Highland area · Highlands

Landmannalaugar

Rhyolite mountains and a natural hot stream at the north end of the Laugavegur trail. Reached only by F-road, and only in summer.

prices and departures checked 13 Sept 2026

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The short version

65 tours in our catalogue stop at Landmannalaugar — 38 of them day tours from a single base, 27 as part of a longer package.
A seat on a day tour here typically costs €214, from €85 at the cheapest. Private tours are priced per vehicle and sit outside that figure.
22 different operators run here, so a cancellation rarely means the day is lost.
Departures in our next 360 days fall in September, October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August.
Seasonal here: Midnight sun (May–July), Highland F-roads open (June–September), Lupine in bloom (June–July).

The facts

Type: Highland area
Region: Highlands
Tours that stop here: 6538 day tours · 27 multi-day
Day tour, cheapest: €85
Day tour, typical: €214median of 27 per-person fares
Operators: 22
From Reykjavík: 140 km (87 mi)straight line — the road is longer
Coordinates: 63.9800, -19.0700

Daylight through the year

Iceland's daylight swings further than almost anywhere people holiday, and it decides what a tour can actually show you. Times are for the 15th of each month at this spot.

Month	Sunrise	Sunset	Daylight
January	10:44	16:06	5 h 22 min
March	07:39	19:13	11 h 34 min
June	02:50	23:42	20 h 52 min
September	06:36	19:47	13 h 11 min
December	11:01	15:22	4 h 21 min

What is seasonal here

None of these have fixed dates, so each one says what its real dates depend on.

Midnight sun

May–July

True midnight sun only above the Arctic Circle — Grímsey. The mainland gets civil twilight all night, which looks much the same.

Highland F-roads open

June–September

The Road Administration opens each F-road when the ground has thawed enough to take traffic. Mid-June is typical; some years it is July.

Lupine in bloom

June–July

Introduced, controversial and impossible to miss when it flowers. Peaks a fortnight later in the north than the south.

What people do here

Getting here without a car

The 32 tours we sell that stop at Landmannalaugar leave from Reykjavík, Landmannalaugar and Selfoss, with a handful from one other town. Most of them start in Reykjavík, so for anyone based in the capital there is nothing to arrange beforehand.

26 of the 32 collect you from your accommodation or a designated stop, so the tour is the transport — there is nothing else to arrange and no timetable to read.

A seat on a day tour here starts at €100 and typically runs €265, per person, private charters excluded because those are priced per vehicle and would flatter the figure. There is also a scheduled bus or transfer serving Landmannalaugar, from €85 — cheaper than a tour, with no guide and no stops on the way.

The days themselves run from about 1 h 15 min to 14 h door to door, so check the length as carefully as the price — the cheapest seat is often the longest coach day. 20 different operators run here, which matters more without a car than with one: if the weather cancels your day, there is usually another departure rather than a lost trip.

The road here is seasonal. F-roads into the highlands open when the ground has thawed enough to carry traffic — mid-June in a normal year, July in a cold one — and close again in September, and nothing scheduled runs outside that window. A trip in April or October is not a matter of finding the right operator; there is no road.

The one scheduled way in is the highland bus, and it runs only while the F-roads are open — roughly mid-June to mid-September, with the exact dates set each year by the Road Administration rather than by a timetable. Outside that window there is no bus, no road and no tour: the answer is genuinely no, not "ask us". In the season the bus is also the sensible choice for anyone who would otherwise be tempted to drive, because the route fords rivers that a normal hire car is neither built nor insured for.

This is one place where a rental car is the wrong tool. An ordinary hire car is not allowed on the F-roads that lead here, and the river crossings are the reason — take the bus or a super-jeep tour.

Cheapest way in without a car: the scheduled transfer, from €85 per person.

We have done the sums on this properly: what a rental car actually costs against guided tours.