12 Day Small Group Iceland Complete
This tour is fully escorted by a dedicated tour leader who will accompany you throughout the tour. If your tour includes multiple countries, you will be met by a new tour leader in each country and any internal flights included will be unescorted.
This tour is categorised as 3 out of 5
Balanced exploration with walking tours: Our most popular style, this tour offers a good mix of planned activities and free time. Expect moderate daily walking tours, so pack comfortable shoes.
As a general requirement across all of our trips, you may be required to walk up and down stairs, get on and off transportation, handle your own luggage, and participate in all scheduled sightseeing that may be conducted on uneven ground and terrain. Any physical ailments you may have must be disclosed at the time of booking to determine your suitability and where required, supporting documentation may be requested to ensure that we are comfortable that you will enjoy your trip.
These tours allow you to experience the destination with a comfortable sized group. You will travel with between a maximum of 26-30 other guests depending on your selected tour. Please see the Important Information on your selected tour for exact group size. Enjoy features such as a wide range of included sightseeing, comfortable accommodation and a range of optional activities to choose from to best suit your travel style.
✓ Add Return International airfares for only $999 per person
✓ Small group tour, up to 20 guests only
✓ Incredible sightseeing. You will discover some of the most remote parts of the country and visit many well-known highlights as well. The Grand Tour of Iceland takes you on an unforgettable journey around Iceland including the Snæfellsnes Peninsula and the magical West Fjords
✓ 11 nights accommodation in lovely 3-4 star accommodation
✓ Breakfast daily & 10 dinners
✓ English-speaking knowledgeable guide on all touring days
✓ Arrival and departure airport shuttle transfers
✓ Transportation as outlined in the itinerary
Travel with the experts for a carefully curated, value-packed discovery of the world's most iconic destinations. Our tours are bursting with must-see sights, rich experiences and quality inclusions, all at an unbeatable price. Bucket list dreams are ticked off on these all-encompassing journeys.
Welcome to Iceland. On arrival, board the Flybus shuttle bus from Keflavik airport to your accommodation in Reykjavik. You may explore Iceland’s capital city on your own if time allows.
We see classic highlights today, the Golden Circle Route. We start with a visit to a geothermal greenhouse and watch how Icelanders grow tomatoes. Next door, we can take a selfie with an Icelandic horse and we learn about its unique qualities and history.
We explore Gullfoss, the beautiful double “Golden Falls” and we walk through the active geothermal area of Geysir, where Strokkur “the churn” spouts up to 25 meters (70 feet) every five to ten minutes. The next stop is the ancient Viking Parliament area and UNESCO world heritage site of Þingvellir National Park.
The Þingvellir plain is situated on a tectonic plate boundary where North America and Europe are slowly tearing away from each other. As a result, the plain is scarred by dramatic fissures, ponds, and rivers, including the great rift Almannagjá. We continue our journey to our overnight location in Borgarnes, a small town at the shore of Borgarfjörður.
Today, we explore the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, which juts out from Iceland’s West Coast. A rugged mountain chain runs its length, capped by the 1,446-meter Snæfellsjökull glacier, a mystical cone-shaped stratovolcano. We travel around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, through lava fields, and along the ocean with many excellent Icelandic photo opportunities.
We see the most popular sites at the Snæfellsnes National Park where volcanic craters, lava flows, an ice cap, glaciated peaks, fjords, sandy beaches, and high cliffs shape its landscapes. We follow the adventure of Jules Verne’s classic science-fiction novel about “The Journey to the Center of the Earth”. Do not miss your chance to go on a trip to the interior of the earth under the glacier Snæfellsjökull! This lava cave tour takes you 35 meters underground and about 200 meters into the lava tube called Vatnshellir. In the afternoon, we catch the car ferry Baldur from Stykkishólmur to Brjánslækur in the West Fjords.
