Overview / Boat tours
Both leave from the same car park, both run May to October, and they are not remotely the same experience. One is a gentle float. The other takes you eight kilometres up the lagoon to the glacier wall.
A converted wheeled vehicle that drives down the bank and floats off into the near section of the lagoon. Roofed, stable, slow. A guide talks through the glacier's history while you circle the closer icebergs.
A rigid inflatable with an outboard, running roughly eight kilometres up the lagoon to the calving face of Breiðamerkurjökull. Small groups, flotation suits provided, and a real sense of scale when you stop under the ice.
Prices and age limits checked August 2026. Operators adjust them between seasons — treat these as a guide and confirm at checkout.
July and August: book ahead. Zodiac departures carry a fraction of the passengers an amphibian does and sell out days in advance in peak weeks.
May, September, October: walk-ups are usually fine, but a booking still means you are not queuing outdoors in horizontal rain waiting to find out.
Cancellations: tours are called off for wind and sea state more often than visitors expect, sometimes on an hour's notice. Operators refund weather cancellations, but they will not refund you for arriving late because the drive from Reykjavík took longer than you planned. Build in slack.
Booking through a platform generally gets you free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, which is worth having on a coast where the forecast changes daily. Book direct with the operator and you are on their terms instead.
It is a fast small boat on open water, so there is bouncing and spray, but the lagoon is enclosed and has no swell of its own. Anyone comfortable on a rib elsewhere will be fine here. Anyone who dislikes small boats will not be converted by this one.
A waterproof outer layer, warm mid layer, hat and gloves, whatever the month. The Zodiac provides a flotation suit over your clothes, which handles the wind but not your hands and face. Sunglasses help more than you would think — the glare off the ice is severe.
Yes, but expect spray on the Zodiac. A strap is essential; anything dropped is gone into 200 metres of water. The amphibian is dry enough to shoot from without protection.
No. Both stop at the end of October and resume in May. In winter the draw is ice caves, aurora and the emptiness of the place. See planning for what the off-season actually offers.