An hour on a snowmobile is the same hour on every one of these fares: two riders to a machine, in a line behind a guide, across the surface of Iceland's second-largest glacier. What differs is how far somebody drives to collect you, and that is where the price goes. Three things decide which one suits you — whether anybody has a driving licence, how old the youngest traveller is, and whether you already have a car. Every fare sits alongside the rest of the Langjokull booking options.
The cheapest hour on the ice, meeting the truck at the Gullfoss upper car park. Winter suit, gloves, helmet and buff issued at Geldingafell base camp, and the guides set the route fresh each day.
From $204 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Door-to-door from a city hotel with a super jeep or monster truck covering the highland road. Eight hours for one on the ice, and everything you ride in is provided.
From $329 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The most-booked day of the sixteen. Three hours at the glacier with one of them riding, and Thingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss either side of it by coach.
From $361 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
A small-group super jeep day that gives the glacier two hours rather than one, with the group capped at sixteen and the full Golden Circle around it.
From $386 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Three hours out of Húsafell that ride across the ice cap and then walk the tunnel cut into it. Two riders share each machine, the cave entry is inside the fare, and the minimum age is eight.
From $299 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
140-horsepower Yamaha Vipers, ten riders maximum and an adult band that starts at eighteen. Built for people who already know what a throttle does, and collected from the Gullfoss Café car park.
From $438 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Park at Gullfoss, take a 4x4 monster ice truck up to base and be on the ice inside the hour. Children ride as passengers from six, and free parking at the meeting point.
From $260 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
The hour on the ice paired with a bath in one of Iceland's oldest thermal pools. Hotel pickup, a super jeep through the Geysir field, and a towel for the lagoon.
From $450 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Six hours rather than ten, because the route runs north-west to Húsafell instead of round the Golden Circle. Collected from any of eleven numbered city bus stops.
From $269 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Nine hours in a super jeep capped at sixteen, with an hour and a half at the glacier rather than a token stop. Pickup from Reykjavik hotels and bus stops.
From $374 per person
Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead.
Gear, briefing and a guide in front. Two to a machine, with a swap halfway so both of you drive.
See Langjokull snowmobile toursA transfer carries you from the road up to a base camp at the snowline. The kit is issued there — a winter overall, a helmet, gloves and a buff, and goggles or overshoes on some tours. There is a briefing, and then you ride for an hour across the ice cap in a line behind a guide, with stops built into the route for photographs.
Two people share each machine as standard and you can swap over halfway, so both of you drive and both of you get to look around. The route is set fresh each day around the conditions rather than run to a fixed track, because crevasse fields move and fresh snow hides them.
The hour is louder, colder and more physical than the photographs suggest. In flat light there is genuinely no line between the snow and the sky. Travellers describe both the exhilaration and the tiredness, and one is blunt about the ratio: fifty minutes of driving to get there, ten minutes of kit, ten of instruction, then the hour.
Standing on a glacier is remarkable. Crossing one under your own throttle is a different order of memory, and it is the single most-mentioned highlight in the traveller reviews on the reviews page.
Reviewer after reviewer makes the same point for anyone packing: you do not need to bring cold-weather clothing, because the operators cover you head to toe at base camp. What nobody issues is footwear.
Four of these fares meet at the glacier side rather than in the city, so a self-driver doing the Golden Circle can park once, ride, and rejoin their own car. That is $100 to $250 a head cheaper than the same hour bought with a transfer.
The snow at 1,200 metres holds through August, so a summer visit rides on much the same surface as a March one. What changes is the light rather than the snow.
As passengers, behind an adult, on several of these tours. One grandmother describes her granddaughter loving the whole hour. No child drives at any age.
The other way onto Langjökull is inside it, and the two suit different people for reasons that have nothing to do with which looks better.
| Snowmobile | Ice cave | |
|---|---|---|
| Driving licence | Required to drive | Not needed |
| Minimum age | 6 to 18, by tour | None stated |
| Two to a machine? | Yes, with a supplement to ride alone | Not applicable |
| Time doing it | One hour riding | About an hour walking |
| Physical demand | Arm strength for an hour | Level walking |
| Where it starts | Gullfoss or Reykjavik | Húsafell |
| From | $204 | From $203 |
If nobody in the party has a licence, or the youngest is under six, the tunnel is the booking. Both cases are worked through on ice cave or snowmobile, and the full field is compared on Langjokull Tours.
Price band. From $204 meeting the truck at Gullfoss, about From $361 for a full Golden Circle day with the hour inside it, and up to $450 for the version that adds a thermal bath. The hour itself is the same on all of them.
Duration. Four hours from the glacier side, six to eleven and a half from Reykjavik depending on how much else is attached.
The licence. A full, valid driving licence, carried with you, for whoever drives. One licensed driver per two people booked on most tours. Passengers need nothing and there is no upper age limit on riding behind somebody.
Booking window. A week for most of the year, sooner in July and August. A couple of listings carry a likely-to-sell-out flag, and everything refunds in full at 24 hours.
Which side you ride from. Most of these leave from the Gullfoss upper car park on the southern side, and the city departures reach the snowline either that way or north-west through Húsafell. The Golden Circle days pass the Geysir geothermal field on the road out, which is where the last food before the ice is.
Gear, briefing and a guide in front are in every fare here, and every one of them refunds in full up to 24 hours before the tour starts.
See Langjokull snowmobile toursAnyone without a licence in the party. One operator declines a solo traveller without one outright. The ice cave tours and the monster-truck day both ask for nothing.
Families with a child under six. Most of these set six as the floor for a passenger and one sets eighteen for anybody. The monster-truck day takes children from four and nobody rides anything.
Anyone who does not travel well. The transfer to base camp is longer and rougher than the ride, and travellers say so. If that is a problem, it is the part to plan for rather than the snowmobile.
Anyone hoping for a long ride. One hour is the standard on every one of these, and a reviewer who wanted longer said so plainly. If time on the ice matters more than speed, the truck day gives about an hour and three quarters up there.