On the 2,5 hour journey over Breiðafjörður Bay, we pass the island of Flatey, which is inhabited only during the summertime. If the weather is beautiful, you enjoy a magnificent view of the bay’s countless isles as well as the glacier Snæfellsjökull.
We follow the coastline and stop at the folk and transport museum in Hnjótur. We continue through a very remote and sparsely populated region to the bird cliffs of Látrabjarg, the most abundant seabird cliff and the westernmost point of Iceland and Europe where you can see puffins from mid-May till mid-August.
We take a walk in the wilderness to the top of the highest bird cliff in Iceland. Látrabjarg is known in the world for its density of Nordic birds. Puffins, razorbills, guillemots, fulmars, cormorants, kittiwakes and other cliff birds flock either in hundreds, thousands and even in millions. Látrabjarg is a place where you can get very close to the seabirds, and even if you’re not into bird watching, you are entertained by the comic puffins and mesmerized by the sheer number of birds. If weather and road conditions allow we travel to Rauðisandur beach with endless red sand. Well, not endless but 10 km is a lot. The magnificent hues of the sand differ with daylight, tides, and weather.
This pure sand beach is home to countless seabirds and seals and is an oasis of unique tranquillity. Forget everything, except maybe getting the perfect shot of the ever-changing hues of yellow, orange and red.
We travel over mountains and along the shore of scenic fjords until we reach the majestic fjord Arnarfjörður, surrounded by high mountains. At the bottom of the fjord, we come across the unique waterfall Dynjandi with its seven levels of plunging water, declared the country’s most beautiful waterfall by the people of Iceland.
We continue over a mountain pass and along the southern shores of the West Fjords which is a route less travelled and is characterized by sheer cliffs, deep cut bays and narrow stretches of coastal lowland. We reach Haukadalur, where there’s a rather authentic-looking replica of the homestead of Erik the Red, the famous explorer who founded the Icelandic colony in Greenland. His son Leif-the-Lucky, born in Haukadalur, Iceland, was the first European to set foot in North America.
Now the excavated and reconstructed farm in Haukadalur is a living Viking museum, a fun, informative and a photogenic place. The landscape is dominated by mountains, lakes, valleys, sea and wide-open spaces.
Today’s journey is a little bit of the beaten track, around the Vatnsnes peninsula. We pass the fishing village of Hvammstangi, also called the seal capital of Iceland. A gravel road takes us around the peninsula to Hvítserkur, a highlight on the east coast of the region; a mass of igneous rock, about 15 meters high, situated on the seashore.
Fulmars and gulls live on Hvítserkur. An old story has it that Hvítserkur is a petrified troll that intended to stone a nearby cloister, but dawn arrived before he could succeed. Later take a short walk up to Borgarvirki, on a 180-meter ridge. The ruins of Borgarvirki are a circular, fort-like stone enclosure rising above 10-15 meter basalt columns. Inside are the remains of a well and some dwellings.
We continue to Kolugljúfur canyon, where waterfalls cascade into the deep, rugged gorge. It is a breathtaking sight to walk on the viewing platform and watch the calm waters of the river suddenly leap and tumble onwards over so many impressive falls – a sight which will leave no one unmoved. Further north we stop at Víðimýri to visit one of the few preserved turf churches in Iceland.
The church was built in 1834 and has turf walls, but timber gables both back and front. We visit Glaumbær, one of Iceland’s most beautiful turf house farm and folk museum. We continue along a high mountain road to Akureyri, also called the capital of North Iceland, where we stay for two nights.
Enjoy breakfast in the beautiful surrounding of the botanical garden in Akureyri. Afterwards enjoy a full-day tour, seeing spectacular fjord landscapes while travelling to Siglufjörður, Iceland’s northernmost town, known as the herring capital of the North Atlantic. Siglufjörður is located on the mountainous Tröllaskagi Peninsula.
