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Join an adventure that begins with a glacier walk on the icy slopes of Sólheimajökull Glacier, followed by horseback riding across Víkurfjara black sand beach.
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The tour begins at our base close to the foot of the Sólheimajökull Glacier. Once there you will meet your friendly glacier guide, who will provide you with all the equipment that you need and teach you how to walk on the ice using ice crampons and an ice axe. We will then head out into this incredible icy wilderness for an awe-inspiring experience that everyone is bound to enjoy. The glacier walk is not very challenging and is suitable for anyone that is in relatively good health.
As soon as we step out onto the glacier, we will enter an otherworldly ice kingdom, replete with dramatic rocky crevices, stunning ice sculptures and eerily beautiful shades of blue and white ice that will leave you breathless. Your friendly glacier guide will be with you every step of the way to provide fascinating insights into the incredible landscape that we are exploring.
The second half of the tour will take us to the picturesque village of Vik on Iceland’s South Coast. We will all meet at our traditional Icelandic stables, where our friendly guide will introduce you to the horses and give us any relevant safety information. Then, once everyone is ready, we will head out onto the Vikurfjara black beach for a fascinating and fun horse ride to a truly spectacular backdrop.
Víkurfjara is a mesmerizing and beautiful place, famed for its jet-black volcanic sands, dramatic lava sculptures and sheer cliffs which drop into the deep blue Atlantic Ocean. The white-crested waves of the Atlantic Ocean lapping against its dark sandy shores creates a stark and beautiful contrast that you are sure to appreciate. Riding a traditional Viking horse across this stunning landscape is a mesmerizing experience that will inspire awe and wonder in equal measure. It will stimulate all of your senses – as the song of the seabirds echoes off the basalt sea stacks, the salt of the rolling waves fills your nostrils and the cool breeze blows in your face.
Riding an Icelandic horse is truly an honor for any animal lover. Their sturdy build is complimented by their friendly, patient nature and their beautifully thick manes make them instantly recognisable. They have a unique gait, known as the ‘tolt’, which means that they always have at least one hoof on the ground. Icelanders have always treasured the adaptations of the horses and it is illegal to import them. Your expert guide will tell you all about these incredible creatures, along with the wonderful things that you are seeing, ensuring that the tour is both educational and fun.
The meeting point for the Glacier Hike is at the Sólheimajökull parking lot (by the yellow school bus). The meeting times are as follows:
The meeting point for the Horse Riding part is at Vík (by the Vík Horse Adventure stables, Smiðjuvegur 6). The meeting times are as follows:
Please be careful with SatNavs! The location of our stable on Google Maps is in the correct place (Vík Horse Adventure, 63.416699, -18.996465), but some SatNavs try to lead you down a steep gravel bank from the nearby roundabout where you will get stuck.
Access is through the Orkan petrol station, opposite Hotel Kría - turn into the petrol station and then turn right and you will find Vik Horse Adventure.
We ask you to arrive 15 minutes prior to the departure time that you have chosen. This allows time for you to get prepared for the tour, ensuring we will be ready to leave on time.
We meet you at Sólheimajökull parking lot and the distance from Reykjavik is approx. 164 km / 101 mi. The drive takes around 2-2,5 hours.
For GPS: 63°31’00.48″N, 19°22’00.12W(WGS84).
Lunch is not included, however there will be enough time between the two activities to have lunch. We do recommend a lunch break in Vik between the two activities.
No prior experience is needed for either activities.
The weight limit for the horse riding tour is 100kg/220lb.
There are a few different ways you can book our trips. First of all, you can book almost all our trips right here on our website. There is a booking window on each tour page and we do recommend that you book and pay for your trip there, preferably in good time as we keep our groups small and some tours tend to sell out.
If the trip you would like to book is not bookable online, you can call our office directly, the phone number is +354 562 7000. Another way is to send us an e-mail with an inquiry through our contact form. What we need to have is your name, how many people are in your party, where you are staying, a way of contacting you either an e-mail or a phone number and what tour you are trying to book.
