Landmannalaugar Rainbow Mountains 4x4 Tour - Valley of Tears
by Crystal Cave Tours · Super jeeps · cruise-excursion · Highlands
- Luxury
- Can be tailored
Would this be cheaper direct? No — we sell at Crystal Cave Tours's own price and take our commission from them, not from you. What you get here is one checkout across operators, one confirmation, and one place to change or cancel it. If you ever find it cheaper on their own site, tell us and we will match it or explain why we cannot.
More photos of Landmannalaugar Rainbow Mountains 4x4 Tour - Valley of Tears
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Duration
11 hours
Difficulty
Challenging
Season
May – Sep
Meeting
Hotel pickup available
Languages
EN
Start time
Time agreed after booking
Cancellation
Free until 2 days before
About this experience
Take a little break from the paved roads and tour busses, in this tour we travel off the beaten and paved path to take a look at the alien landscape of the highlands.
The Landmannalaugar tour comes with an option of a 2 hour hike through a steaming lava field if you like a little hiking, it's moderate difficulty but definitely worth it. The colors of the mountains come in all shapes of the rainbow due to the minerals and geothermal activity.
After the hike you can take a dip in a completely natural, not one touch by man, hot spring that roams between 36-40 degrees Celsius, like a good hot tub should.
Then once we have relaxed in the hot spring we drive to Hnausapollur, a volcanic Crater formed 1200 years ago in a massive eruption. The landscape surrounding the crater often brings the words "it's like Mars" or "Otherworldly" to the mouths of my travellers.
After that we go and see one of the most beautiful places in Iceland, Sigöldugljúfur, where you can see uncountable waterfalls falling in to a canyon of the bluest water you have ever seen. Some comments from the travellers include: "The most beautiful place I have seen in my life", "this looks like its not real", "It´s like an Instagram filter but it´s real life"
This is the one you should definetly not miss if you want to take a step off the beaten path.
Description from the operator, Crystal Cave Tours. Prices and availability in the booking panel are live.
Where you go
- Itinerary
Good to know
Swimming Clothes and a towel if they want to take a dip in the hot spring
Warm clothes and decent hiking shoes.
Pack lunch, only snacks available at the base camp.
Cancellation for this tour
Free cancellation until 2 days before departure; no refund after that. If the operator cancels for weather or safety, you get a full refund or a new date.
If the weather cancels this tour
Iceland's weather is real. What usually stops this one is closed roads — the Road Administration shuts the mountain roads before the operator has to decide anything. Here is exactly what happens to your booking.
- 1Crystal Cave Tours decides, and tells us. Operators cancel when it is unsafe or pointless, and we back that call every time — we do not ask them to run anyway.
- 2We contact you by email, and by phone if your tour is the same or next day. You choose: another date if there is one you can make, or a full refund. There is no fee and nothing to argue.
- 3The refund goes back to the card you paid with, through Stripe, usually visible within a few working days. If this tour was one of several in your booking, the others are untouched.
What you do not get is the day back. If this is the only free day in your plan, put a spare day next to it — the planner leaves days free with the rest-day option. And if you want out because the forecast looks bad, that is your own cancellation: free until 2 days before departure, the operator's policy after that.
Questions on the day: [email protected] · +354 497 1373. How cancellations work in Iceland →
Sold out on your date?
Seats come back — a cancellation, or the operator adding a vehicle. Tell us the date and we will check once a day and email you if one opens. One email, then we delete the address; nothing else is ever sent to it.
Who this is not for
- Not for anyone unsure on their feet or carrying an injury — the operator rates this as physically demanding, and there is no easy version of the day.
- Not a good fit if you want a relaxed day: 11 hours is a long time on the road, most of it spent getting there and back.
Read off the operator's own conditions. If none of it applies to you, this is a good one.
Why we list it
Crystal Cave Tours is one of 154 operators we work with — chosen for reliability, honest descriptions and how they treat guests when weather changes plans. We don't list everything; we list what we'd book ourselves. The six checks every operator passes →
What travellers say about Crystal Cave Tours
Read all 85 reviews on Google →Operator rating 4.0/5 from Google — these are reviews of the company, not this specific tour. Shown as Google returns them, unedited.
★★★★★ · 5 months ago
We had a wonderful time with Jessie. The blue cave was surprisingly beautiful and large. The whole trip was very windy but we all made it without any problem!