On the way, we pass small fishing villages and stop at a deserted valley that even most Icelanders have not seen. Included is a visit to the Herring Era Museum in Siglufjörður. It is Iceland’s largest maritime museum and the only Icelandic museum who has won the European Museum Award. We won’t miss the opportunity to taste the herring along with Brennivín, Icelandic schnapps.
Early afternoon we go whale watching for 2-3 hours in Eyjafjörður – Iceland’s longest fjord right below the Arctic Circle. For an added bonus and fun, try your luck at sea angling towards the end of the tour.
We explore Goðafoss, the waterfall of the Gods, and continue to Lake Mývatn, known for its abundant bird life and amazing volcanic lava landscapes. We see pseudo craters, walk in the mysterious lava field Dimmuborgir, see the tephra cone Hverfjall, explore the hot springs, fumaroles and bubbling mud pools of Námaskarð, and travel to the explosion crater lake Víti in the Krafla geothermal fields.
We travel to Dettifoss, Europe’s most powerful waterfall, in the northern part of Vatnajökull National Park. The round-trip walk takes about 40-60 minutes. We continue east through the bare and sometimes deserted landscape with mountains all around and head through the uninhabited highlands to East Iceland. We explore the northernmost fjord on the East Fjord mountain range. The isolated village Bakkagerði at Borgarfjörður-Eystri has only 120 inhabitants; offering an end of the road location.
This charming village is built snugly next to the steep mountainside and getting there is a dramatic but rewarding drive. The colourful mountains are unique and impressive.
It’s a day to admire the dramatic fjord landscape and its tiny fishing villages at the end of twisty roads in the East Fjords. Our first stop will be at Vök baths, a geothermal floating pools in Lake Urriðavatn where guests can soak in the hot water, within and surrounded by the lake. Later we visit Petra’s fascinating rock collection.
A naturalist and a collector are two terms that have been used to describe Petra since she was a little girl. Petra collected for nearly 80 years this unique treasure of rocks, crystals, zeolites, quartz and more, all from the nearby area in the Eastfjords. In the afternoon we see Vatnajökull, Europe’s biggest glacier that is visible all over Southeast Iceland.
Today we visit Vatnajökull National Park which covers about 14% of Iceland, making it Europe’s 2nd largest national park in terms of area. We stop for a boat ride amongst the floating icebergs on the magnificent Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon, considered one of the highlights on tour around Iceland.
Next, we walk along the black sands of the so-called Diamond beach. We explore the region of Skaftafell that is nestled below Iceland’s highest mountain and the second biggest stratovolcano in Europe, the 2.110-meter high Hvannadalshnúkur. We walk close to one of the many glacial tongues in the area – a true photo moment. We cross a sandy desert before reaching our overnight location Vík, the southernmost village in Iceland.
Today we travel along the South Coast of Iceland, between the sea, rugged mountains, glaciers, and waterfalls. We explore the black lava beach, Reynisfjara, and bird cliffs before stopping at the Skógafoss waterfall, another must-see location in South Iceland.
The crashing water creates a mist that results in frequent and magical rainbows, just adding some more memorable experiences to the sheer beauty of this stunning scenery and place. Afterwards, we reach Seljalandsfoss waterfall where you can follow a slick and wet trail and walk right behind it. Come prepared and bring a raincoat and good boots as you will get wet.
Then we visit the Lava & Volcano Exhibition Centre focused on geology and active volcanoes and watch a documentary film about volcanic eruptions in the past years in Iceland. Farewell dinner at a local restaurant in Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital.
Your Icelandic adventure comes to an end. At the appropriate time, reboard the Flybus shuttle from your accommodation in Reykjavik to Keflavik airport.
Secure your trip with a $99.00 deposit per person.
Once we receive your deposit, we will send you an invoice with your remaining balance and payment options.
Instalment Schedule:
This package includes international airfares or has the option of adding international airfares to your booking when selecting your departure city.
If international airfares are included this will be stated in the ‘Inclusions’ section
Alternatively, if international airfares can be added to your booking you will be able to select your departure city after clicking ‘Book Now’ and a cost will be stated next to your selected departure city. This cost will then be added to your booking and flights will be added to your booking.
