About Us

The beginning of river rafting adventures

Icelandic couple traveled to Nepal for a great river rafting adventure. They wanted to share their beautiful experience in Nepal with the Icelandic people, so they started searching for rivers that were suitable for rafting. One day they came across the stunning Hvítá (White River), they knew immediately that this was exactly what they had been looking for. They named their company Bátafólkið (The Boat People) and the team quickly grew.

The Birth of Arctic Rafting

In 1997 Bátafólkið began its operations in North Iceland on the River Jökulsá Austari, which is a very exciting world class level 4 rafting river. Another Icelandic explorer, called Daddi Bjarna, enjoyed the same kind of inspiring rafting trip in the Himalayas. The same as Villa and Bassi, he decided to launch an Icelandic river rafting operation in 1997. However, his company was located in the East and he called it Arctic Rafting. His river was Eyvindará, also a world class level 4 river. Arctic Rafting began offering combo trips, they were the first company to do so. These trips brought together Whale Watching and River Rafting.

Arctic Rafting expands to Hvita River

In 2001, Arctic Rafting moved their operations to the Hvítá River. At this time the sport wasn’t very big in Iceland and close friendships were formed within this tight-knit group of people.

The Birth of Arctic Adventures

In 2005 the two companies decided to merge and they formed Arctic Adventures together. River rafting is only a summer activity and the group wanted to explore ways to use the equipment and show people the very best of Iceland all year around. And therefore, the focus was not only on river rafting, other activities were taken into the operation, and not long after snorkeling in Silfra and hiking on Sólheimajökull glacier were added.

Glacier Guides launches at Skaftafell

The company continued to grow and in 2009 the Glacier Guides project was launched. Glacier Guides offers hiking and climbing tours on glaciers together with other exciting adventures in the area. Its base camp is located at Skaftafell, within Vatnajökull National Park, home to the great Vatnajökull, the mightiest glacier in Iceland. This company is easy to recognize with its turf roof and the American school bus they use to transport people to and from the glacier.

The company expands

In 2010 the company’s operations were further increased. Incentive trips for corporations to Greenland, Iceland and other locations in the Arctic area were included, in cooperation with Mr. Henry Köhler. A Berlin-based local office was launched, named Arktische Abenteuer, which conducted our operations in the German-speaking market.

The birth of Trekking in Iceland

In 2012 a hiking and trekking brand with the name Wild Iceland began its operations, this later became Trek Iceland. The Icelandic Highlands have always fascinated Icelanders, as Icelandic tourism grew word about this spread very fast.

Arctic Family expands for more rafting adventures

In 2013 another aspect of the Arctic Family was created when we founded Viking Rafting in partnership with guides, Anrup Gurung and Chris Doyle-Kyle, who had been with us for many years. This company focuses on and continues to offer rafting trips in North Iceland. These tours offer challenging and very exciting level 4 rafting on Austari Jökulsá, an absolutely stunning river in beautiful Skagafjörður. Their base is located in north Iceland, at a farm called Hafgrímsstaðir.

Arctic Family adopts Trek Iceland

The following year, 2014, Trek Iceland became part of the Arctic Adventures Family. It is today one of the largest branches of Arctic Adventures, its main focus is the famous and truly one-of-a-kind Laugavegur trail.

Arctic Family adopts Arctic Sea Tours

We had concentrated on the land for quite a while so now it was time to turn our attention to the sea! Arctic Sea Tours joined the Arctic Family in 2015. They operate in North Iceland, at Dalvík on picturesque Eyjafjörður: whales are their passion.

The same year, Snowmobile.is also became a part of our Arctic Family, contributing their magical glacier skimming tours.

Milestone year – snorkeling, diving tours

Our glacier operations in the Skaftafell area and at Sólheimajökull glacier had blossomed, and we felt it was the right time to find better accommodation for our guides and staff. We very much like the feeling that we are a family and we decided this would be the right time to buy two houses for our teams to live in, one is in Hvolsvöllur and the other at Kirkjubæjarklaustur. We also developed two new aspects during the year: Our diving and snorkeling operations took a big leap forward when we founded Dive Silfra, intensifying our focus on snorkeling and diving trips. Last but not least, Scuba Iceland became part of the Arctic Family.

Arctic Family welcomes Extreme Iceland

The Arctic Adventures family has taken over Hotel Hof 1, which has been renamed Adventure Hotel, a very well suited name! This will be our place to meet up in South East Iceland, it is the perfect place to stay before and after one of our tours in the area.

Another big step was taken in 2017 when Arctic Adventures acquired Extreme Iceland. This was a very welcomed addition to the Arctic family and they brought you, even more, options for adventures all around Iceland.

Arctic Adventures is currently operating different trips from Reykjavik as well as glacier tours from Sólheimajökull and Skaftafell, snorkeling and diving at Þingvellir (Thingvellir) and snowmobiling on Langjökull glacier. In addition to rafting on the Hvítá River, we offer many other activity tours around Iceland. Choose us as your tour provider and you can be sure to go home with a story which is really worth telling!