Glacier Hikes from Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon
The icebergs floating in Jökulsárlón broke off Breiðamerkurjökull, and two tours walk you onto the glacier that produced them. One runs four and a half hours on foot for $134.10; the other uses a super jeep to shorten the approach and takes three hours for $130.73. Both run every month, which makes them the honest answer between April and October when the caves are shut. The rest of what leaves this lagoon sits in the Vatnajökull ice caves guide.
About These Hikes
The super jeep version is shorter because the vehicle covers the approach
Around thirty dollars above the Skaftafell hikes, thirty below the caves
The outlet glacier that calves the icebergs into the lagoon
Unlike the caves at this lagoon, these run in July as readily as January
The 4.5-hour hike starts at 10, the super jeep version at 8
The longer hike rules out heart conditions, recent surgery and low fitness
Check Hike Dates
Live availability for the 4.5-hour hike onto Breiðamerkurjökull. Summer slots at the lagoon go quickly, since this is the busiest stop on the south coast.
Which of the Two to Book
$134.10, four and a half hours: the real walk
The longest glacier tour running from this lagoon and the better supported of the two, at 4.7 from 1,003 reviews. You walk from the moraine onto the ice and stay there, and the guide takes the group past crevasses and the surface features that make Breiðamerkurjökull worth the time.
Read the restrictions before booking. The listing rules out under-tens, pregnant travellers, people with heart problems, anyone with recent surgery, and anyone with a low level of fitness. That last line is unusual on a beginner tour and it is there for a reason: four and a half hours on ice is a long morning.
Guests keep naming their guides in reviews, which is what happens when the ratio holds up over a long route.
$130.73, three hours: the super jeep version
Three dollars cheaper, ninety minutes shorter, and a super jeep does the approach across the outwash to Breiðamerkurjökull before you strap on crampons. Minimum age drops to 8.
It carries 4.5, but from only 30 reviews, which is thin. Thin does not mean bad; it usually means a newer listing. It does mean you are booking on less evidence than the four-and-a-half-hour tour gives you.
Take this one if your afternoon is short, if you are travelling with a child between 8 and 10, or if a long walk is not what you came for.
How they compare with the Skaftafell hikes
Skaftafell, 70 km west, runs the same kind of beginner hike for $97 to $103.44. These two cost thirty dollars more.
What you buy for the difference is location: Breiðamerkurjökull ends in the lagoon, so the walk comes with icebergs, Diamond Beach two minutes down the road, and no need to drive anywhere else. If you are already sleeping in the southeast and want a glacier morning without moving the car twice, the lagoon wins on logistics rather than on price.
Both Hikes from the Lagoon
Same glacier, same car park. One walks the approach, the other drives it.
from $134.10 
from $130.73 What Breiðamerkurjökull Gives You
The glacier that made the lagoon
Jökulsárlón did not exist a century ago. Breiðamerkurjökull reached almost to the sea, and the lagoon appeared as the ice pulled back, filling the basin it had gouged out. It now runs to 248 metres deep in places, which makes it the deepest lake in Iceland.
Walking up onto the ice from that lagoon puts the whole sequence in front of you: the glacier, the water it left, the icebergs breaking off it and the black beach where they wash back ashore.
The ice cap behind it is losing roughly a metre of depth a year, and guides on this route will point out where the front stood when they started working here.
- Crevasse fields where the ice bends over the bedrock
- Meltwater channels running blue and loud in summer
- Ash bands from eruptions under the ice cap
- Views back down to the lagoon and the icebergs in it
- Moulins, the shafts that drain the surface into the glacier
Weather here is the whole story
This corner of Iceland catches Atlantic weather first. One guest described a fairly cloudy day that turned into a wonderful tour anyway, which is the realistic version: cloud costs you the mountain views and takes nothing off the ice itself.
Wind is different. Guides shorten routes or turn groups back when the upper glacier gets bad, and departures are cancelled outright rather than pushed through.
Both tours refund in full when that happens.
How the Hike Runs
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15 min before
Jökulsárlón car park
Meet at the glacier lagoon car park on Route 1, 370 km east of Reykjavík. Guides gather the group by the vehicles.
