ATV & buggy in Iceland

In two very different places on this site. Near Reykjavík, the Hafnarfjörður lava fields, twenty minutes from town, host the ATV combos with caving, horses and whale watching (/experience/292/, /experience/1603/). In the Westfjords, Activity Tours runs one-hour and three-hour rides from Drangsnes and Djúpavík on the Strandir coast (/experience/1176229/, /experience/1167831/), with fjord views and almost no other traffic. The Westfjords rides are better; Reykjavík is easier to reach.

Yes, a full valid car licence to drive one. Passengers ride behind the driver and do not need a licence, but minimum ages apply for both; check the tour page. Bring the physical licence card. Standard pricing puts two people on one ATV, with a single-rider supplement if you want your own. Buggies (/experience/7689/) are side-by-side and more car-like, if you are unsure about balancing an ATV.

Old clothes and closed shoes. The operator gives you a helmet, overalls, gloves and often a balaclava, because Icelandic tracks are mud in summer and slush in winter and you will get sprayed. Wear warm layers underneath; you are sitting still in the wind. Sunglasses or goggles help with grit. Leave anything white at the hotel. A shower afterwards is not optional.

It carries real risk, which is why the licence rules exist. You ride in a line behind a guide at a set pace on marked tracks, so the danger is mostly in overconfidence on loose gravel or steep sections. Follow the guide's speed and keep your feet on the footrests. Travel insurance that covers motorised activities is worth checking before you book; some standard policies exclude ATVs.

Honest answer: in the Reykjavík lava fields, an ATV is a fun hour but the scenery is the same lava you drove past from the airport. The Westfjords rides from Drangsnes and Djúpavík are the ones we would book ourselves, with empty roads, fjords and the old herring factory. If you are only in the capital and want engines, snowmobiling on Langjökull gives you bigger views for the money.

From €102 to €1420 a person, with a typical price of €208. That is the median of 44 per-person day-tour fares we currently sell. Multi-day packages and private charters are priced differently and sit outside those figures.

A Zipline in Vik, South Iceland with Katlatrack, at €102 a person. Read what it actually is before booking on price alone — the cheapest line is sometimes an admission ticket rather than a guided trip, and a large coach costs less per seat than a small-group minibus because it gives you less time at each stop.

2 of the 100 are priced on request rather than published, which almost always means a private charter where the cost depends on group size and pickup point. Ask us and we will get a quote from the operator.

100 of them, from 39 operators: Reykjavík Jet Skis, BusTravel Iceland, Katlatrack, Arctic Adventures, Your Friend in Reykjavik, Sleipnir Tours and 33 more. Every one is a company we hold a contract with — we do not list everything in Iceland, on purpose.

Day tours run from 1 hour to 11.5 hours, most commonly about 2.5 hours. Pickup and drop-off are usually inside that figure, so a three-hour tour from Reykjavík can mean closer to four door to door.

Yes — 1 of the 100 run over two days or more. Those include accommodation and usually breakfast; check the individual itinerary.

78 of 100 (78%) offer pickup. The rest ask you to meet on location. Pickup is the single most common cause of a missed tour in Iceland: it runs to a window rather than a time, and the bus will not wait long.

51 of the 100 are private, the other 49 are shared departures. Private costs more in total but is priced per vehicle, so for four or more people it often works out close per head — and you set the pace.

Across the next 360 days of live availability we hold departures in October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. That is a rolling window rather than the whole year, so a month missing from that list is not necessarily a month with nothing running.

21 of 100 run only part of the year; the other 79 run all year round. In Iceland that is usually about daylight or ice rather than demand.

Cutoffs run from 1 to 12 hours before departure, and 65 of them accept bookings inside 24 hours — so booking the night before is often possible. Popular winter tours sell out days ahead regardless of the cutoff.

89 of 100 (89%) allow free cancellation at least 24 hours before departure. The exact window is on each tour page and comes from the operator's own policy, not ours. If the operator cancels for weather you are refunded in full.

Operators rate them: 75 easy, 19 moderate, 5 very easy, 1 challenging. Iceland's ratings assume weather — an easy walk in still air is a different proposition in 15 m/s of wind.

51 of the 100 set one, ranging from 1 to 18 years. The rest have no stated minimum, which usually means infants are allowed but not that the tour suits them.

41 of 100 are marked family-friendly by the operator. That is their judgement rather than ours, and it usually means the walking is short and the vehicle has a toilet.

Operators have flagged accessibility on some: 21 for prams and strollers, 7 for wheelchair users. Ring us before booking rather than relying on the flag alone — Icelandic sites vary enormously and a flag does not describe the terrain at the stop.

Varies by operator. Across these: food and drink on 22, wi-fi on board on 17, parking fees on 6, admission fees on 6, fuel surcharge on 5. Anything not listed as included is not included — Icelandic operators are literal about this.

83 of 100 are guided in person, with guiding offered in Arabic, English, French, German, Icelandic, Italian and 2 more. English is standard on every shared departure in Iceland; other languages usually mean a private guide.

They start from Capital Region (Reykjavík), South Coast (Hella, Hvolsvöllur, Vík), Vatnajökull (Skaftafell, Höfn), Akureyri & the North, Snæfellsnes, Borgarfjörður (Húsafell) and 5 more. Where a tour starts matters more in Iceland than how long it lasts: the same tour from Reykjavík and from Vík are different days entirely.

The operator cancels and refunds you in full — Icelandic operators cancel readily, and that is a good sign rather than a bad one. What they will not do is refund you for a tour that ran and simply had poor visibility. Wind cancels more tours here than rain or cold.