Vik Ice Cave Tours

See it before you pay for it

Three hours from Vík, or a whole day from Reykjavík

What gets searched for as an ice cave in Vík, Iceland is one cave and three very different days around it. The cave sits inside Mýrdalsjökull, the glacier that lies on top of the Katla volcano, which is why the walls are striped with black volcanic ash instead of one flat colour. Met in the village, it is a half day: a transfer into a super jeep, a run across the black sand to the edge of the ice, a helmet and crampons at the entrance, and you are back in Vík three hours later — $181 in a small group, rated 4.4 across 1,279 reviews. From Reykjavík the same cave becomes the last stop of a twelve-hour South Coast day that starts with Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss and the beach at Reynisfjara — $285, 4.7 across 1,347 reviews, and the listing this site puts first. And the whole thing runs in every month of the year, summer included, which is the rarest thing about it — $192 for the super jeep version, 4.6 across 2,555 reviews.

Side by side

Half a day from Vík, a long day from Reykjavík, or two

Booking an ice cave tour from Vik is the short version of this page: you are already at the foot of the glacier road, so the whole thing takes three hours and the price stays low. That end of the list runs $181 in a small group at 4.4 across 1,279 reviews, $192 for the super jeep run that holds 4.6 across 2,555 reviews and is marked as likely to sell out, $250 for the FastTrack version at 4.8, and $274 for the one that ends with coffee and biscuits, 4.7 across 1,513 reviews and free cancellation. Four hours buys more of the glacier than the cave alone: $298 for the extended tour that adds hidden canyons and waterfalls, 4.8 so far. From Reykjavík the cave arrives inside a full day — twelve hours for $285 at 4.7 across 1,347 reviews, ten hours in a small group for $274 at 4.7 across 771, eleven hours for $293 with Skógafoss and Seljalandsfoss on the way. And the multi-day trips turn the drive into the holiday: two days for $698 or $732, three days for $949 at 4.8 across 208 reviews.

Two-minute check

Which part is the cave, and which part is the jeep?

Every listing for the ice cave near Vík has the same two halves, and knowing which is which settles most of the questions. The first half is the drive: the last stretch to the glacier crosses a plain of black volcanic sand and a river bed, so you change into a super jeep and that vehicle is the reason the tour exists at all. The second half is on foot — a short walk from where the jeep stops to the mouth of the cave, with a helmet and crampons handed out at the edge of the ice by the guide, named in the listings as part of the fare. Inside, the ice is layered dark and pale: Mýrdalsjökull sits on the Katla volcano, and every ash fall in its history is a black band in the wall above you, which is where the name Ice Cave under the Volcano comes from. What you bring is the practical part, because it decides how the hours feel: waterproof trousers, a warm layer and boots firm enough to take a crampon strap.

Six ways into the cave

8,605 reviews across sixteen ice cave tours

The ratings here are the operators’ own numbers on GetYourGuide, shown as published. We write none of them, and we average nobody else’s into a score of our own.

What it really costs

What the cave costs, line by line

Prices are per person and cover what the listing names — the guide, the helmet and crampons, the super jeep, and on the longer days the pickup and every stop on the road. Two things move the number: how many hours the vehicle spends driving, and how small the group is. Five of the sixteen listings sit between $181 and $298 and are all the same shape — three or four hours, one cave, picked up at the village end of the South Coast. Above that the money buys the day around it: $285 for twelve hours with the waterfalls and the black beach, $732 for two days that reach the glacier lagoon and a crystal ice cave east of Vík, $963 for three days with the Golden Circle added, and $875 or $2,459 when the whole vehicle and the guide are yours alone.

The honest answer

Is a cave worth half a day of the trip?

Walking into a glacier is the one hour in Iceland you spend inside the landscape instead of looking at it: the ice closes over your head, daylight comes through it, and the dark bands in the wall beside you are ash that fell on this glacier centuries apart. That is the argument for the ticket, and 8,605 people rating these sixteen listings is the evidence behind it. If you are sleeping in the village, the ice cave near Vík in Iceland is the easiest big thing the South Coast offers — three hours door to door in a small group at $181, or $192 for the super jeep listing that 2,555 people have rated 4.6. If you are coming from Reykjavík, book the twelve-hour version at $285: the same cave, plus two waterfalls and the black beach, 4.7 across 1,347 reviews. And when the day should belong to your group alone, a private South Coast run with the cave is $875, or $2,459 for the eleven-hour version rated 5.0.

What it's like

Sixteen ways into the Katla cave — what changes is where the day starts and how long it takes

If it is the Katla cave you are weighing up

Three ways into the same cave, from a village three hours away and a city twelve

All three go inside the ice cave in Mýrdalsjökull above Vík, and all three run in every month of the year, because this is the one ice cave in Iceland that guides take people into all year round. What changes is where your day starts and what the drive gives you. The two listings met in Vík are three-hour errands with a Super Jeep across the black sand. The day out of Reykjavík adds two and a half hours of road at each end, and sells the waterfalls and the black beach along with the ice. What the cave looks like on the day is the glacier’s decision, and every operator here says so on the listing.

Practical

Plan the cave day

Four things decide how it goes. First, where you sleep: from Vík the cave is three hours of your day, from Reykjavík it is ten to twelve, because the road down the South Coast is two and a half hours each way. Second, what the fare already includes — the super jeep transfer, the helmet and crampons, the guide, and on one listing coffee and biscuits back in the village, which is as close to a bistro stop as the ice cave day gets; that is where two listings at different prices turn out to be the same three hours. Third, the group: five of the sixteen are marked small group and two are private, and on a glacier track that is the difference between waiting for twelve people and waiting for four. Fourth, when to press the button: the $192 super jeep run is marked as likely to sell out, two listings ask to be booked at least an hour ahead and two at least ten hours ahead, and five of the sixteen carry free cancellation, so a date can be moved if the weather rearranges your week.

Best time

When to come

Here is the part that surprises people: a Mýrdalsjökull ice cave tour runs in every month of the year. The cave is carved inside the glacier rather than left behind by summer meltwater, so July works the same way January does, and that makes it the one ice cave in Iceland you can walk into in the middle of summer. The natural blue and crystal caves that our two and three-day trips reach further east belong to the winter half of the calendar, roughly November to March.

Worth knowing

Six things that aren't in the listing

Common questions

The Katla ice cave above Vík, answered straight

Why trust this page

How we put this together