Best of South Iceland tour is a great opportunity to visit the most beautiful sights while staying in the countryside rather than taking long drives from Reykjavík. This tour covers the best of south Iceland from only three different overnight locations. Visit the Golden Circle, the Landmannalaugar interior highlands, the glacial valley of Þórsmörk, and Vatnajökull National Park. Enjoy occasional short walks, climbing volcano craters, a boat trip between floating icebergs, bathing in the geothermal Blue Lagoon, walking on glaciers, and taking pictures. This small group (max. 20 persons) program includes eight days of exploring and adventure in South Iceland and the interior highlands. You will stay in simple and clean hotels and cabins with private facilities, visit national parks, volcanic fields, green valleys and high mountains, lunar landscapes, waterfalls, hot springs, and glaciers.
Tour Itinerary
We travel from Reykjavík to South Iceland where we take a short ferry ride to the Westman Islands. There is a bus and walking tour of the village of Heimaey and this extraordinary island. The volcanic eruption in 1973 is, without doubt, considered the largest natural disaster in Iceland in recent history. The eruption began on January 23rd on the island of Heimaey, the only populated island of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago. After the evacuation of the inhabitants, and during the 5 months while the eruption lasted, there was much uncertainty as to whether or not the island could ever be repopulated. During our tour to the Westman Islands, we explore bird cliffs, walk up the volcano crater and visit „Pompei of the North“, a volcanic excavation project. You have the afternoon free to wander around the town of Heimaey, with its birds and sign of recent volcanic eruptions. We return to the mainland and stay for 2 nights in South Iceland.
Hotel Stracta, Hella, South Iceland
210km / 130mls
Our first stop of the day will be at the high but narrow Seljalandsfoss waterfall which plunges over the mountains and where you can follow a slick and wet trail right behind the falls. We visit the thundering Skógafoss waterfall which is 62 meters high and belongs to the most impressive waterfalls in the country. Nearby is the beautiful Skógar folk museum with its turf houses. We pass the glaciers Mýrdalsjökull and the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajökull. In the village of Vík, we attend the stunning Iceland lava show; the only exhibition in the world where you can experience actual flowing lava! By melting lava and pouring it on ice in a room full of people, you will be able to see the lava flowing, hear it sizzling, and feel the heat that radiates from it. We walk along the black lava beach and bird cliffs at Reynisfjara, see interesting basalt columns and rock formations. In the aftenoon we stop at Sólheimajökull glacier tounge where you can join an optional glacier hike.It‘s an informative and easy glacier walk through a frozen wonderland of different shades of glacier ice.
Options: Glacier hike
Hotel Stracta, Hella, South Iceland
220km / 137mls
Today we drive the rough unpaved road to Landmannalaugar, an oasis in the barren highlands, surrounded by vivid rhyolite mountains. The highlight is a 90-minute round-trip hike up toward Brenninsteinsalda, the rainbow mountain of Iceland, which is still “hot” and where you can see sizzling sulfur springs and vapor at its sides. It could very well be the most colorful and spectacular volcanic mountain of Iceland, and so its picture is often found in books and calendars. After a picnic lunch, you have free time to enjoy a relaxing bath in the natural geothermal stream. We take a short stop at the beautiful waterfall Hjálparfoss surrounded by unusual basalt rock formations. Before we reach our last overnight location in Reykjavík, let us visit Ölvisholt, a microbrewery located at an old dairy farm in South Iceland. You will get an introduction to the brewery’s history, the brewing process, and of course, try a selection of Icelandic beer.
