Þórsmörk day trip: super jeep or highland bus?
A super jeep is the only way into Þórsmörk all year and the easy way in summer. The highland bus is a third of the price, but summer only and fixed to its timetable.
The short version
- Þórsmörk is a valley between three glaciers, reached only across unbridged glacial rivers. Rental cars are not insured for those crossings.
- Super jeep day trips run all year: about €383 from Reykjavík with pickup, or €280 meeting in Hvolsvöllur.
- The TREX highland bus is €115 each way from Reykjavík, summer only, leaving at 07:30 and 12:30.
- On the bus you get about three hours in the valley, or nearly seven if you take the 18:00 back.
Take a super jeep. Þórsmörk sits behind a string of glacial rivers with no bridges, and a super jeep is the only way in that runs all year, picks you up, and gets you home without watching the clock. The highland bus is the cheaper choice, and a good one, but only in summer and only if you are happy to walk on your own.
Þórsmörk is a valley at the foot of Eyjafjallajökull, Mýrdalsjökull and Tindfjallajökull. Birch woods, moss, black gravel riverbeds and ridges you can climb in an hour. It is where the Laugavegur trek ends, and it is the place most Icelanders name when you ask them where they go walking. It is about 160 km from Reykjavík, and the last 30 are the problem.
Why you can’t just drive there
The road in from the Ring Road near Seljalandsfoss turns into a gravel track, then into riverbeds. The Krossá, the last river before the huts, changes its depth and course through the day as the glacier melts. Every summer someone tries it in a rented 4x4 and needs pulling out.
No rental agreement in Iceland covers water damage from a river crossing. You would be paying for the car yourself. So the real choice is between a vehicle built for it and a bus built for it.
The super jeep day
Superjeep.is runs Þórsmörk and Eyjafjallajökull from Reykjavík, from €383. Pickup starts at 08:30 and the day is eight to nine hours. You stop at Seljalandsfoss on the way, cross the rivers, and walk up towards Gígjökull, the outlet glacier that tumbles down from Eyjafjallajökull’s crater. Then time on the valley’s paths before the drive back. It runs all year, and our calendar shows departures almost every day.
If you are already on the South Coast, Southcoast Adventure’s Þórsmörk Super Jeep Tour is from €280 and six hours, meeting in Hvolsvöllur. It is a local company driving its own back yard, and the walking is adjusted to the group, so it suits a mix of fit and less fit. The €100 difference with the Reykjavík version is mostly the three hours of road you avoid by sleeping nearby.
For a family or a group of five or six, Hyperborea’s private super jeep to Þórsmörk is from €1,449 for the vehicle, with Reykjavík pickup and a stop at the Nauthúsagil canyon. Split six ways it is not far off the shared price, and you choose how long you stay.
The downside of every jeep option: most of the hours are driving. You get Þórsmörk in pieces, a walk here and a viewpoint there, not a proper hike.
The highland bus
TREX runs a scheduled highland bus, Reykjavík to Þórsmörk for €115 and Þórsmörk to Reykjavík for €115, so a return is about €230. It is a big-wheeled bus that fords the rivers for you. It leaves Reykjavík at 07:30 and 12:30, takes about three and three-quarter hours, and comes back out of the valley at 14:30 and 18:00.
Take the 07:30 in and the 18:00 out and you have almost seven hours on foot, which is enough to climb Valahnúkur and walk a loop through the woods. That is more Þórsmörk than any jeep tour gives you. But nobody guides you, the bus waits for no one, and it is a summer service. Outside summer the calendar is simply empty.
The bus is also the way in for anyone staying the night in the huts or starting the Fimmvörðuháls pass over to Skógar.
Winter
The jeeps keep going. The valley is quieter, sometimes white, and the rivers are lower and slower. Days are short, so in December and January you do most of the drive in the dark and get two or three hours of light in the valley. It is still worth it if you like the idea of an empty valley more than a green one. Operators cancel when the rivers or the wind make it unsafe, and you get a new date or your money back.
Our honest take
In summer, if you like walking and can live with a timetable, take the bus: €230 buys you a full day in the valley. Anyone else, or anyone outside June to August, should take a super jeep. Book the €280 Hvolsvöllur tour if you are sleeping on the South Coast, and the €383 Reykjavík one if you are not.
Don’t try it in a rental car, whatever the rental desk says about the 4x4. The river doesn’t know what you’re insured for.
