Silfra wetsuit or drysuit: which to book
Drysuit is the standard for Silfra and the safer pick. The wetsuit tour is colder and sold by one operator. Prices from €121 to €188, with or without pickup.
The short version
- Book the drysuit unless you have a reason not to. It is warmer and it is what most Silfra tours use.
- Adventure Vikings sells both suits at €136, meeting you at Þingvellir, two and a half hours, with underwater photos.
- Into the Blue is €121 if you drive yourself and €188 with pickup from Reykjavík.
- The wetsuit tour is the only one of its kind we list. Expect colder water on the skin and shorter tolerance.
Book the drysuit. Silfra runs at about 2 to 4°C, and a drysuit with an undersuit is built for exactly that. The wetsuit works and you will not drown, but you will feel the water, and for most people that means cold hands, face and feet sooner than they expect.
Both are snorkelling, not diving. You float on the surface and the current takes you down the fissure at Þingvellir.
The drysuit tours
Self drive: Drysuit Snorkeling in Silfra (from €136, two and a half hours, Adventure Vikings) is the self-drive version. You drive to Þingvellir and meet the guides at the site. The price includes underwater photos, which is unusual at this level. The drive is about 50 km from Reykjavík, so budget an hour each way.
Into the Blue – Silfra Snorkeling (from €121, three hours, Arctic Adventures) is the same fissure and the same type of suit, a little cheaper and a little longer. It also meets you at Þingvellir. If you do not want to drive, Into the Blue from Reykjavík (from €188, five and a half hours) adds the transfer. The €67 difference is the bus.
The drysuit keeps your body dry. Your face, hands and the parts of your head the hood does not cover are the only cold spots. Most people say that fades after a couple of minutes.
The wetsuit tour
Self drive: Wetsuit Snorkeling in Silfra (from €136, two and a half hours) is the one product of its kind we list. The operator describes itself as the only company in Iceland offering Silfra in a wetsuit. A wetsuit lets a thin layer of water in and warms it with your body. In 2°C water that layer does not warm up much.
Why would anyone pick it? A few reasons. Some people find a drysuit claustrophobic. Some have trouble with the buoyancy of a drysuit, which can leave the legs floating up. Some simply prefer to feel the water. Those are fair reasons, and the operator describes it as something you will not regret. We have not tried it, so we cannot tell you how long people last in it.
What decides it
Cold tolerance. If you feel cold quickly in a normal swimming pool, you want the drysuit. If you run warm and hate rubber seals on your neck, the wetsuit is worth thinking about.
Experience. A drysuit tour has the guides doing the same thing every day, and it is the format most people have written about. The wetsuit tour is less common, so there is less to read in advance.
Price. The two self-drive tours cost the same, €136. Nothing changes there.
Pickup. Neither self-drive tour includes a transfer. If you have no car, the only pickup option in our list is the €188 Into the Blue tour.
What you see
The same thing in both. Clear water, a narrow fissure, very little life. The photos in the self-drive package are the main reason people choose it, and they are the part you cannot easily replace.
Our honest take
Drysuit, almost every time. If you have a car, Adventure Vikings at €136 is good value because of the included photos, and Arctic Adventures at €121 is the plain cheaper option. If you do not have a car, pay the €188 and have the pickup tour.
Pick the wetsuit only if the drysuit is a genuine problem for you. Tell the operator in advance if you are small, tall or heavy, because suit sizes are limited. And do not book Silfra for a day when you have nothing warm to change into afterwards.