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0:00
Gear fitted
Helmet and glacier crampons issued and fitted. Waterproof boots above the ankle are required and rentable at the meeting point.
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0:20
Approach
On foot across moraine on the 4.5-hour tour, or by super jeep across the outwash on the three-hour version.
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0:50
Crampons on
Technique taught at the ice edge before the group moves. No experience is assumed on either tour.
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1:30
Across the glacier
Crevasses, meltwater channels and ash bands, with the lagoon below you and the ice cap ahead.
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3:00 to 4:30
Back to the lagoon
Return route and gear handed in at the car park. Diamond Beach is a two-minute drive across the bridge if you have daylight left.
Before You Book
What is included
Guide and technical gear on both. The lagoon car park is free, but nothing else about getting here is.
- Included: certified glacier guide and all glacier safety gear
- Included: helmet and glacier crampons
- Included: super jeep transfer on the three-hour tour
- Not included: waterproof hiking boots above the ankle, rentable on site
- Not included: food, drink, and the five-hour drive from Reykjavík
Not suitable for
The 4.5-hour hike carries the longest restriction list of any tour on this glacier, and it is worth taking at face value.
- Children under 10 on the 4.5-hour hike, under 8 on the super jeep version
- Pregnant travellers, on the longer hike
- People with heart problems or recent surgery
- Anyone with a low level of fitness, stated outright in the listing
- Anyone with a mobility impairment
When to come
These run all year. June to August gives you sixteen to twenty-one hours of daylight, bare ice with meltwater channels and daytime highs around 13°C. November to March gives you five to eleven hours of light, snow cover, deeper blue in the cut ice, and the option of adding a cave tour to the same trip.
If the cave is what you came for, book it first and put the hike on a different day. Caves cancel more often than hikes do.
Deciding between a cave and a hike at all? Are the ice caves worth it prices both sides.
Where You Meet
Questions About Hiking from the Lagoon
How much is a glacier hike from Jökulsárlón?
$134.10 for the four-and-a-half-hour guided hike onto Breiðamerkurjökull, or $130.73 for the three-hour version where a super jeep covers the approach. Both include a certified glacier guide, helmet and crampons, and neither charges at booking. Boots above the ankle are yours to bring or rent at the meeting point.
Do you need to be fit for the Jökulsárlón glacier hike?
For the four-and-a-half-hour tour, yes. Its listing rules out anyone with a low level of fitness, along with heart problems, recent surgery and pregnancy, which is a stricter set than most beginner glacier tours carry. The three-hour super jeep version asks much less, since the vehicle handles the approach and the walk is shorter.
Can you walk on the glacier at Jökulsárlón without a guide?
No. Glacier ice hides crevasses under thin snow bridges, the surface changes weekly, and there is no marked route from the lagoon onto Breiðamerkurjökull. Both tours here supply crampons, a helmet and a certified guide who has walked that line, and the guiding is most of what the ticket buys.
Is a glacier hike from Jökulsárlón better than one from Skaftafell?
Skaftafell is cheaper, at $97 to $103.44 against $130.73 and up here. Jökulsárlón buys you Breiðamerkurjökull, the glacier that calves into the lagoon, with icebergs and Diamond Beach in the same stop and no second drive. If the day is about the glacier itself, Skaftafell wins on price. If it is about the lagoon, walk here.
Will I see an ice cave on the hike?
Not as part of these tours. They walk past crevasses, meltwater channels and blue ice hollows on the surface, and entering a cave needs a separate cave tour between November and March. Guides on the hikes will point out where that winter's cave sat, which is often nowhere near where it was the year before.
What Recent Guests Wrote
Great tour with Marista (hope I have spelt that correctly!) It was exciting to go up to the glacier and experience the ever changing landscape firsthand and be guided to see the crevasses and incredible features that develop.
Despite a fairly cloudy day, it turned out to be an absolutely wonderful glacier tour with Gulliermo as our guide. The hike was easy and comfortable.
AJ was an incredible guide first of all. About as warm, friendly, knowledgeable, and funny as any guide I've ever had. Like a real Viking! Thank you AJ!!
Quotes reproduced from the GetYourGuide listings for these two tours, shortened with an ellipsis where marked.