential for successful viewing.

Reiseverlauf

1

Arrival

Arrival at the airport in Keflavík. There is a 50-minute drive with the FlyBus airport transfer bus directly to the hotel in Reykjavík where you will spend your week in Iceland. If you arrive in the afternoon, a stop and a relaxing soak in the Blue Lagoon geothermal spa can be added to your journey to the capital city. You can use the evening to explore the city’s numerous restaurants and gain a first impression of Iceland.

2

Culinary Reykjavík

There is no itinerary for the morning. By midday you will probably be hungry, and you can get acquainted with your new surroundings – not only via your taste buds — on the popular Reykjavík Food Walk. On the four-hour stroll through this lively city, a local guide will give you an entertaining introduction to the secrets of Icelandic cuisine as well as time-honored local traditions. You will visit six unique restaurants, where you can taste delicacies like “the best lobster soup in the world” or skyr and ice cream, all prepared according to cherished family recipes.

3

Golden Circle & Magical Nights

Today you take a bus tour, and the first stop is the national park Þingvellir. In a magnificent landscape of volcanic fissures filled with crystal-clear water, you will learn something about Icelandic history and geology while walking along the gorge Allmannagjá. Lunch will be locally-produced tomato soup with freshly baked bread served in the greenhouse Friðheimar before you set off for a visit to the imposing waterfall Gullfoss. A colorful contrast to that natural wonder is the geothermal area around the Great Geysir where the active hot spring “Strokkur” can be relied on to erupt every five minutes, shooting a 30-meter high column of water into the air. After enjoying this pristine, wild nature, you will sample local delicacies at the farm Efstidalur. You can then sit back and review today’s many new impressions in one of the hot pools or steam saunas at the Wellness Spa Fontana in the village of Laugarvatn. After that, rested and relaxed, you can enjoy a two-course meal in the restaurant Lindin before setting off in search of the mysterious northern lights*.

*Please note that the success of an excursion to see the northern lights depends on solar activity and weather conditions and therefore cannot be guaranteed.

4

Discovery tour through the capital city

With the Reykjavik City Card you can take advantage of countless sights and activities in the capital city. You can ride Reykjavik city buses free of charge, and you have free admission to all swimming pools and various museums and galleries. If you are interested in history, you can visit the National Museum of Iceland, the Settlement Museum, or the Maritime Museum, all in the city center. With your Reykjavik Card, you also get discounts on numerous day excursions, and in many restaurants and souvenir shops. So you could round off the day with a whale-watching excursion, a guided sightseeing trip by bus, or even a riding tour through moon-like lava landscape. There is also the option of a visit to the Blue Lagoon on this day.

5

Glacier hike und Aurora adventure

Prepare yourself for a unique day outdoors in nature! Your first destination is the rugged glacier tongue Sólheimarjökull on the south coast of Iceland, where you will take an easy walk on the frozen surface. Professional guides will introduce you to the secrets of the glacier world and teach you how to use an ice axe and crampons. The hike will take you across white glacier ice to deep-blue fissures and glacier mills. Then, after a short drive through a rugged landscape, you arrive at the magnificent, roaring waterfall Skógafoss with its vertical drop of 60 meters. After that, you can enjoy a typical Icelandic dinner in a local restaurant. This evening as well, you will have another chance to see Aurora Borealis on the drive to Reykjavík, possibly with a stop at the floodlit waterfall Seljalandsfoss.

6

A day according to your preferences

After all the new impressions you have gained so far, you can now choose between numerous other daytrips – or simply spend a relaxing day in Reykjavík. A walk along the shopping street Laugavegur, a visit to the magnificent Harpa Concert Hall and possibly a concert there in the evening, or attendance at one of many other events on offer will give you the chance to experience the capital‘s vibrant cultural scene. In the winter particularly, we also recommend a visit to the geothermal spa, the Blue Lagoon, where you can sit back and the absorb the warmth emanating from deep inside the earth in the midst dramatic, black lava rock formations.

7

The volcanic wonders of Reykjanes Peninsula

Today you will take a bus tour around Reykjanes Peninsula, an area of particular interest from a geological standpoint. Reykjanes lies on the rift zone between the North American and Eurasian Continents and has many unusual landscape formations. You will explore the subsurface on a cave excursion into a lava tube before visiting the lake Kleifarvatn with the adjacent wind-eroded tuff formations. Not far from the lake is the colorful and quite alien landscape of the geothermal area Séltún, with its numerous bubbling mud pots and columns of steam rising into the air. Driving along the roaring Atlantic, you pass many craters and lava fields with different formations and arrive, via the quaint fishing village of Grindavík, in Gunnuhver, a vast geothermal field. Here you will experience the enormous power of the earth at close hand in the many hissing hot springs. A sense of awe in the face of the gigantic forces of nature can also be felt at the lighthouse Reykjanesviti, where the thundering waves of the North Atlantic break on the sharp-edged, black basalt crust. After this tour, you could spend a cozy evening in your hotel or throw yourself into Iceland’s famous nightlife.

8

Departure

Airport transfer from your hotel to the international airport in Keflavik, departure.

Galerie