310km / 193mls
Customer reviews
Anne Peterson
7 October 2018
Thank you for a wonderful 6 day tour or Iceland, we had an amazing time! After seeing that our tour could be up to 20 people I was delighted to see that we had only 7 of us on the tour making it very nice to get to know each person on the tour. Our first nights at Hotel Cabin were good, the room was very small but clean, quiet and enough for our couple days stay. The day staff at the hotel were wonderful, very helpful and always ready to answer questions. The evening staff(2 gentlemen) were not so helpful, one who was there at check in the first day was speaking to a customer and after she asked him a question he answered it abruptly and threw his pen on the counter, this was not good customer service as it was seen by my family, others at the front desk and even one of the other front desk staff. Otherwise all of the other staff at Hotel Cabin were wonderful. On Monday we met Anna Lara our guide, let me just say she was amazing! Her knowledge of Iceland, its history, her personal stories driving skills and welcoming and warm personality made the 6 days very interesting and thought provoking. Knowing that she was born and raised in Iceland she shows the love of her country, her joy to show people its beauty and awe, and how she wants to see it thrive. From the minute we started the tour she made sure we saw all of our destinations and even kept us safe when the environment became to dangerous. She really is an amazing guide! Next, our hotel in Hella was great, very spacious and well maintained. The staff and the breakfast were good. Unfortunately on this part of the trip we were not able to see one of the sights in Landmannaluauger because of too much snow on the mountain but finding out after wards that Anna Lara's judgment call to go no further was correct since even 4 wheel huge trucks were being towed out of the mountain we felt she had out best interest at heart. She definitely made up for any missing destinations with other stops. She definitely challenged all of us on the tour to push past our comfort zones(in a good way) seeing as we had a 85 year old Australian lady on our tour and she was amazing as well! She kept up with us and even passed us in walking many times, climbed the mountains with us(Anna Lara at her side) and kept us on our toes! Personally, I never thought I could have hiked the mountain I did and hiked the glacier I did but Anna Lara really empowered us to rise to the occasion. Finally our last 2 days in Vatnajokull National Park at Hotel Skaftafell were great as well. The hotel is clean, comfortable and has amazing views. Again, Anna Lara provided us with a lot of amazing history, family stories and information regarding how the landscape of the National Park is changing for both the good and the bad. Sadly because of ridiculously high winds were not able to do the Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon ride but we were still able to see the Diamond Beach and floating glaciers. Many thanks to her boss for giving us a free meal for that evening as compensation for our missed trip, well done! Finally, we did get to see the Northern Lights! They were not real bright but still amazing! My family thoroughly enjoyed our trip, all of the destinations and activities. I would definitely highly recommend this tour to any of my family and friends. I feel that we learned so much about Iceland and its history, people and amazing nature. We have so many amazing pictures of our trip and hopefully we will be able to return one day. Please thank all involved in putting this tour together and hope that we can do it again. Thank you so much Dmytro for being our point of contact. Hope to travel to Ukraine and Iceland again soon. Best, Anne Peterson & Family
Anne Peterson
4 October 2018
Nordic Saga Tours - Best of South Iceland Tour – September 2018 This might be a long review but well worth the read! My family and I just returned from a 10 day trip to Iceland. This included 1 day pre-tour, 6 day guided tour(Nordic Saga Tours), and 1 day post tour. After looking at photos on the @icelandicjourney page on Instagram I decided to book a tour for 4 family members including myself. We flew WOW airlines into Reykjavik and used our Flybus voucher(roundtrip included in tour package) to get to our pre-tour hotel, Hotel Cabin(tour hotel also). The rooms were small with no room to move around with luggage. The day staff at the hotel was wonderful; they answered all questions, gave us maps and helped us find our way. The evening staff was not so helpful. Our next hotel, Hella Hotel was clean, rooms were huge, had a supermarket, gas station, bakery and wine store all within 2 minutes of walking. There were only 3 restaurants to choose from for dinners. Our last hotel was in Vatnajokull National Park, Hotel Skaftafell, again clean comfortable with an amazing view of the glacier at the back of the hotel. Unfortunately