Conditions of flights for this package bookable by Inspiring Vacations:
Baggage
Included baggage differs based on your country of origin. Included baggage will be as per the following:
|
Country of Origin |
Carry-on Baggage |
Checked Baggage |
|
Australia |
7kgs |
20kgs |
|
New Zealand |
7kgs |
20kgs |
|
United States of America |
15lbs |
45lbs |
|
Canada |
15lbs |
45lbs |
|
India |
7kgs |
20kgs |
|
United Kingdom |
7kgs |
20kgs |
Baggage allowances provided by the airline might differ to the values stated above. However limitations are required due to transport storage restrictions on your selected tour or package.
Flight requests, amendments or preferences
We understand customers may wish to request changes to their included airfares. If you wish to fly with a certain airline, land at a certain time or change your flight in other ways we will gladly provide you with a personalised quote tailored to your specific requirements.
To make a flight request, please click ‘Book Now’ and select Would you like us to contact you around our flight service? By selecting this option you will be sent a request form after completing your purchase to make your request.
We would be more than happy to provide you with a quote for the following requests:
We are currently unable to provide a quote for the following requests:
If we can’t fulfill your request and you still wish to proceed with the booking, please select Land Only (excluding UK customers). This will allow you to travel on the land portion of the package without the included airfares. You will then be able to arrange your own flights separately.
FAQs
For more frequently asked questions please view our FAQs section.
Online check-in
Some airlines may not permit online check-in where flights have been booked by a travel company. Where unavailable to do so online, you will be required to check-in at the airport. Inspiring Vacations cannot check-in online on behalf of our customers.
Fitness Requirements
While the tour itinerary should give you some guidance and overview to the expected requirements, to determine if this tour is right for you we categorise each of our tours in terms of their intensity.
These guidelines are to ensure that each tour group is conducted as expected and to ensure the overall satisfaction of all Inspiring Vacations customers. As a general rule, porterage is not included, therefore at all times you are expected to handle your own luggage where help may not be available.
Accommodation
The accommodation listed is subject to change. Any changes will be of an equal or higher standard. Bedding configurations (double or twin) are requests only and subject to availability. All efforts will be made to meet your preferences, however any changes are beyond our control.
Single Supplement
Single supplement is $2,055.00 per person, in addition to the twin-share price.
Triple Share
Not Available
Travel Insurance
Travel insurance is required to protect yourself against the unexpected.
Visa & Passport information
It is the traveller's responsibility to ensure they have a valid passport. The passport must be valid for a minimum of six months from the intended date of return.
Visas may be required.
Please note that these details are subject to change without notice. We recommend visiting https://smartraveller.gov.au for up to date information in terms of entry requirements.
Group Size
10-20 people
Trip Style - Small Group Tour
These tours are our proudest creations. They have been crafted for Inspiring Vacations travellers exclusively, with personal and unique experiences in mind. You will travel with only a maximum of 20 other guests. Enjoy choice features such as hand-picked accommodation, a sampling of the region’s best culinary delights and a range of optional activities to choose from to best suit your travel style.
Children
Children must share a room with parents at all times and are charged the same price as adults.
Iceland's volcanic landscape is a testament to the raw power of nature. While eruptions are infrequent, they offer a unique opportunity to witness the earth's dynamic forces. It's essential to stay informed about current volcanic activity and heed any warnings from local authorities.
Please note that if an eruption were to occur during your visit, your itinerary may need to be modified to ensure your safety.
For further information, please refer to Visit Iceland and Iceland’s Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management website:
Visit Iceland: Volcanic activity on the Reykjanes Peninsula
Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management
Inspiring Vacations also strongly suggests, at the very least, your travel insurance cover will cover you for Medical Expenses, Emergency Evacuation and Trip Cancellation and Interruption.
New Zealand
United States
Canada
India
