Day 5 in Iceland

Iceland

  1. Route of Day 5
    1. Diamond Beach ⭐️
    2. Jökulsárlón ⭐️
    3. Activities in Jökulsárlón
      1. Sailing the Lagoon ⭐️
      2. Glacier walk ♦️
      3. Other Activities & Companies
    4. Höfn í Hornafirði
  2. What else to see?
  3. Where to eat?
  4. Where to sleep?

Route of Day 5

🚗 93km & 1h14

Firstly, although at first glance it looks like a short day, because there are few kilometers and few hours of travel, it is not. It is a long day, since it includes 2 activities.

Below you would find all the details of the most important and recommended points of interest in this area. Although it can also be complemented with more sites or activities that you will see at the end.

Diamond Beach ⭐️

The icebergs or pieces of ice floating in the Jökulsárlón are moving towards the open sea. However, many of them end up on the beach, thus giving the name of Diamond Beach.

ℹ️ Useful information
🅿️ 1.000 ISK with App Parka
🚗 11min from Hali
⏳ 15-30min -> 💡 It is advisable to see Diamond Beach and then get to Jökulsárlón lake passing under the bridge. If so, you could be about 1h – 1h30 depending on what you want to stop to contemplate and enjoy.
You can also start at Jökulsárlón to appreciate the immensity of the icebergs and then see what they end up in when you get to the beach.

💡 Tips:

  • In summer months, you can see more “diamonds” on the beach, as the high temperatures cause the icebergs to melt more and more ice chunks accumulate on the beach.
  • In the warmer months, there is usually less ice and therefore, it can be more disappointing, if you imagine the beach full of ice chunks, as in the most famous photos of this place.

Jökulsárlón ⭐️

Jökulsárlón is a 25km2 and 260m deep lagoon with icebergs calving from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier.
It is the largest lagoon and is getting bigger and bigger as the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier retreats up to 500m a year, giving more surface area to the lagoon with the thawing ice.

The lagoon of Jökulsárlón is blue because of the sea water inlet. While other lagoons are usually beige or brown, as the lagoon water is not renewed and has that color of the earth. As for example in Fjallsárlón Lagoon (see on Day 4 in Iceland), Sólheimajökull glacier (see on Day 2 in Iceland) and Svínafellsjökull (see on Day 4 in Iceland).

Another striking thing in the lagoon are the numerous icebergs and their colors. There are all colors of blues, some almost inconceivable as almost fluorescent blues, and going to white and translucent.

These icebergs are moving through the lagoon due to the currents of the waters with the entrance of the sea, and at the same time, they are turning around on themselves. This is due to the fact that as they melt, pieces of ice break off and the iceberg is flipping, repositioning itself in a new position in search of stability.

In this lagoon you will see icebergs that get smaller and smaller as they approach the Highway 1 bridge. This bridge acts as a funnel, as it only allows smaller icebergs to pass underneath and reach the sea.

Also the depth of the lake makes the icebergs stay more stagnant, even though it is 260m deep. Sometimes the icebergs can stay up to 5 years sailing through the lagoon, while it melts and refreezes, until they go out to sea. Although most of them usually stay about 2-3 months.

ℹ️ Useful information
🅿️ 1.000 ISK with App Parka
🚗 11min from Hali
⏳ 30-45min -> 💡 It is advisable to walk along the edge of the lagoon and pass under the bridge to reach Diamond Beach, and thus take advantage of the stop to make the 2 visits. If you do it this way, it could take you between 1h – 1h30.

🎥 This lagoon is very famous for having appeared in several movies such as:

  • Batman Begins (2005)
  • James Bond: Die Another Day (2002) -> 💡 Frozen lagoon and 6 Aston Martins were destroyed in the ice during filming.
  • Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001) -> 💡 Pretending to be in Siberia.

💡 Tips: see below the different activities available to do in Jökulsárlón. It is important to book them in advance and also to plan well this day, according to the schedules and duration of the activity/activities in order to fit it/them with the tour of the day.

Activities in Jökulsárlón

Sailing the Lagoon ⭐️

Sailing the Jökulsárlón lagoon is a must-do activity in Iceland. It is an experience that takes you deep into the lagoon and brings you close to the glacier tongue. Thus seeing the great wall of ice. In addition, you zigzag through the icebergs, but always leave a safety distance, because you do not know when a piece of ice is going to break off or when an iceberg can «flip».

The Jökulsárlón lagoon can be navigated by boat/zodiac, amphibious boat, kayak.

  • The amphibious boat travels along the edge of the lagoon and then enters the water.
  • Kayaking can be done more in the summer months.
  • The zodiac allows you to move at a higher speed, so you will be able to navigate more and see more of the lagoon, and also getting closer to the edge of the glacier that you can’t do with an amphibious boat.

💡 Tips: The zodiac activity usually lasts about 2h of which 1h15 in the water. Also, count on arriving a little before the start of the activity.