A booking is confirmed when you receive a confirmation email. If you think you have made a booking and have not received an email confirmation, please send us an e-mail with an inquiry through our contact form, and we will figure this out together.
We process all payments in Canadian Dollars (CAD). Prices in your currency might vary slightly depending on the conversion rate set by your card issuer.
Arctic Adventures is not responsible for currency changes between different currencies.
Most of our tours have no minimum but there is a minimum of 2 people for a few of our trips. If you are interested in a trip that has a minimum of 2 persons and are travelling solo we can take down your information and contact you if more people book the trip.
Yes, we arrange private departures on request. Most of the tours we offer can be arranged as a private tour. If you wish to have a private tour arranged you can contact us through email custom@adventures.is.
Please have a look at all of our private tours.
We, unfortunately, don’t have a waiting list for our tours but feel free to check the availability sheet on our website as all updates will automatically be made to the sheet listed in each tour‘s description. We also offer a lot of different adventure tours around Iceland so chances are that we will have a similar version of the tour that you were originally looking for.
If we cancel a tour you have booked with us you will receive a 100% refund. The refund process is different depending on the way you booked the tour.
If you booked the tour on our website we will start the refund as soon as we know you will not be rescheduling and you will receive a separate email with the confirmation once the refund has been processed. It can then take a few days for the amount to show back up on your bank account once the refund has been processed and we, therefore, ask you to be patient.
If you booked the tour through a booking agent you will need to contact them to receive the refund. We will confirm with them that the tour was cancelled and the refund process will start on their end. Arctic Adventures only receives a payment when the tour has finished, this means that your payment is still with the booking agent and therefore, the refund will be processed by them.
If you pay with your card via email or phone you will need to contact us the same way again to be refunded.
We can not accommodate a person that has not reached the age limit on the tour. We put great value towards the safety of our customers and the minimum age policy falls under this. The minimum age requirement is decided by our operational managers and is dependent on each activity and it‘s difficulty ratings and can, therefore, vary between tours. We ask you to try to understand that this is based on safety procedures and we can therefore unfortunately not make any exceptions to this rule.
Arctic Adventures is a part of VAKINN which is the official quality and environmental system within Icelandic tourism. VAKINN provides validation of insurance, safety and regulatory requirements which supports increased quality and safety within the tourism industry.
Our website shows the correct number of available seats left so we can unfortunately not accommodate you and your group if the number of your group extends the number of available seats left. It is not possible to squeeze additional participants onto the departure as we have really strict policy measures as to how many participants are assigned to each guide on our tour departures. This is of course done with our customers safety in mind, so we do hope that you understand.
We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club for all countries.
In addition, we offer various local payment methods in many other countries such as UnionPay and JCB (Japan Credit Bureau).
As with any and all world travel, we strongly recommend having travel insurances that can provide cover if you need to cancel your travel reservation with short notice. We also recommend that you have personal health insurance coverage when participating in any adventure activities in Iceland.
Vehicles are equipped for both summer and winter driving conditions, and drivers are very experienced driving in difficult conditions.
Before starting any of the activities, participants will receive a safety briefing highlighting the safe and proper use of equipment, the role of guides during the trip, and the significant risks and hazards involved in their activity. The safety briefing will also cover potentially foreseeable scenarios that may arise and explain how participants should react in such circumstances. Our guides will also outline their expectations of participants during the trip where needed and address any specific questions or concerns that may arise during this time.
Any medical conditions or personal health concerns that may jeopardize your well-being or affect your ability to meet the physical demands of the trip must be clearly communicated to the trip leader before the tour start. Any medications you may require for minor medical conditions (asthma inhalers, etc.), should be kept close and you should bring it with you on the trip if possible. It is important that you notify your guide about such medications and their whereabouts before setting off.
The Ice Caves in Iceland are truly magical. If you want to learn more about them this information page on Ice Caves will be a great help.
