Four hours whose whole point is going inside the ice rather than across it. No driving licence, no minimum age, and the entrance fee to the tunnel is already in the fare.
A guided walk of about an hour through a tunnel cut into the glacier, with its entrance at around 1,260 metres.
The tunnel has its own published price. On this tour it is already paid, along with the transfer and the equipment.
Nobody drives anything. Children are welcomed and the operator sets no lower limit.
Eight wheels and an hour across the ice cap to reach the door, which is half the reason people remember the day.
They go over whatever you arrive in, so bring shoes rather than boots.
Which in an Icelandic January is warmer than the air you left outside.
You check in at the Husafell information centre, which sits beside the bistro and the petrol station, and the day steps up through increasingly serious machinery from there. A bus or modified truck takes the mountain road to the Klaki base camp. At the camp you change to the glacier truck.
That last stage is the one nobody expects to enjoy as much as they do. The truck crosses the ice cap itself for the best part of an hour, and in flat light there is nothing to fix your eye on in any direction. Travellers describe arriving at the tunnel in complete whiteout, and being snowed on at the top in August.
Inside, the walk is about an hour on level ground. Crampons go on at the door. The tunnel is lit from within the walls rather than from overhead, so the blue is the ice doing the colouring rather than a lamp. There are crevasse windows where the passage intersects a natural split in the glacier, a chamber that has been used for weddings, and at some point the guides turn every light off.
Then the same sequence in reverse, and you are back at Husafell about four hours after you left it. What you walk through, section by section, is described on inside the ice tunnel.
You want to be inside a glacier rather than on top of one, or nobody in your party holds a driving licence, or you are travelling with a child too young for a snowmobile or an adult who would rather not ride one. It is also the only version of this that is open in July.
You want to ride as well, in which case there is one fare that does both in three hours from the same check-in desk. If you are staying in Reykjavik without a car, the Golden Circle day collects you from your hotel instead. And if a step of 40 centimetres is a problem, the truck rather than the tunnel is what will stop you.
Check in at the Húsafell information centre, next to the bistro and the petrol station, at least fifteen minutes before departure. The address is Húsafell, 311 Borgarbyggð, and the drive from Reykjavik takes about an hour and forty minutes on tarmac the whole way.
It is also the last fuel before the mountain road, which matters if you are driving yourself. Coming instead from the southern side, the road runs through Gullfoss and the tours there are a different set. The routes, and what an ordinary hire car can do on them, are on location and how to get there.
★★★★★
The transport chain is worth understanding: about an hour and a half from Reykjavik to the activity centre, a heavy-duty bus to base camp, then a tundra-style truck up to the entrance. I wore a long-sleeved tee, a flannel shirt, an insulated jacket, jeans and sturdy shoes and was fine throughout.
Thomas B. · Couple · August 2025
★★★★★
The moment I remember is the guides turning the lights off inside the tunnel and one of them singing an Icelandic lullaby in the dark. Getting up there is an adventure in itself. We would recommend it to anybody.
Gayla D. · Group · April 2025
★★★☆☆
The cave itself was interesting. Getting to it was not: the transport arrangements were confusing and the base camp was crowded when we arrived. Worth doing, but go in knowing the logistics are the weak part.
Tim M. · Solo · September 2025
Read all reviews → The full spread, criticism included
About an hour in the tunnel at 1,260 metres, the entry fee already in the fare, and open every month of the year.
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