Ice Cave & Northern Lights Tour

The Northern Lights are natural phenomena and we unfortunately cannot promise you will see them on our tours. Their appearance depends upon atmospheric and weather conditions, which are factors entirely out of our control.

For more information on the Northern Lights, please have a look at our Northern Lights information.

Unfortunately, there isn’t just one simple answer to this question.

Your camera doesn't have a single setting that will guarantee excellent pictures.  But if you have manual controls, playing with different mixtures of ISO, aperture, and exposure settings is usually preferable. As a general rule, ISO settings of 800 to 3200, f/2.8 to f/5.6, and shutter speeds of 15 to 30 seconds have been found to be successful.

Keep in mind that ISO settings between 800 and 3200, f/2.8 and f/5.6, and shutter speeds between 15 and 30 seconds have produced excellent results.

Results from various combinations can vary greatly. You can take faster exposures with a higher ISO setting, but the photographs can turn up grainier as a result. 

If the shutter speed is above 15 seconds it will result in a slight star movement.

In low-light situations, wider-angle lenses are typically more adaptable, while longer lenses provide you with more compositional alternatives. Make sure to take off any lens filters because they could cause image distortion. Most likely, using a manual setting for infinite focal length will get the greatest results. 

For more tips, read our blog on photographing the Northern Lights.

Since the spectacle of the Northern Lights is very much weather-dependent, if no aurora is seen, you’ll have unlimited re-tries valid for up to 3 years. That’s right, you’ll be able to re-join the chase of Northern Lights until it’s a successful one! 

What to do in this case? Our Customer Care is ready to help you and book your next re-try.

Please keep in mind that refunds are not issued when a tour takes place but no Northern Lights are seen. During a re-try, the tour is operated on a minibus.

When Northern Lights tours are cancelled it’s usually due to unfavourable weather conditions.

In that case, your options will be to:

1. Reschedule for another day.

2. Find another tour to embark on and use the deposit for it.

3. Get fully refunded.

Please contact our Customer Care team to re-book your tour.

Yes, the guide will take a photo of you with the Northern Lights behind you. These can be single or group photos and are free of charge.

The Northern Lights season is said to be from late August until mid-April. However, if you want to increase your chances of seeing them, it is best to wait until the colder winter months, from mid-September until March.

If luck and weather are on your side, then you will be able to see the aurora borealis above the inviting streets of Reykjavik. Whether you see the lights or not depends on two unique factors. The first is the weather: If the sky is clear, with no clouds, then you are halfway to seeing the astonishing spectacle that is the Northern Lights (although light pollution can sometimes be a problem). Increased solar activity is the second factor, so if these two are both favorable at the same time you may well be able to see the Northern Lights from Reykjavik.

The first step is to make sure your credit card provider allows you to make payments in Canadian Dollars (CAD) or American Dollars (USD) if you have selected these currencies.

In some cases, your credit card company would need to pre-authorize the transaction for you before you can process the transaction online.

If you are still having problems booking through the Arctic Adventures website (www.adventures.is) then please contact our Customer Care Team.

Iceland is known for its colorful weather. It can sometimes show you all 4 seasons in one day.

Dressing for this sort of weather can be a challenge so we always recommend dressing in layers. 3 or 4 upper layers are highly recommended such as a light t-shirt (preferably wool) next to the skin, then a fleece or heavy wool garment, topped off with a waterproof windbreaker.

Jeans are not recommended for our trips as they become very heavy, cold and uncomfortable to wear when they get wet.

Lightweight hiking pants, track pants or long cotton pants are best and then wind/waterproof pants over. We also recommend using sunglasses and sunscreen even if it is cloudy due to the high UV and sunlight reflecting off of the glacier.

You will need sturdy hiking boots with ankle support that fit crampons for the glacier hiking tours. If you do not own a pair then we rent out good hiking boots as well as a waterproof raincoat and trousers.

We recommend bringing your own backpack on our full day or 1/2 day tours. It’s great to carry a small lunch and some extra clothing.

You can bring your camera along, and you should definitely bring one since the setting on the tour is full of amazing, scenic views.

This is, of course, a personal choice, we have often had pregnant women on our trips. We recommend you take a close look at our trip description and difficulty rating, they will hopefully give you a better idea. It is also good to contact your physician, pregnant women’s health can be quite different. Feel free to contact us if you have further questions or concerns.

We do not provide lunch on any of our trips, so we recommend you bring your own lunch (for the longer trips), snacks and a bottle of water (you can refill it on the trip).

Crampons are metal spikes that we attach to the soles of your hiking shoes, these enable you to walk on the glacier ice without slipping. Get to know how to put crampons.

Yes, there is a specially trained and certified glacier guide on every glacier tour that we offer.

When glacier hiking you will be provided with an ice axe, crampons, harness and helmet. This will help you to complete the tour safely. The minimum shoe size to attach crampons is EU 35.