Iceland Hiking: Thorsmork, Skaftafell and the South Coast

1. Day 1: Arrive in Reykjavik

   Keflavik International Airport to your hotel in Reykjavik

   • Drive about 45 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Reykjavik
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Keflavik International Airport (KEF), about 50 km from Reykjavik across the lava of the Reykjanes Peninsula. Most flights from North America land early in the morning, so a private transfer brings you straight into the city, and the hotel keeps your bags until your room is ready; we request early check-in but cannot promise it. Sleep, find breakfast, or loosen your legs in one of the city's geothermal pools. At 3 pm your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for an easy walk of about two hours: up to Hallgrimskirkja, down past the pond at Tjornin and the Parliament House to the Old Harbour, where the whale-watching boats tie up, and along the shore to Harpa. Back at the hotel the guide checks boots and rain gear and runs through the week: the easy and active choice on each hiking day, and the glacier walk on day 6, so we can book your place on the ice. Then we walk together to a welcome dinner in the centre at about 7 pm.

   Included

   • Private transfer from Keflavik International Airport (KEF)
   • Guided walk in Reykjavik: Hallgrimskirkja, Tjornin, the Parliament House, the Old Harbour and Harpa
   • Kit check and welcome briefing
   • Welcome dinner

   Optional experiences

   • Whale watching from the Old Harbour in the morning, about 3 hours (price shown at booking)

   Free time: Free until the 3 pm walk

   Activity: If you land after about 2 pm, go straight to the hotel: your guide leaves a note at the front desk with the restaurant address, and you join the group at the welcome dinner at about 7 pm.

   

2. Day 2: Reykjadalur hot river and Kerid

   Reykjavik over the Hellisheidi heath to Reykjadalur above Hveragerdi, then Kerid and Hvolsvollur

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Hvolsvollur
   Day 2 details

   We leave at 8:30 am and cross the Hellisheidi heath, past a steaming geothermal power plant, to the car park above the small town of Hveragerdi. By about 9:15 we are walking up Reykjadalur, the Steam Valley, ahead of the day-tour groups that arrive from Reykjavik around midday. The path climbs about 300 m over some 3.5 km, past the Djupagilsfoss waterfall and hissing vents and bubbling mud pots, to a stretch where hot springs feed a warm river. A boardwalk with simple changing screens runs along the bank, and you can lie in the water for as long as you like. We walk back down the same way. Lunch is included in Hveragerdi. In the afternoon we stop at Kerid, a crater about 6,000 years old with red and black walls around a green lake, and walk its rim, then drive the last hour east across the farmland of the south to Hvolsvollur, our base for three nights. We arrive at about 4 pm, and the evening is free.

   Included

   • Guided hike up Reykjadalur to the hot river, about 7 km there and back, with time to bathe
   • Sit-down lunch in Hveragerdi
   • Kerid crater, entry included, and the rim walk

   Optional experiences

   • The Lava Centre in Hvolsvollur, an exhibition on Iceland's volcanoes and earthquakes (price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Walk the first part of the valley to the Djupagilsfoss viewpoint and back, about 2 km and 1.5 hours, then wait in a cafe in Hveragerdi.

   More active option: Carry on past the bathing area to the head of the valley and loop back over the higher ground, about 4.5 hours in all, as the weather and the group allow.

   Free time: Evening free in Hvolsvollur

   Activity: Bring a swimsuit and small towel in your day pack. The path is steady but can be muddy; there is no shade and no water source, so carry a litre. Bathing is only allowed in the marked stretch of the river.

   

3. Day 3: Thorsmork by super-jeep and Valahnukur

   Hvolsvollur by super-jeep on the F249 track past Seljalandsfoss and Gigjokull into Thorsmork, and back

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Hvolsvollur
   Day 3 details

   Today the minibus stays behind. At 8:30 am a super-jeep with an experienced local driver collects us for Thorsmork, the valley of Thor, a nature reserve walled in by three glaciers. Past Seljalandsfoss the road becomes the F249 highland track, and we ford a series of unbridged glacier rivers, stopping below Gigjokull, an outlet glacier of Eyjafjallajokull whose valley was flooded by meltwater during the 2010 eruption. On the way in we walk into Stakkholtsgja, a narrow canyon with a hidden waterfall at its end. In Thorsmork we climb Valahnukur by a steep but well-made path through birch woods. From the top you see Eyjafjallajokull, Myrdalsjokull and Tindfjallajokull at once, and the braided Krossa river below. We eat a packed lunch on the way down to Husadalur and walk the valley paths back. The jeep leaves at about 4 pm, and we are in Hvolsvollur by about 5:30 pm for an included dinner.

