You’ll enjoy breakfast at your hotel on day two before heading to Vatnajokull National Park in southeast Iceland. This primordial area is named after its central ice cap, the largest of its kind in Europe, and provides one of two adventures depending on the season of your arrival.
You’ll start by heading to Skaftafell, a nature reserve abundant in spectacular lava landscapes, birch forests, and river networks and surrounded by glacier tongues. In summer, you’ll enjoy an incredible glacier hike on one of these.
Your guide will supply you with all safety gear, and you’ll get to marvel over jagged ridges, bottomless crevasses, walls of snow, and stunning views of the reserve.
In winter, you’ll forgo the glacier hike for an ice-caving adventure under the Vatnajokull glacier. Such a trip feels like it takes you into a fantasy world. The caves boast blues so vivid that they defy the imagination, and the way the light refracts as it enters is breathtaking. Their scale and textures are also similarly impressive.
Ice caves are only accessible between November and March, making this exclusive excursion extra special.
No matter your adventure, it will be an unforgettable experience. Having completed it, you’ll continue to another fantastic location in Vatnajokull National Park, the Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon. Many travelers describe this as Iceland’s most beautiful destination due to the abundance, color, and size of the icebergs that fill its waters.
Walking along the shoreline is a mesmerizing experience, and you may even see seals swimming and resting at the site.
Once you have enjoyed the magnificence of Jokulsarlon, your guide will show you the Diamond Beach, a black-sand coast that marks the final resting place of the bergs when they finally escape the lagoon. It is easy to see how the shore got its name as you marvel over the glistening ice.
After an incredible immersion into Vatnajokull National Park, you’ll head to a hotel in South East Iceland.