the only place to eat was at their restaurant(did not open until 6:30pm) or across the street at the gas station/restaurant which had a small buffet. The restaurant at the hotel only had 4 items on the menu to choose from. All hotels had northern lights wakeup call if you were interested. Finally, we returned to Hotel Cabin for the last night of the tour and was presently surprised by the hotel room which was much bigger and had amenities not found in the earlier stay. Hotel Cabin did offer a lunch and dinner buffet of salad bar, some hot food, bread and drinks for $26.00USD. Breakfast’s at each hotel was the standard European breakfast of meat, cheese, bread, tomatoes, cucumber, cereal, pastries, oatmeal, coffee and tea. On our first day we met our tour guide Anna Lara, let me just say she was one amazing guide and driver. She is a native Icelander who has a vast knowledge of Iceland’s history, environment, and local customs. She has many personal stories of her family and herself growing up in Iceland. You can tell she is very passionate about showing people her beautiful country. My suggestion is see if you can have her as a guide! She always made sure everyone was having a great time and stayed safe. After reading that our tour could be up to 20 people we were pleasantly surprised to only have 7 people on the tour. I believe this made it a more pleasurable time at each destination and we really were able to connect with our other members of the tour group. I definitely think 20 would have been way too many. Our tour was jam packed everyday with waterfalls, beautiful landscapes, amazing mountain views, volcanos, craters, geothermal landscapes, icebergs, beaches, amazing hikes, glacier walk, glacier lagoon ride(unfortunately it was too windy for us, it was cancelled), and soak in the famous Blue Lagoon. Finally our tour ended with a great city tour. There was so much to take in and see I cannot even begin to describe the beauty and natural wonder that we were able to experience. I do not think we could have seen all of the natural wonders on our own. Many of the roads we took were inaccessible to the regular vehicle and even some 4-wheel trucks. Also, I don’t believe driving on our own we would have gained the knowledge and history of Iceland that we did with our guide. Our tour package was very reasonably priced and included roundtrip vouchers to and from the airport, all breakfasts, entrance fees to any national parks, tours, museums, etc.., we also added in a pre-tour and post-tour hotel stay which Nordic Saga arranged. I feel Nordic Saga Tours was an exceptional tour for the price and recommend highly if deciding to visit Iceland. Our tour was seamless.
Ellen Willams
25 July 2014
Dora, My mother and I had such a fun time on our Iceland trip. We really enjoyed exploring the Southern parts of the country with your company. Your help over the phone was and is truly appreciated. Thanks for being so kind and for accommodating us with my mother's special needs at the hotel. We ended our trip at the Blue Lagoon (thanks for that recommendation!) and can't say enough good things about it. Weeks later, we're still daydreaming about it! I have fun photos of my mother wearing the silica mud mask in the lagoon that I'll treasure forever. It was such a special trip for us and if I ever decide to travel to Iceland to explore the Northern parts of the country, I will let you know. :) Thank you, thank you, thank you! Ellen Willams
Melinda and Rick Dorsey
25 July 2014
Hi Bobby, My husband and I wanted to write you a quick note to let you know how much we appreciated your help and guidance with our tour of Iceland. The south coast was beautiful and we loved the sights. Driving alongside Hekla was fascinating. I had never been that close to a volcano before! Rick loved bird watching and even bought a special book full of Icelandic birds for our trip. The hotels were clean and the people were so friendly. If we travel to iceland in the future, I will definitely give you a call. Thanks a bunch, Melinda and Rick Dorsey
Olivia and Barry Charles
25 July 2014
Susie, Wow!!! We're home from our iceland trip and couldn't be happier. It has been interesting getting back into the swing of things here in New York, but we're managing. :) We miss Iceland already. The South Shore tour you recommended for us was everything we hoped for. The scenery in the country is unlike anything I had ever seen before and I've had a lot of fun going through my pictures since we've been home. One of my personal favorite memories would have to be visiting the hot springs and geysers. The colors were gorgeous! I think the tour was well organized and packed full of really fun and interesting activies that I think anyone would enjoy. Thanks again for all of your hard work. I wouldn't visit Iceland with any other company. Thanks, Nordic Saga Tours! Olivia and Barry Charles
Hotel Stracta, Hella, South Iceland
210km / 130mls