   Included

   • Super-jeep with a local driver to Thorsmork and back, with river crossings on the F249 track
   • Gigjokull viewpoint
   • Walk into the Stakkholtsgja canyon
   • Guided hike over Valahnukur from Langidalur to Husadalur
   • Packed lunch in Thorsmork
   • Dinner in Hvolsvollur

   Easier option: Skip the summit: walk the birch-wood paths of Langidalur along the valley floor with the guide, about 2 hours with little climbing, and meet the group at Husadalur.

   More active option: Add a longer ridge loop above Husadalur chosen by the guide for the weather, for about 5 to 6 hours on foot in all.

   Activity: About 4 to 6 hours on foot with about 200 to 250 m of climbing on the Valahnukur path, which is steep and loose near the top. The super-jeep ride is bumpy; if rain has raised the rivers, the driver may choose a shorter route or turn back, and the guide switches to a walk near Skogar.

4. Day 4: Skogafoss and the Skoga river falls

   Hvolsvollur to Skogar, up the Skoga river path toward Fimmvorduhals, then back by Seljalandsfoss

   • Drive about 1.5 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Hvolsvollur
   Day 4 details

   A short drive east along the foot of Eyjafjallajokull brings us to Skogar by about 9:15. We climb the long staircase beside Skogafoss, a 60 m curtain of water, before the day coaches fill the viewing platform, and start up the path that follows the Skoga river toward the Fimmvorduhals pass. It runs along the edge of the gorge past a long chain of waterfalls, each different: some drop through narrow slots, some fan over steps of rock. The full walk goes about 7 to 8 km up the river toward the footbridge where the path heads for the pass, climbing about 550 m, and returns the same way, about 6 hours with a packed lunch by the water. The shorter group turns back after the first hour of falls and walks to Kvernufoss, a quieter fall in a side valley near the Skogar Museum. Everyone meets at about 3:30 pm. On the way back we stop at Seljalandsfoss, where a path runs behind the falling water, and Gljufrabui, hidden in a cleft next door, and reach Hvolsvollur by about 5:30 pm.

   Included

   • Skogafoss and the steps to the top
   • Guided hike up the Skoga river path toward Fimmvorduhals
   • Packed lunch on the trail
   • Kvernufoss
   • Seljalandsfoss and the path behind the falls
   • Gljufrabui

   Optional experiences

   • Skogar Museum, the folk and transport museum beside the falls (price shown at booking), for the easy group

   Easier option: Walk the first hour of falls above Skogafoss and back, then Kvernufoss and the Skogar Museum, about 2.5 hours on foot in all.

   More active option: Go on toward the footbridge below the Fimmvorduhals pass, about 15 km there and back and about 550 m of climbing, roughly 6 hours with lunch.

   Free time: Evening free in Hvolsvollur

   Activity: The steps beside Skogafoss are steep, and the river path is narrow in places with drops into the gorge; keep to the path. Seljalandsfoss is wet behind the falls, so wear waterproofs.

   

5. Day 5: Reynisfjara, Vik and Fjadrargljufur

   Hvolsvollur to Reynisfjara, Dyrholaey and Vik, then across Eldhraun to Fjadrargljufur and Kirkjubaejarklaustur

   • Drive about 3 h
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Kirkjubaejarklaustur
   Day 5 details

   The easy day between bases. We leave Hvolsvollur at 8 am and are at Reynisfjara by about 9:15: black sand, the basalt columns of the Gardar cliff and the Reynisdrangar sea stacks offshore. The waves here are dangerous, so we keep well back from the water. When it is open, we drive up to Dyrholaey, the headland with a great sea arch, where puffins nest on the cliffs in summer. Lunch is included in Vik. In the afternoon we cross the wide Myrdalssandur plain and the moss-covered lava of Eldhraun, laid down by the Laki eruption of 1783 and 1784, to the Fjadrargljufur canyon, where a path follows the rim for about 2 km above a twisting gorge up to 100 m deep. We reach Kirkjubaejarklaustur, a quiet village at the foot of a cliff, by about 3 pm, and the rest of the day is yours: rest your legs, or take the short path up past the Systrafoss waterfall to the lake above the village.

   Included

   • Reynisfjara and Reynisdrangar
   • Dyrholaey headland and sea arch, when open
   • Sit-down lunch in Vik
   • Eldhraun lava field
   • Fjadrargljufur canyon rim walk, when the path is open

   Easier option: Stay with the minibus at Dyrholaey and walk only the first viewpoint at Fjadrargljufur, a few minutes from the car park.

