TOO MANY!! There are many tours can be found in Iceland and local guides and trained experts will be included. If you’re a solo traveler or don’t want travel by self-driving, many tours also provide pick-up and drop-off service in Reykjavík. According to the information I got, the weather in Iceland during winter is unstable and some places will be dangerous for foreigners who do not have driving experience on icy roads and under strong wind, so I decide to join the local tours which provide local guides and drivers. Most of the cool tours are popular, so decide ASAP will be nice.
Here are the activities I’ve attended during this trip:
Glacier hiking
I took this tour in Sólheimajökull, one of the popular place to do glacier hiking and ice climbing. After the longest night (4:07:15 day length) during the year, the glacier I saw was simply stunning. I saw the U-shaped valley and touched the blue ice which I only saw in the textbooks or online.
Super jeep & blue ice cave (winter only!!)
I took this tour in Vatnajökull, this is also a popular place to do glacier hiking and ice climbing. All you can see around you were the ice cap, which already exist for many years.
To see the blue ice cave, you have to be luck enough. The natural formed blue ice cave will only appear during winter time and the weather is also affect if you can see it or not. To go to the location of the cave, super jeep is the only way.
The blue ice cave.
The rear profile of our guide on the glacier looks so cool!
Dry suit snorkeling
For most of the people who doesn’t have any experience of snorkeling, they may not choose to do it under an icy weather near the arctic circle. However, I’m going to tell you—THAT’S WHAT I DID! And see, I’M STILL ALIVE! This is my first snorkeling!! And I have not done any swimming since I graduated from high school! (well, how brave I was 😆). So, to ensure that I can go back safe, I consulted with the travel agency how hard will this activity be. They said it will be easy but if you have any trouble under water, they’ll pull you out and you’ll be not allowed to go on. I also read many reviews of this tour, it seems it’s not that hard as I imagined, so I decided to take a try.
The only drawback of this tour is that you have to put the dry suit on under a chilling temperature, although it will be warm enough once you get the dry suit on.
With dry suit, only your face will directly contact to water. Don’t worry about the cold because once you enter the water, you won’t feel anything 🤣.
Swim between the Eurasian (right-hand side) and North American (left-hand side) tectonic plates. The clear glacial water provides over 100 meters visibility.
Northern light on boat (winter only!!)
To experience seeing the northern light on boat as the ancient Vikings, I booked a boat tour with a friend from Ireland I just met during this trip. The appearance of the northern light is decided by the nature and is not guaranteed, so the nice guy in the information center suggested us to book the tour when the time is close.
The northern light I captured before we went on the boat. The one we saw on the boat was much more charming!
The Big Dipper is labeled here. Someday if I get time I may try to improve this photo.
The one I saw on the boat was much more beautiful! Although the wind on the sea was strong and cold (that’s why the photo is so blur because of the shaking boat), everybody on the boat were astonished by the fantastic miracle dancing on the dark sky. It was so exited to see things you saw many times on videos and pictures but never see it by your eyes.
To see the northern light forecast, AURURA is a nice app that you will get reminder if there is a high chance to see the northern light. The higher KP index means you’ll have a higher chance to see the northern light at your place.
Regions fall into the orange have higher chance to see the northern light by eyes (if the weather is good).