Blue Ice Cave Exploration from Jökulsárlón

Step inside a natural ice cave beneath Vatnajökull on a three-hour small-group tour departing from Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon.

Jökulsárlón is where Vatnajökull meets the sea — Europe's largest glacier by volume, calving icebergs into a lagoon at the edge of the Ring Road. This three-hour tour takes you from the lagoon up onto the ice and into a cave that the glacier forms anew each winter.

A modified 4x4 carries you from the lagoon out to the glacier. From there it is a short walk to the cave mouth, where your guide hands out helmets and crampons and talks you through the ground you are about to cross.

The ice inside is dense enough to filter out everything but blue. Your guide works on this glacier through the season and will explain how the cave opened, how meltwater carved it, and how far the ice has drawn back within living memory. There is time to photograph it properly.

Please note that every ice cave is temporary. The one you visit will differ from the photographs on this page, sometimes markedly: the colour depends on daylight and cloud cover, and rain can leave water standing on the floor. This is normal for a natural cave. If conditions make it unsafe, the tour is cancelled and you are offered another date or a full refund.

Groups are capped at 14 people. The three hours include the drive each way, the walk to the cave and the time spent inside it. Guiding is in English, and Chinese-language guiding can be requested subject to availability.