Iceland in winter is magical. The landscape looks like something from another planet at any time of year, but when you add snow to the scene, it’s even more spectacular. Although a lot of areas are inaccessible during winter, there’s still plenty to do, including many of the country’s most famous sights. From epic waterfalls, to ice caves, geothermal lagoons, ice berg strewn lakes and a plane wreck, an Iceland winter road trip has the wow factor.
To make this itinerary work, you’ll ideally want to hire a car, but if you don’t want to do that, you can use tours to cover every destination in this article.
Here’s our 7 day Iceland winter itinerary.
1 Week Itinerary for Iceland in Winter
Day 1: Arrive & Sky Lagoon
Day 2: The Golden Circle
Day 3: Waterfalls of the South Coast
Day 4: The Solheimasandur Plane Wreck & drive to Jökulsárlón
Day 5: Ice Caves & Glacier Lagoon
Day 6: Vik - Black Sand Beach & Views
Day 7: Back to Reykjavik
A note on the itinerary
Normally we like to jam pack our itineraries so that you have an overview of all the best things to do, and can drop the ones you’re less keen on if you want to slow the pace a little. For this itinerary, we haven’t done that, and that’s because it would be unrealistic. Iceland in winter is magical yes, but unless you’re very lucky, on a 7 day trip you are likely to encounter some wild weather.
We wanted to keep this itinerary as realistic as possible as you’ll have less daylight hours for exploring and a high chance of having some activities rained/snowed off. This flexible itinerary makes it quite easy to move things around if you are hit with bad weather, as you could easily condense two of the south coast days into one if necessary.
We’ve also split the south coast waterfalls and Vik section to fall either side of Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon, and that’s to break the journey to and from Reykjavík, which is five hours long. We personally didn’t want a five hour journey the day before our flight just incase weather caused chaos on the roads. If you’re booking your trip last minute and can see the weather ahead, then you could swap this around so that you spend two days around Vik in one go, which is obviously a bit nicer in terms of not having to pack up and leave your hotel after just one night.
Some tips on winter driving
If you’re going to drive yourself, which we’d recommend if you’re a confident driver (you don’t need to be experienced in winter driving) then we’d suggest hiring an SUV or a 4WD. You don’t need one for this itinerary in terms of terrain, but we were hit with some really big storms and were grateful to have a larger, more sturdy car. The wind can get pretty wild!
The whole route we’re describing below is paved and plowed regularly. The roads are generally kept in excellent condition, but you’ll likely still encounter some icy roads. Studded tyres make all the difference here and we never felt like we would skid off the road, but we did have to drive slowly on long stretches of road when the ice was thick and visibility low - another reason we haven’t jam packed this itinerary.
The itinerary we’ve put together was based on advice we received from a car hire company on the easiest roads to drive in Iceland in winter. This was our first winter driving experience, so we didn’t want to do anything too gnarly.
I won’t go into more detail on winter driving, because we’ve written a whole guide with all our best tips here.
Renting a car in Iceland in Winter
The good news is that winter is by far the cheapest time of year to hire a car! When researching for this trip, we found the price was less than half the cost of hiring a car in the summer.
However, it’s best to check what you’re getting as some companies won’t include things like Third Party Insurance or Collision Damage Waivers, which can put the price up a lot. We use RentalCars.com as it shows you all the important information in the search results, including things like whether it’s an automatic, if it has unlimited mileage and a review score of the rental company.
Iceland 7 day winter itinerary
Day 1 - Reykjavík
Sky Lagoon
I’m going to assume that after flying in to Reykjavík, you’re going to fancy doing something relaxing, and there’s no better place to start than Sky Lagoon.
This geothermal lagoon is spectacular, with an infinity pool overlooking the wild Atlantic Ocean. You’re surrounded by volcanic cliffs and billowing steam, which really sets the tone for your trip to the land of fire and ice.