★★★★★ · 7 months ago
We weren't sure if the weather would be good enough to make it in time so we didn't purchase tickets in advance. Thankfully they had room and let us join a tour. The guide was knowledgeable and humorous. The group wasn't too big. The equipment was all in working condition. Overall this was an amazing experience we won't soon forget.
★★★★★ · 10 months ago
The tour with Crystal Cave Tours was wonderful. Our guide Bane had a fantastic sense of humor and planned the trip with great foresight. For example, he took us on an alternative route to the cave (actually a moulin) so that we could spend more time inside. This was possible because he cleverly assessed the group’s character and fitness level at the beginning and gathered information about the weather, which can change very quickly. Right after we left the cave, a snowstorm started. Bane guided us safely and efficiently through the snow and then drove the Jeep securely through the fog. We were his “Team Awesome.” During the hike, Bane shared lots of fascinating facts about glaciers and the surrounding nature with great humor and vivid explanations. Despite all the jokes, he always kept safety in mind and took excellent care of us. Bane knows everything, can do everything, and is almost perfect. 😁 Thank you! ❤️
★★★ · 9 months ago
I booked the tour through Guide To Iceland. I believed I had signed up for a 4-hour glacier hike and an ice cave tour, but we were actually taken to a narrow crevice that I wouldn’t really call a glacier cave. It was quite different from the photos I had seen, so I was a bit disappointed. The scenery was very beautiful and I still enjoyed it, but if you go expecting a large cave, I think you’ll end up quite disappointed. I understand that this is due to natural terrain, but it seems that you can’t always visit the kind of places shown in the promotional photos. I came from a very distant country, so this might have been a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me. That’s why I was really disappointed that we couldn’t enter the ice cave. The guide, however, was very kind. He walked a bit fast — perhaps a little too fast for some of us — though I suppose His longer legs didn’t help:)
Reviews from Google · updated 13 Sept 2026
Read before you book
- Landmannalaugar is a summer place, and the road there is why tours use super-jeepsThe Highlands open for a few months a year behind F-roads your hire car can't legally use. How to get to Landmannalaugar, and what each way costs.
Reviews from our travellers
Only people who booked this tour through us can write here. We publish every review in full — good or bad.
No reviews yet from our travellers on this one. After your tour we send one email asking how it was, and what you write goes here, unedited.
Super jeeps — questions people ask
What is a super jeep?
A four-wheel-drive truck or van rebuilt for Iceland: raised suspension, huge low-pressure tyres and a snorkel, so it can cross rivers, drive on snow and climb glacier tracks that stop a rental car. Groups are small, usually eight to sixteen people. Super jeeps are how you reach Landmannalaugar in the highlands, ice caves under Mýrdalsjökull and dark northern-lights spots off the main roads. They are pricier than a coach, and rougher.
Is a super jeep northern lights tour better than a bus?
Slightly, for two reasons. A super jeep can leave the tarmac and find darker, more sheltered spots, and with ten people rather than fifty you spend less time waiting at stops. Arctic Adventures' Northern Lights Explorer (/experience/209/) and Northern Lights by 4x4 (/experience/1088067/) are the standard options. The sky is the same either way; a jeep does not make clouds part. If budget matters, a small-group minibus gets you most of the benefit.
When can you take a super jeep to Landmannalaugar?
Late June to September, once the highland roads open. The Landmannalaugar Safari (/experience/341/) is a twelve-hour day from Reykjavík with river crossings, a short hike and a soak in the natural hot river. The rest of the year the road is closed to everything except specially licensed winter expeditions. The dates the F-roads open vary each year with the snow, so if you are booking for June, expect a possible reschedule.
Is a super jeep tour comfortable?
Comfortable enough on the tarmac, bumpy on the rough stuff. That is the point. Expect to be thrown about on lava tracks and river beds, and to sit in a bench seat for several hours. People prone to motion sickness should sit in front and take a tablet. The trade-off is access: you see places coaches cannot go, with a driver-guide who talks to you rather than over a microphone.
One checkout, any number of operators
Rankings are not for sale
153 operators vetted, and not all of them accepted
If it falls short, we fix it
Pairs well with
Everything here goes into the same basket and the same single payment, however many operators it comes from.
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