Iceland tours by month — what actually runs September to April and May to August
Northern lights and ice caves are a winter product. Puffins and the Highlands are summer. Here's what's actually for sale in each month, and what isn't.
Iceland has two tour seasons and they don’t match the calendar you’d expect. Roughly September to April is northern lights and ice caves. May to August is puffins, the Highlands and midnight-sun boats. A handful of things run all year — Golden Circle, South Coast, whale watching from Reykjavík, glacier hikes on Sólheimajökull. Book the wrong month and you’ll find the tour simply isn’t for sale.
September to April
Northern lights tours start when the nights get dark enough, usually mid to late September, and stop in mid-April when they don’t. BusTravel Iceland’s Northern Lights Small Group Tour is from €99 for four hours out of Reykjavík. Operators cancel when the forecast is cloudy and offer a new night. That’s normal, and you should expect it at least once.
Natural ice caves under Vatnajökull open when the ice is cold enough to be stable — generally November to March. Arctic Adventures’ Crystal Ice Cave Tour is two and a half hours from the Jökulsárlón area from €155. You have to get yourself to the southeast for it: a five-hour drive from Reykjavík, or one of the two- and three-day South Coast tours that bundle it in.
The downside: short days. In December the sun is up for around four to five hours in Reykjavík, so day tours run in the dark at both ends. Roads close in storms and multi-day tours re-route.
May to August
Puffins arrive on the cliffs around late April and leave by mid-August. Elding’s Reykjavík Classic Puffin Watching is an hour from the Old Harbour from €62, and runs only in those months. The Highland roads open around late June, once the snow has melted off the F-roads, and close again in September. That is the entire window for Landmannalaugar — Arctic Adventures’ guided hike with hot springs from Reykjavík is a fourteen-hour day from €185.
The downside: no northern lights. There is no darkness. Anyone who sells you a June lights tour is selling you a bus ride. And July is peak: car parks are full and small-group tours sell out days ahead.
All year
Golden Circle, South Coast, Snæfellsnes, Reykjavík whale watching, Sólheimajökull glacier hikes, Silfra snorkelling, the Lava Tunnel and Langjökull snowmobiling run in every month. In winter they leave later and return earlier. In summer the same tour may run twice a day.
Our honest take
If you want lights and ice caves, come between November and March and accept dark, cold days and a real chance of a cancelled night. If you want the Highlands or puffins, come in July or early August and accept crowds and peak prices. The shoulder months — September, October and late April — are where we’d send a friend: lights are possible, roads are open, and the all-year tours are running with fewer people on them. The tradeoff is that nothing’s certain in shoulder season. The puffins may have gone, and the ice caves aren’t open yet.
