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Auroras & Glacier Lagoon – New Year’s Tour - 5 days / 4 nights
Visit: Visit Iceland over New Year - Golden Circle Route - Vatnajökull National Park & Glacier Lagoon - South Coast & New Years Dinner & Firework Cruise
Why not explore the land of fire and ice with guided visits to volcanoes, lava fields, hot springs and magnificent glaciers? During this tour, you visit Iceland’s most popular sites such as the Golden Circle route, the South Coast and Vatnajökull national park. On route, you see cascading waterfalls, smoking geysers, colourful volcano craters, a spectacular ice lagoon with floating icebergs and black lava beaches, all set against a backdrop of glittering glaciers and restless geology. Besides, there is always a thrilling potential for the night sky to be decorated with the jewels of the amazing aurora borealis. Imagine the excitement to search for the most spectacular – and natural – light show on earth. Cross your fingers for clear skies, wrap up warm, and don’t forget your camera with a tripod when you try to catch sight of the Northern Lights in Iceland.
New Year’s Eve will be spent in Reykjavik including a festive dinner at Restaurant Reykjavík. After the main course guests will be picked up by our guides for the evening Reykjavik Bonfire & Christmas Lights Tour where we celebrate with Icelanders at one of the many bonfires that are situated all over the city. The tour takes about two hours. After the tour, we go back to Restaurant Reykjavík for the dessert. At midnight, with sparkling wine, we celebrate the New Year on a cruise, observing the fireworks from the sea.
Detailed information about the New Year’s festive dinner on request
The Flybus shuttle brings you from Keflavík International Airport to the accommodation in Reykjavík where you spend the night.
Overnight location:
Hotel Cabin, Reykjavík. Dinner is on your own. Standard rooms are 10m². (50km / 31mls)
At 08:30 departure from Hotel Cabin by bus. Meet your tour guide and fellow travel companions for the next three days. Start the escorted tour program with a short city tour around Reykjavík. Later we depart from Reykjavik for Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO world heritage site, where the Althingi, the oldest legislative assembly in the world, was founded. Thingvellir is one of Iceland’s most fascinating places both geologically, and for the role it plays in the country’s history and sense of national identity. Thingvellir is also remarkable for reasons of natural science, as the site is part of a fissure zone running through Iceland, and is situated on the tectonic plate boundaries of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The faults and fissures of the area make evident the rifting of the earth’s crust.
Exploring the hot springs at Geysir is like watching a geography lesson in real life: natural springs bubbling away in the ground until the pressure becomes too much – and they explode in spectacular style. Geysir and Strokkur are the two biggest of the geysers there. While Geysir no longer is active, Strokkur still spouts every 5 to 15 minutes to the delight of visitors. Next, we travel to Gullfoss, “the golden falls”, which is a double waterfall that tumbles 34 meters into the Hvítá river. Gullfoss is one of Iceland’s most beautiful waterfalls. Kerið is a caldera with a crater lake at the bottom and which resembles an ancient amphitheatre. In the evening, you hear about the Northern Lights from your tour guide. Naturally, once darkness falls, you are out in the garden waiting for the Northern Lights. We will stay for one night in South Iceland.
Overnight location:
Hotel Eyjafjallajökull, Hvolsvöllur. Breakfast included. Dinner is on your own. (270km / 168mls)
A long drive brings us to a world of glaciers, ice, and icebergs. We travel to Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon filled with floating icebergs. We explore this fantastic site and perhaps see seals swimming in the Arctic waters. You can walk on the black sandy beach where large icebergs get stranded. The Vatnajökull National Park is about 12,000 square kilometres, and it is the second largest National Park in Europe. In this area, we find Iceland’s highest mountains, an alpine environment, and Europe’s largest glacier. Tonight you can enjoy a movie presentation about Northern Lights as a part of the Northern Lights educational program. Be careful not to go to bed too soon in this remote and quiet location, or you may miss out one more chance of seeing the Northern Lights shimmering and dancing across the night sky. We will stay for one night at Hotel Höfn in the Vatnajökull region.
Overnight location:
Hotel Höfn, Höfn. Breakfast included. Dinner is on your own. (365km / 227mls)
We head across the Eldhraun lava field to the village of Vík where we attend the stunning Icelandic Lava Show. Icelandic Lava Show is the only show in the world where you can experience actual flowing lava! By melting lava and pouring it on ice in a room full of people, you’ll be able to see the lava flowing, hear it sizzling, and feel the heat that radiates from it. In the afternoon we take a stroll on the black lava beach and see the bird cliffs at Reynisfjara beach in South Iceland. We pass the glacier Mýrdalsjökull and the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajökull and continue to Skógafoss waterfall which is 62 meters high and belongs to the most impressive waterfalls in the country.
Further west, we reach the high but narrow Seljalandsfoss waterfall which is 65 meters high and plunges over the mountain. There is a trail that goes behind the fall which is interesting – if you are prepared to get wet! In the evening we return to Reykjavik for one last night. A transfer bus will bring you to the New Year’s Eve festive dinner at Restaurant Reykjavík. The restaurant is located in the heart of downtown Reykjavík. Between 20:30-22:30 we take you to one of the bonfires in Iceland’s capital. An evening tour around Reykjavik on New Year’s Eve is an Icelandic tradition. Back at Restaurant Reykjavík, we celebrate with music and sparkling wine, and at midnight we experience the “crazy” and one of a kind fireworks in Iceland’s capital on a cruise in the bay of Reykjavík. Return transfers to the hotel are offered at 01:00 and 02:00.
Overnight location:
Hotel Cabin, Reykjavík. Breakfast & New Year’s Festive Dinner included. Standard rooms are 10m². (465km / 288mls)
Individual transfer by Flybus airport shuttle from your hotel in Reykjavík to Keflavík Airport. It is also possible to extend the program in Reykjavík.
(50km / 31mls)