   More active option: In the late afternoon, walk the path from Kirkjubaejarklaustur up past Systrafoss to the lake on the cliff top and back, about an hour.

   Free time: Afternoon and evening free in Kirkjubaejarklaustur

   Activity: About 4 to 5 km on foot across the day on sand and good paths. Parts of Dyrholaey close in the nesting season and the Fjadrargljufur path can close when wet; your guide swaps in another stop on the same road.

   

6. Day 6: Glacier walk and Svartifoss at Skaftafell

   Kirkjubaejarklaustur to Skaftafell in Vatnajokull National Park, and back

   • Drive about 2 h
   • Breakfast, lunch and dinner
   • Stay in Kirkjubaejarklaustur
   Day 6 details

   We leave at 8 am for Skaftafell, about an hour east, part of Vatnajokull National Park, which UNESCO listed in 2019. At about 9:30 we meet certified local glacier guides, put on crampons, helmets and harnesses, and walk out onto an outlet glacier of Vatnajokull: about three hours in all, among ridges of blue ice, sinkholes and meltwater channels streaked with ash. Lunch is included near the visitor centre. In the afternoon your See Sight Tours guide leads the walk up through birch scrub past Hundafoss to Svartifoss, a waterfall that drops over a cliff of dark, hanging basalt columns. Most of the group walks back down from Svartifoss by about 3:30 pm. Only those who choose the active option carry on over the Skaftafellsheidi heath to the Sjonarnipa viewpoint, high above the cracked ice of Skaftafellsjokull, and are back at the visitor centre by about 5 pm. We return to Kirkjubaejarklaustur by about 6 pm for a farewell dinner together.

   Included

   • Glacier walk of about 3 hours with certified glacier guides, crampons, helmet and ice axe supplied
   • Sit-down lunch near Skaftafell
   • Guided walk to Hundafoss and Svartifoss
   • Vatnajokull National Park
   • Farewell dinner in Kirkjubaejarklaustur

   Easier option: Instead of the glacier walk, take the nearly flat path to the snout of Skaftafellsjokull, about 4 km there and back, then walk to Svartifoss after lunch, about 3.5 km there and back with a steady climb.

   More active option: After the glacier and lunch, walk on from Svartifoss over Skaftafellsheidi to the Sjonarnipa viewpoint and down to the visitor centre, about 7 km and 3 hours with about 350 m of climbing, back by about 5 pm. Your guide confirms the timing on the day.

   Free time: Late afternoon free before dinner

   Activity: Tell us your choice when you book, so we can reserve your place on the ice. The glacier guides set a minimum age and may change the route or cancel for weather; if they do, the whole group walks the Skaftafellsheidi loop. Times today depend on the glacier slot, which ops confirm when we book it.

   

7. Day 7: Back to Reykjavik and home

   Kirkjubaejarklaustur west along the South Coast by Vik, Hvolsvollur and Selfoss to Reykjavik and Keflavik International Airport

   • Drive about 4 h
   • Breakfast
   Day 7 details

   Our last drive is our longest, about four hours and 300 km at the wheel, and with the coffee stop it is about five hours door to door, so we start at 8 am and keep it simple. The road runs back west across Eldhraun and the Myrdalssandur plain, past Vik and below Eyjafjallajokull, with a last look up the valleys we walked earlier in the week. We stop for coffee and a stretch in Hvolsvollur at about 10:15, cross the Thjorsa and Olfusa rivers by Selfoss, and climb over the Hellisheidi heath to Reykjavik by about midday. Guests staying on are dropped in the centre, and your guide can suggest where to spend the afternoon: a city pool to ease tired legs, the National Museum or the harbour. The rest of us reach Keflavik International Airport by about 1 pm, in good time for the late-afternoon flights to North America. Your guide stays with the group to the airport and says goodbye there. Lunch today is your own, in Reykjavik or at the airport.

   Included

   • Coffee stop in Hvolsvollur
   • Drop-off in central Reykjavik or at Keflavik International Airport (KEF)

   Activity: Book a flight leaving after about 3:30 pm. If you stay on in Reykjavik, we can quote extra nights.

Wildlife and weather: From late June to mid-July the nights barely get dark, so take an eye mask; by early September the evenings draw in and the first Northern Lights become possible on clear nights. The F249 track into Thorsmork and the upper Skoga river path are usually clear of snow only from about late June, which is why the season starts then. Rain can raise the glacier rivers within hours, and the super-jeep driver has the final say on crossings. Arctic terns nest near some paths in summer and dive at walkers; a raised pole or hat helps.

• Reykjavik1 night
• Hvolsvollur3 nights
• Kirkjubaejarklaustur2 nights