You can make a trip here more lux by including the seven step ritual, which gives you access to a cold plunge, sauna, steam room, mist room and salt scrub. It’s not actually much more expensive (around USD $21) and makes the whole experience feel like a spa day.
We’d recommend coming for the afternoon and watching the sunset, before hopefully experiencing a starry night sky - if the weather is in your favour! Though you have to book a time slot to enter the lagoon, once inside your time is unlimited.
You can read more about the experience in our Sky Lagoon guide.
Day 2 - Reykjavík
The Golden Circle
The Golden Circle makes for an easy day trip from Reykjavík, whether you’ve hired a car or opt for a tour. The Golden Circle is a 240km scenic drive which covers three of Iceland’s biggest tourist attractions - Thingvellir National Park, Geysir and Gullfoss waterfall.
This trip will take the entire day, especially because your daylight hours are limited in winter.
You’ll get to experience walking through a volcanic landscape out to a waterfall at Thingvellir, along a walkway past steaming pools and Strokkur geysir at Geysir, and to several epic viewpoints over one of Iceland’s most powerful waterfalls.
Whatever weather you get it’s going to memorable! You can see from our photos we had very changeable conditions, but actually the huge flurry of snow at Gullfoss waterfall actually made it more exciting! It felt truly wild.
You can read all our tips for visiting the Golden Circle here.
Where to stay in Reykjavík
City Comfort Apartments
We stayed at the City comfort apartments in Reykjavík. The apartments are very central and have a full kitchen, including oven, which is perfect if you want to cook to keep the costs down.
Although on that note the supermarket opposite the apartment is not one of the cheaper ones, you want to head for Bonus or Kronan ideally.
The apartment was clean and quiet, with a decent amount of space, good powerful shower and even a washing machine and dryer.
The water smells sulphurous in Reykjavík, but don’t be put off it feels great on your skin!
The downside to the apartment is that it doesn’t have parking - however you can park down the road for free (it’s then a five minute walk to the apartment).
You can check out the reviews and prices on:
Day 3 - Waterfalls on the south coast
Distance from Reykjavik: 128km, 1 hour 50 minute drive
This is one of the days I mentioned that is going to be pretty relaxed and you could definitely squeeze more in if you’ve got good weather.
Seljalandsfoss & Gljúfrabúi
After driving from just under two hours you’ll reach the first stop, Seljalandsfoss. This stunning waterfall is accessed via a very short (couple of minutes) walk along a well maintained path.
It’s incredibly powerful and mesmerising to watch the water thunder over the cliff.
Unfortunately, in winter it’s hard to walk behind the waterfall and sometimes even closed off like it was for us. However you can walk a little way around the side of the falls if you have traction devices to get safely over the ice.
Either way the views are stunning.
There’s a second waterfall, Gljúfrabúi, located in a mossy canyon just a short walk to the left of Seljalandsfoss.
Unfortunately for us the huge icicles made it too dangerous to enter, but that’s definitely not always the case, so do check on your visit! It’s a spot we’ll be back for next time!
Skogafoss
Just 30km and roughly 30 minutes down the road from Seljalandsfoss, you’ll come to what’s possibly Iceland’s most famous waterfall, Skogafoss.
This waterfall is breathtaking and even more powerful than Seljalandsfoss. It takes less than five minutes to walk from the car park to the base of the waterfall and you can walk right to the foot of the falls.
However, in winter the last few metres can be very icy, and very slippery. However this can work in your favour if you want to get pictures with no one in them.
You just need a pair of Yaktrax which surprisingly no one had on our visit! For us walking on the ice was easy and we could walk wherever we wanted to. You can find out more in our Skogafoss guide.
You can either end your day here, or continue 34km and roughly a 30 minute drive onto Vik. If you want to continue onto Vik, then we have some suggestions for you in day 6 of this itinerary.
If not, we stayed at an apartment with a hot tub just a 15 minute drive from Skogafoss, which was a great place to relax.
