Ice caves in Iceland

Natural blue ice caves open from around November to March, when the glacier is cold enough for the meltwater tunnels to be safe. They form under Vatnajökull near Jökulsárlón, and the caves change every year. Two exceptions run all year: the Katla ice cave near Vík, which is dark ice striped with ash, and Into the Glacier at Langjökull, a man-made tunnel. If you want the glowing blue photos, come between November and March.

Only the Katla cave. The South Coast and Katla ice cave tour (/experience/22559/) is about twelve hours from Reykjavík and back. The blue caves at Vatnajökull are five hours' drive each way, too far for a day, so operators sell them as two- or three-day tours (/experience/6131/, /experience/7358/) with a night near Jökulsárlón. If you are self-driving, stay in the Höfn or Skaftafell area and book the Crystal Ice Cave tour (/experience/17337/) from there.

Different, not worse. Katla's cave under Mýrdalsjökull is black and white, layered with volcanic ash, and open all year. It will not give you the glowing blue tunnel photos from Instagram; those are the Vatnajökull caves, November to March only. What Katla gives you is a shorter super-jeep drive from Vík (/experience/22558/) and availability in summer. If you are here between November and March and can reach Jökulsárlón, choose blue. Otherwise choose Katla.

With a guide, yes. Operators inspect the caves daily and cancel when meltwater, warm weather or ice movement makes them unsafe, which happens most often in November and March at the edges of the season. You wear a helmet and crampons and stay with the group. Never enter a glacier cave on your own. If your tour is cancelled for safety, you get a full refund or another date, and most operators try to substitute another cave first.

A tunnel dug into Langjökull, Iceland's second-largest glacier, in West Iceland. You drive up the ice in a monster truck and walk through lit chambers inside the glacier. It runs all year and the tunnel does not depend on weather in the way natural caves do, so it is a reliable option in summer. Tours leave from Klaki base camp (/experience/303329/), Húsafell or Reykjavík (/experience/909299/). It is engineered rather than wild, and honest about it.

It is around freezing inside, wetter than outside and often windy at the mouth. Wear waterproof boots with grip, waterproof trousers, a warm jacket, hat and gloves. The operator gives you a helmet and crampons. Floors can be slushy in the afternoon, so avoid fabric trainers. A head torch is not needed; guides carry lights. Bring your camera with a fast lens if you have one, because the blue glow is dim.

From €110 to €1420 a person, with a typical price of €239. That is the median of 52 per-person day-tour fares we currently sell. Multi-day packages and private charters are priced differently and sit outside those figures.

Perlan Ice Cave, Northern Lights Planetarium & Golden Circle Tour with BusTravel Iceland, at €110 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.

4 of the 102 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.

102 of them, from 33 operators: BusTravel Iceland, Marina Travel, Local Guide of Vatnajökull, Your Friend in Reykjavik, Katlatrack, Midgard Adventure and 27 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 12 hours, most commonly about 4.5 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 — 24 of the 102 run over two days or more. Those include accommodation and usually breakfast; check the individual itinerary.

54 of 102 (53%) 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.

19 of the 102 are private, the other 83 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.

102 of 102 run only part of the year; the other 0 run all year round. In Iceland that is usually about daylight or ice rather than demand.

Cutoffs run from 1 to 13 hours before departure, and 54 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.

74 of 102 (73%) 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: 55 easy, 32 moderate, 9 very easy, 6 challenging. Iceland's ratings assume weather — an easy walk in still air is a different proposition in 15 m/s of wind.

76 of the 102 set one, ranging from 3 to 16 years. The rest have no stated minimum, which usually means infants are allowed but not that the tour suits them.

68 of 102 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: 1 for prams and strollers. 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: wi-fi on board on 18, national park entrance fee on 15, admission fees on 15, parking fees on 10, goods and services tax on 2. Anything not listed as included is not included — Icelandic operators are literal about this.

84 of 102 are guided in person, with guiding offered in Chinese, Croatian, English, French, German, Icelandic 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), Vatnajökull (Skaftafell, Höfn), South Coast (Hella, Hvolsvöllur, Vík), Borgarfjörður (Húsafell), Akureyri & the North. 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.