South Coast and Katla Ice Cave Tour from Reykjavík
This is the tour for people staying in Reykjavík without a car who still want to stand inside a glacier. Ten hours, $272.32, pickup from twenty points around the city, and a route that collects the two famous waterfalls, the black sand at Reynisfjara and half an hour inside the Katla ice cave. It is the only tour on this site that puts a cave and the south coast into one day, and because Katla runs year-round, it is also the only Reykjavík ice cave day that works in July. The trade is time: two hours of off-road driving sit inside those ten, and the cave stop is thirty minutes. Weigh it against the full ice cave tour comparison before booking.
About the Day
Leaving early from Reykjavík and back in the evening
BSÍ, City Hall, Hallgrímskirkja, Skarfabakki and the main hotel stops
Katla, reached by an hour of off-road driving from Vík
Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss, 25 minutes at each
Half an hour on the black sand beach at Vík
Katla is the one natural cave that stays open in summer
Check Live Availability and Prices
Departures run daily through the year. Pick your pickup point when you book; prices are per person in US dollars.
What This Tour Solves
A cave without a rental car or a five-hour drive
The blue caves everyone photographs sit at Jökulsárlón, 380 km from Reykjavík. Those tours meet you at the lagoon, which means a five-hour drive each way or a night on the road. Most visitors on a short trip cannot make that work.
Katla is 180 km out instead, above Vík, and this tour drives it for you. You get a genuine natural ice cave, three of the south coast's best-known stops, and a bed in Reykjavík at the end of it.
What you give up for the convenience
Thirty minutes inside the ice, against ninety on the tours that meet at the glacier. A ten-hour day for a cave visit shorter than the drive to it. And a price of $272.32, when the same cave costs $180.03 if you make your own way to Vík.
That maths is straightforward: if you have a car and are sleeping anywhere near the south coast, book the Vík departure. If you are car-free in Reykjavík, this is the tour that exists for you, and the waterfalls are not filler.
Inside the Katla Cave
What You'll See
Four stops and an hour of black sand desert
Seljalandsfoss has a path that runs behind the falling water, which works in every season if you accept getting wet. Skógafoss drops 60 metres in one curtain and throws spray far enough to soak a lens from the viewing area.
Reynisfjara is the black sand beach with basalt columns and the Reynisdrangar sea stacks offshore. The guides brief you about sneaker waves there for good reason.
Between Vík and the glacier, the super jeep crosses an hour of black highland desert each way. Several reviewers rate that drive above the cave itself.
- Seljalandsfoss, with the path behind the water
- Skógafoss, 60 metres in a single drop
- Reynisfjara black sand and the basalt columns
- Vík, with a break for coffee
- The Katla cave: ash-layered ice under Mýrdalsjökull
- Two hours of off-road driving through the black highlands
What's Included, and What Isn't
Transport, guide, cave entry and the gear
Pickup and drop-off in Reykjavík, the coach for the coast, the super jeep for the highland section, a live English-speaking guide for the day, and the helmet and crampons at the cave. The listing also notes a separate entrance at the cave, so you are not queuing behind other operators.
Food is not included. There are stops where you can buy it, in Vík in particular, but a packed lunch saves both time and money on a ten-hour day. Warm and waterproof clothing is on you, and so are boots that can take a crampon.
The Ten Hours, Stop by Stop
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Pickup
Collected in Reykjavík
One of twenty pickup points across the city, from BSÍ and City Hall to Skarfabakki harbour and the larger hotels.
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1 hr 30
Seljalandsfoss
Twenty-five minutes at the waterfall you can walk behind, with Gljúfrabúi hidden in the cleft next door.
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2 hr 15
Skógafoss
Another twenty-five minutes at the 60-metre curtain, and the stairs beside it if you want the view from the top.
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3 hr 30
Vík
A thirty-minute break in town before the vehicles change.
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4 hr
Into the highlands
An hour of off-road driving in the super jeep, crossing black sand flats toward Mýrdalsjökull.
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5 hr
Katla ice cave
Thirty minutes inside, helmets and crampons on, with the guide explaining the ash layers.
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6 hr 30
Reynisfjara black sand beach
Half an hour on the beach with the basalt columns and the sea stacks.
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8 hr 30
Drive back to Reykjavík
About an hour and a half on the road, arriving back in the city ten hours after pickup.
Important Things to Know
The weather rewrites the route more often than you would think
A reviewer in June had the black sand beach cut from the itinerary for bad weather and got extra highland driving instead, and rated the day well anyway. In winter, the south coast road closes in storms and departures get rescheduled. Both are the system working rather than failing.
The second thing is the cave's size. This is a compact cave, not a chamber. You walk in, look up, take photographs and walk out. People who book it expecting the Vatnajökull cathedral come away disappointed; people who book it as one strong stop in a full day of south coast scenery do not.
Book it early in your stay if you can, so that a weather cancellation still leaves room for a second attempt.
Where the Cave Is
The cave sits in Kötlujökull, an outlet of Mýrdalsjökull, reached by super jeep from Vík.
Who It Suits
Car-free visitors on a short trip, in any month
This is the ice cave day for people whose Iceland is Reykjavík plus day trips. It also happens to be one of the few cave tours that works in summer, so it fills a gap in July and August that nothing else on the south coast covers.
- Minimum age 8
- Ten hours is a long day for small children
- Warm waterproof layers and proper boots are essential
- Bring food, or money for the stop in Vík
- Not the tour to book if you want a long stretch inside the ice
Questions About This Day Trip
Can you do an ice cave day tour from Reykjavík?
Yes. This ten-hour day reaches the Katla ice cave and returns to the city, for $272.32 with pickup included. The Langjökull ice tunnel is the other option at $307.65. The Vatnajökull blue caves are too far for a single day, which is why they come as a two-day trip.
How long do you spend inside the Katla cave?
About thirty minutes. The rest of the ten hours is driving, the two waterfalls, the black sand beach and the break in Vík.
Does this tour run in summer?
Yes, every month. Katla sits outside Vatnajökull National Park in a different glacier, and unlike the blue caves above Jökulsárlón it operates through July and August.
Is hotel pickup included?
Pickup and drop-off are included from twenty points across Reykjavík, including BSÍ, City Hall, Hallgrímskirkja, Höfðatorg and Skarfabakki harbour. You choose your point when booking.
What if the weather is bad?
The guide reorders or replaces stops, and in serious weather the departure is cancelled and rebooked or refunded. You can also cancel yourself up to 24 hours before for a full refund.
What People Say After the Day
The tour was incredible! You got to see waterfalls, Vik, black sand beach and the ice cave. The scenery to and around the ice cave was also beautiful! The ice cave isn't long, you walk in & turn around and walk out. Still definitely worth doing in my opinion. A great experience!
À very Good driver We didn't see the black sand beach due to very bad weather But in exchange we go through lava desert and a lot of emotion, passing a river, passing ravines.. We have enjoyed
great day trip - loved going into the ice cave, although it was slightly flooded so you couldn't go very deep into it. waterfalls and black sand beach were great too, but the cave and lava field was the highlight in my opinion.
Quotes from the operator's GetYourGuide listing, reproduced as written.