Where to stay near Skogafoss
Garage Apartments
We stayed just over a 15 minute drive from Skogafoss, at the Garage Apartments. It was one of our favourite stays in Iceland, with a gorgeous mountain and waterfall backdrop. We stayed in a studio apartment, which is small but perfectly formed.
There’s a little kitchenette with hob (but no oven) which was enough to make basic meals. They’re styled with a cosy and quirky deco, with lots of homely touches like candles, which I loved. There’s also a shared hot tub with an epic mountain view, and even homemade cakes on arrival!
The wifi works well, but there’s little phone signal. You’re also around 30km from the nearest supermarket and the surrounding restaurants are pricy, so it’s good to bring everything with you.
We loved our stay and thought they were a great deal in winter - we probably couldn’t afford to stay in peak season, so took advantage of it in off season!
You can check the prices and reviews on:
Day 4 - The south coast and drive to Jökulsárlón
The Solheimasandur Plane Wreck
Distance from Skogafoss: 9km, 9 minute drive
Distance from Vik: 24km, 25 minute drive
We highly recommend visiting the Solheimasandur Plane Wreck for sunrise. This is an incredibly popular spot and timing can really make or break your experience. It’s a 3.5km flat easy walk to reach the plane wreck and you should aim to be at the wreck itself for sunrise, (not the car park about to start your walk).
We had the most magical morning of the trip at the plane wreck, but that would not have been the case if it was super crowded!
The scenery surrounding the wreck is gorgeous, with snow covered mountains one side and the ocean on the other. Combined with the soft light of sunrise it’s a special spot.
The plane wreck itself is pretty cool to look around, there’s not much left inside the plane, but it’s still fun to see - and no one died here, so it’s not macabre to visit.
If you didn’t want to walk to the wreck you can take the shuttle bus or an ATV tour, but neither currently run in time to get you there for sunrise, so it will be crowded and trust me when I say, that will spoil it.
You can read all the details on tips for getting to the wreck in winter in this guide.
Onto Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon
After visiting the plane wreck, it’s time to do the 2 hour 40 minute drive to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon.
Around 25 minutes before you arrive at the lagoon you’ll pass Cafe Vatnajökull. This is your best place to stop for coffee and a snack, and it’s a really cute little cafe. The honeymoon cake (a sort of rhubarb crumble) is delish.
We’d recommend checking into your hotel and then heading out to Diamond Beach for sunset. This is the beautiful beach with all the ice bergs you’ve probably seen photos of.
Unfortunately we happened to be visiting during such a cold spell that the ice had not broken away from the glacier, and therefore there were only two icebergs on the beach!
This is apparently not that common, so hopefully you’ll have a beach sparkling with diamonds. Even if you don’t, it’s still well worth catching a sunset at this pretty black sand beach.
Where to stay at Jökulsárlón
Hali Country Hotel
We stayed at the Hali Country Hotel. It was the only hotel we stayed at which didn’t have self catering facilities - but I actually couldn’t find one that did close to the lagoon. The hotel was really nice, with a big comfy bed and good shower. We also had a great view over the frozen bay.
At the end of the corridor you have a hot drinks area where you can make free tea and coffee. We will admit to also making pot noodles here to cut down on the cost of eating out : ) We actually got caught in a snow storm in this area and had to extend our stay, so also ended up eating at the restaurant. The food was good, but does cost upwards of USD $30 a main.
The staff are very friendly and the brekkie is included in the room rate. You’re a 12 minute drive from the lagoon and ice cave tours here.
One downside is that inexplicably they keep external lights on outside the hotel at night and the curtains aren’t thick enough to block all the light. This bothered me, but didn’t bother Joe, so it depends how sensitive a sleeper you are!
You can check the prices and reviews on:
Day 5 - Jökulsárlón
Ice cave tour
The ice cave tour was probably the best thing we did on our Iceland winter road trip. Walking under the glowing blue ice is otherworldly and the colour made me think of bioluminescence!
It’s unlike anything I’ve experienced before and a real wow factor moment.
