Glacier hiking in Iceland

Sólheimajökull on the South Coast, about two and a half hours from Reykjavík. It is the most accessible glacier tongue, the walk from the car park is short and the three-to-four-hour tours (/experience/6853/ or /experience/914990/) suit beginners. Skaftafell in the southeast has bigger ice and fewer people, with tours like Glacier Wonders (/experience/17340/), but it is a five-hour drive each way, so it only works if you are staying out there.

Yes. Glacier hiking runs all year. In June to August the ice is grey and gritty on the surface with blue crevasses and meltwater channels, and the weather is milder. In November to March the ice is whiter and you may see ice formations, but daylight is short and the wind bites. Neither is better; summer is easier, winter is prettier. The one thing you cannot do in summer is visit a natural blue ice cave.

Moderately. You walk two to three hours on uneven ice in crampons, with some short steep sections. Anyone who can manage a hilly day walk will be fine; the pace is slow because the guide is checking the route. It is not for anyone with knee or balance problems, and most operators set a minimum age of eight to ten. Check the tour page. Longer tours like Glacier Explorer (/experience/17338/) push further onto the ice and need more stamina.

Sturdy boots with ankle support, waterproof jacket and trousers, warm layers, gloves and a hat, plus water and a snack. The operator provides crampons, a harness, a helmet and an ice axe. Jeans and trainers are not allowed on the ice, and guides do turn people away. Most meeting points rent boots and rain gear for a small fee; check the tour page and book them in advance in summer.

Yes, if you have only a few days. The full-day South Coast and glacier tour (/experience/5821/) covers Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and Sólheimajökull in around thirteen hours, which is a long day with a lot of bus. If you have a car or are staying near Vík, book the glacier hike alone as a meet-on-location tour and see the waterfalls at your own pace. Same ice, half the sitting.

From €66 to €661 a person, with a typical price of €203. That is the median of 114 per-person day-tour fares we currently sell. Multi-day packages and private charters are priced differently and sit outside those figures.

Glacier's Edge - Sólheimajökull Introductory Walk with Arctic Adventures, at €66 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.

1 of the 224 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.

224 of them, from 46 operators: Your Friend in Reykjavik, Marina Travel, Arctic Adventures, Melrakki Adventures, Local Guide of Vatnajökull, Gravel Travel and 40 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 14 hours, most commonly about 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 — 42 of the 224 run over two days or more. Those include accommodation and usually breakfast; check the individual itinerary.

100 of 224 (45%) 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.

44 of the 224 are private, the other 180 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.

81 of 224 run only part of the year; the other 143 run all year round. In Iceland that is usually about daylight or ice rather than demand.

Cutoffs run from 1 to 23 hours before departure, and 95 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.

148 of 224 (66%) 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: 109 easy, 93 moderate, 12 challenging, 10 very easy. Iceland's ratings assume weather — an easy walk in still air is a different proposition in 15 m/s of wind.

174 of the 224 set one, ranging from 2 to 18 years. The rest have no stated minimum, which usually means infants are allowed but not that the tour suits them.

150 of 224 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: 3 for prams and strollers, 2 for wheelchair users, 1 for limited mobility. 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: admission fees on 25, wi-fi on board on 24, national park entrance fee on 16, parking fees on 15, bus fare on 8. Anything not listed as included is not included — Icelandic operators are literal about this.

179 of 224 are guided in person, with guiding offered in Chinese, Croatian, Czech, English, French, German and 8 more. English is standard on every shared departure in Iceland; other languages usually mean a private guide.

They start from Capital Region (Reykjavík), Vatnajökull (Skaftafell, Höfn), South Coast (Hella, Hvolsvöllur, Vík), Highlands (Landmannalaugar), Borgarfjörður (Húsafell), Snæfellsnes and 2 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.