Iceland cruise excursions, by port

We sell 309 shore excursions across Iceland's cruise ports. Booking direct with the operator is normally cheaper than the same tour from the ship's desk, and the operators here are the ones the ships buy from anyway. The catch is that you carry the risk of getting back late — so every list on these pages is sorted by whether the tour actually fits a port call, which is the question the ship's brochure never answers.

  • One checkout, any number of operators

  • Rankings are not for sale

  • 207 operators vetted, and not all of them accepted

  • If it falls short, we fix it

Reykjavík

188 excursions · 32 operators · typically €1,027

Reykjavík is the one Icelandic port where the excursion choice is genuinely large, and that is the problem. Plenty of what is sold as a Reykjavík day tour is a ten- or eleven-hour South Coast run built for people staying in a hotel, not for a ship that sails at five.

84 fit a normal call →

Akureyri

51 excursions · 14 operators · typically €293

Akureyri is a short walk from a real town with a botanical garden, a swimming pool, bakeries and a church on a hill, which is more than most Icelandic ports offer. The excursions push east: Goðafoss is 35 minutes away, Mývatn about 90, and the Diamond Circle with Dettifoss and Ásbyrgi is a full day.

35 fit a normal call →

Ísafjörður

15 excursions · 9 operators · typically €202

This is our own home port; Formáli is registered on Hafnarstræti. Ísafjörður is the smallest of the three and the excursion list is short, which is honest rather than a failing — the Westfjords have few operators and the ones here are small.

13 fit a normal call →

Grundarfjörður

7 excursions · 7 operators · typically €1,505

Grundarfjörður is a fishing village of under a thousand people on the north side of Snæfellsnes. The excursions here are short peninsula loops built for ships: Kirkjufell, the lava fields, the black-sand beaches and the glacier seen from the road.

4 fit a normal call →

Seyðisfjörður

6 excursions · 2 operators · typically €1,348

Seyðisfjörður is a village of about 700 people at the end of a long fjord, with timber houses and a painted street up to the blue church. Excursions cross the pass to Egilsstaðir and the reindeer country beyond.

6 fit a normal call →

Húsavík

20 excursions · 7 operators · typically €118

Húsavík is the whale-watching town of the north, with about 2,500 people. Few tours here are sold to ships by name, so this list also shows day tours that start in Húsavík and run eight hours or less..

20 fit a normal call →

How long is safe?

A ship ashore from 08:00 to 17:00 gives you nine hours, and you want to be at the gangway an hour before it sails. So seven hours of tour is the realistic ceiling on a normal call, and anything over nine is not a port-call tour at all — it is a tour for people staying in a hotel, listed in the same catalogue.

We band every excursion against that. "Fits a normal call" means five to seven hours. "Only on a long call" means eight or nine, which works if your ship is in until seven in the evening and not otherwise. "Longer than most calls" is there so you can see what exists, not because we recommend it.

Bands are a starting point, and your ship is not typical. Each port page has a Back on board in time box: enter your all-aboard time and it lists the tours that return at least 60 minutes before it, based on the operator's stated duration, with the port's transfer time added each way. That is a planning rule, not a guarantee: durations are the operator's estimate and Icelandic roads close in bad weather.

The one real difference from booking through the ship

If a ship-sold excursion runs late, the ship waits. If ours does, it does not. That is the honest trade for the lower price, and it is why we would rather sell you a six-hour tour than an eight-hour one. Operators here know the sailing times and build in margin, but weather in Iceland does what it likes — so on a tight call, take the shorter tour.

Smaller calls

We have some inventory at these but not enough for a page of its own. Tell us your ship and date and we will say plainly whether there is anything worth booking.

  • Djúpivogur— East Iceland — the excursions run inland to Egilsstaðir
  • Hafnarfjörður— Shares the Reykjavík excursion list

Email [email protected] or call +354 497 1373.