Before you even reach the ice cave you’ll spend around 30 minutes walking through incredible mountain scenery and it’s a very easy walk - much easier than any glacier walk I’ve ever done.
You could even wear your own hiking shoes and just add chains to them (which are provided by the company).
We are pretty tour averse and we’ll basically do everything independently if we possibly can, however all ice caves must be visited with a guide, and ours were very good.
You can do short tours like the one we did, which last between 3-4 hours, or extended tours which go for 6-7 hours - but sadly these weren’t running on our visit as a huge storm was about to roll in and everyone needed to be off the glacier long before it happened.
Next time we’d love to try that one, but I was still thrilled with our ice cave experience.
There are a number of different companies that run tours, and a few different ice caves. We visited Crystal Cave and went with this tour company, you can read the full details on exactly how we found the whole experience here - this includes details on crowds and how easy it is to get photos given it’s a group tour.
After visiting the ice cave, it’s time to hit the two glacier lagoons.
Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon
You can start with Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon as this is where the ice cave tours depart from.
You can see the lagoon from the car park, so there’s no walk involved, although you can choose to walk along the water’s edge or up the little hill (2 minute walk) for an elevated view.
Unfortunately for us, as with Diamond Beach, we were suffering from the cold weather trapping the ice, so we didn’t really have an icebergs at the main lookout like you normally would.
It required a zooms lens to get the photo of the iceberg below from the main car park!
If this happens to you (and even if it doesn’t) we’d recommend also heading to a second viewpoint, a few minutes down the road which you can find here.
Even just a five minute walk along the well maintained path allowed us to see a few giant icebergs.
You can walk much further than we did, but the wind was insane this day, so we only walked for around 10 minutes each way.
After this we’d recommend heading 12 minutes down the road to Fjallsárlón Lagoon. It’s another stunning glacial lagoon, but sees far fewer visitors.
Other than the plane wreck, this was the only spot in Iceland we got to ourselves, and this was in the middle of the day too!
It’s just a five minute walk to a good viewpoint, although again, you can continue walking much further.
The paths here were gravel, but had large patches of ice, so we recommend Yaktrax, or something similar to make walking on ice smooth sailing.
Day 6 - Vik
Distance from Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon: 195km, 2.5 hour drive
Viewpoints and black sand beaches
After the beautiful drive to Vik, it’s time to see some more of the south coast’s hotspots. It’s worth having a quick peek at the church that sits on top of a hill in the town, the views are great from here.
We’d then recommend driving 20 minutes outside of Vik to the Dyrhólaey lighthouse. The view from here is one of the best of the trip, with the black sand beach surrounded by snow capped mountains.
It’s absolutely spectacular and one of those moments that really takes your breath away.
The road up to the viewpoint is short, but relatively steep, and it was icy when we visited. There are no crash barriers, so take it slowly, but don’t be put off because the view is exquisite.
There’s a little circuit walkway which I think is gravel, but was completely snow covered on our visit, so I’m not 100% sure.
Either way, it’s flat and easy and only takes a few minutes before you reach the lighthouse and your first view. This is over a huge sea arch, which also had a good dusting of snow on our visit, which was unique for us!
You can walk down the path to the left for around five minutes to reach a lower viewpoint of the arch.
From the upper viewpoint you continue around the circuit and you’ll come to the best view of them all (pictured above). The black sand beach with little sea stacks nearby and so many birds!
It’s an unforgettable vista and I am so glad we got to see it with the snow, which added to an already amazing scene.
Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach
After visiting Dyrhólaey begin heading to Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach, a 25 minute drive away.
You’ll pass another pretty church, which looks just like the one in Vik town centre, but didn’t have any other visitors when we stopped by! Incidentally this stretch of road is a good place to stop and see the Icelandic ponies.
We’d seen them in so many places on this trip, but there was never anywhere to safely pull over. There was a large lay-by beside the ponies on this road, so it’s a good place to visit them safely.
Once you arrive at Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach you are going to be blown away. It is jaw dropping and totally exceeded all my expectations.