Glacier walk ♦️

The glacier excursion is also a highly recommended activity. It is an amazing experience. It may be a more demanding activity than navigating the lagoon and may not be suitable for everyone, but if you can do it, do not hesitate.

💡 Tips:

  • Normally the activity can last about 4h. At the beginning, they give you a short explanation and give you the equipment you will need (helmet, harness and crampons). Afterwards, they take you by super 4×4 van to the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier where the route starts.
  • The route starts on the ground and you go with your own shoes, but as soon as you get to the ice, you have to use crampons. They give you an explanation of how to put them on and then do a check before you start walking on the ice safely.
  • It is important to follow the guide’s path, as there are crevasses in the ice, which may be unnoticeable, but the cracks can be many meters deep.
  • At some of these crevasses, the guide may stop and set up an anchor point so you can get closer and get a better view.
  • We also saw a group zip-lining between the 2 sides of a huge crevasse.

🎥 If you have seen Interstellar (2014), this landscape will remind you of some scenes from the movie. If not, on your return from your trip, don’t hesitate to watch it.
Although the movie was not shot on this glacier, but on Svínafellsjökull (see on Day 4 in Iceland), but the views are very similar.

⚠️ It is important to mention that in August 2024 there was a collapse in an ice cave affecting the lives of several tourists. For that reason, they implemented new rules in all these types of activities.
In these glacier excursions, it is no longer allowed to go into crevasses and caves, as it is forbidden get the ice going over the head.
The local guides believe that these measures will be relaxed as time passes since the accident and that they hope to return to the way things used to be.

💡 Tips: During this excursion you may encounter streams of melted glacier water. Sometimes tourists are encouraged to drink from the water to taste what it tastes like, as it is considered the purest water.
But my (very personal) recommendation is not to drink the water, as it may contain bacteria or other organisms that have been frozen for a long time and it is unknown if it can affect people’s health.
Besides, you won’t miss much, since the water is so cold, you won’t be able to taste anything.
🖥️ If you want to know more about this topic, I leave you an article.

Other Activities & Companies

Jökulsárlón is one of the most touristic places and therefore you can find here and in the surroundings a lot of activities to do.

As an example of some of the activities among others:

  • Ice cave tours
  • Snowmobile tours to Vatnajökull
  • Ice climbing

There are also many companies and I could not give you an evaluation of each one. But I will tell you about our experience and who we did it with.

As an example of some of the companies among others:

  • Arctic Adventures
  • Glacier Adventure 📝
  • Glacier Journey
  • Ice Explorer
  • Ice Guide
  • Ice Lagoon
  • Ice Walk
  • Troll Expeditions

Our experience

We took with Glacier Adventure a pack of «Glacier walk & Zodiac boat«. Taking the 2 activities with the same operator, it was a better price than separately. It also seemed a good compromise to do both on the same day, since we were sure that if something happened in the first activity, we would not lose the other one.

In the combo there were 2 options: glacier and then zodiac, or zodiac and then glacier. We had no choice because there was only availability in one of them, so we had to zodiac first and then walk on the glacier.

💡 Tips: Both combinations are fine and I wouldn’t give a recommendation for any one in particular. But I would recommend to have the accommodation close to the place where the first activity starts.
The activities start early in the morning around 9 or 10 am and you have to be there some time before. So, the closer you are the better, to have less travel by car. As there is only one road connecting the area and the weather can be changeable (especially in autumn and winter). So, the closer the better to ensure not to have any incidence or burden.

Höfn í Hornafirði

Höfn, which means harbor, is a town centered on its fishing harbor and is famous for langoustines, “humar”.
You can stroll along the harbor and take in the views with the mountains surrounding the harbor in the distance. There are 2 trails along the water’s edge.
You can also visit Gamlabúð, which is a visitor center and museum.

ℹ️ Useful information
🅿️ free
🚗 1h from Jökulsárlón

What else to see?

The recommendations for Day 5 end up visiting Höfn, but if you want to add more activities on this day, you can see the first stops of the itinerary on Day 6 and move to the Est.

💡 Tips: If your trip will be in fewer days, you may be able to cut half a day or a day off by choosing only one of the activities and following the activities on Day 6.

Where to eat?

As discussed in the previous days, we recommended a hearty breakfast, a picnic lunch and an early and hearty dinner.

Our dinner in Höfn was at Hafnarbúðin, a fast food place and therefore somewhat cheaper. It has a typical grill menu with burgers and sandwiches, of which the most famous is their lobster sandwich. So that’s what we ordered.

It is a small restaurant, but it is a big hit with locals and tourists. The restaurant’s dining room is usually full, but you can order it to go (which we also did) and there is even a drive-through window.

In addition to ordering “Lobster baguette with fries” to go, we accompanied it with a hot soup that we prepared in the Guest house.

Total 3.300 ISK (≈ 22,75€) per person.
💡 Tips: it is a standard price in Iceland.

Where to sleep?

The recommendation would be to sleep as close to Höfn as possible.
In our case, the accommodation where we stayed was a Guest house.

Keep discovering everything about Iceland:

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