It has a truly wild feel with a huge overhang, dozens of basalt columns, sea stacks, and somewhat alarmingly large waves. It’s a truly dramatic scene.
On the subject of the waves though, they’re known by Icelandic people as sneaker waves because they can suddenly come far up the beach without warning. That makes them very dangerous and there have been several tragic deaths here.
You have to stay away from the waves and any wet areas you can see waves have come up to (and then add a little more space for good measure). You’ll see loads of people right beside the water, but it’s not worth the risk.
Sneaker waves aside, the only draw back to this beach is the crowds. And oh what crowds there are. It’s a bit Disneylandish and does detract from the experience.
Coming for sunset is picturesque, but if you’re staying in Vik you might want to shift the beach on to the morning of day 7 and come for sunrise. You won’t be alone, but there will be with less crowds.
If you’re looking for a dinner (or lunch) option in Vik, then we can highly recommend Black Crust Pizza in the town centre.
We treated ourselves to lunch here and it was fantastic, the cheapest pizzas are around USD $20 and it’s up from there. Honestly it was totally worth it, the base is amazing and the toppings are too. The vibe and staff are also lovely.
Where to stay in Vik
Black Beach Suites
This was our favourite stay in Iceland and our biggest splurge. The apartments are really spacious and feel pretty luxurious, with stylish modern fittings and huge floor to ceiling windows. There’s a small kitchen for self catering and the best shower we had in Iceland.
The bed was huge and comfy and to be honest hard to get out of when we could hear the rain hammering down outside!
We had some pretty bad weather in this area and we were really glad to have such nice accommodation.
Check the latest prices and reviews on:
Day 7 - Drive to Reykjavik
Distance from Vik: 187km, 2.5 hour drive
After leaving Vik you’ll have a 2.5 hour drive back to Reykjavik. There are a few nice sites in the city centre, but you’re probably going to want to visit the Blue Lagoon. We’re going to level with you and say we were disappointed with the Blue Lagoon.
However, as virtually no one comes to Iceland and doesn’t visit, we didn’t think we could leave it out, and spending a afternoon at a hot spring is a lovely way to end your trip. Plus so many people love the lagoon that we wouldn’t like to say don’t go!
General entry to the lagoon includes a drink and face mask, as well as unlimited time in the pool. In winter we were able to book the night before our visit, but just incase, it’s worth booking ahead of time as if it is full you don’t have any spare days to slot it in - unless you have an afternoon flight, in which case you can go in the morning, as it’s only a 20 minute drive from the airport.
You can read more about our experience at the Blue Lagoon in our guide to Sky Lagoon vs the Blue Lagoon.
The things we’re glad we packed for Iceland in winter
There are a few things that really made a difference to us both on our trip to Iceland. The first I already mentioned which is Yaktrax, or any traction device to help you safely navigate the ice. We always wax lyrical about them, but honestly they’re a game changer.
The second would be hand and foot warmers. We were visiting Iceland during a very cold spell, but even if the temperatures look good online, the wind can make it feel much chillier. We were visiting Geysir when it was -2C, but with wind chill the app said it felt like -12C, and I can attest to the fact it was very cold!
I tend to suffer from cold hands in particular and using hand warmers meant that even with basic glove liners my hands were toasty. I debated buying big thick gloves before our trip, but all the ones that were meant for the temperatures we’d be in looked like marshmallow man gloves and I wouldn’t have been able to take pictures and videos either, so I was pretty thrilled with the hand warmers.
The other thing, and possibly the most important if you don’t have a huge warm winter coat would be thermals. I wore a thermal top and trousers every day in Iceland and my core body was always warm, even when we were walking in -17C. Unless you are 100% confident in your winter coat, I would definitely invest in a set of thermals.
I’ve used many brands, but none have compared to Icebreaker. I always wince at the cost of Icebreaker products, but they have been worth it and I purchased a new top and glove liners from them before we left for this trip and both were worth the money.
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