Ice cave and Glacier hike with Local Guide

We were searching for the combo ice cave and glacier hike tour in Iceland and firstly didn’t know which company to choose. Finally, we opted for the Local Guide of Vatnajokull. They were promising a day full of adventure, a small group, and a local Icelandic guide. And now I know we made no mistake with them!

Combo tour – ice cave + glacier hike

If you want to fully enjoy ice caves and glacier and escape the typical crowded tours, this is a great tour for you! We’ve seen several ice caves, done a glacier hike, admired ice formations and a had a lunch (alone!) at a secret corner of a glacier lagoon – all in one amazing day! And all that thanks to the Local Guide of Vatnajokull.

Firstly, I have to say that we were very lucky with the weather. We woke up to a beautiful sunny February day. We met our local Icelandic guide Reynir at a basecamp of the Local Guide of Vatnajokull at Jokulsarlon glacial lagoon. It is located right at the car park. Reynir helped us pick all the necessary equipment – right mountain shoes (which you can borrow onsite), little walking crampons, big glacier crampons, harness and helmet. He also carried an axe and some more glacier equipment for us himself.

Drive to glacier

After buying our picnic lunch in cafeteria, soon after 10:00AM we got into a huge super jeep. The super jeep operated by the Local Guide of Vatnajokull is one of the biggest you can get. Reynir then drove carefully on a bumpy and icy road full of huge snow-holes. At that point we all started to understand why you need such a huge car when driving to the glacier. Any smaller car than a “huge super jeep” could easily get stuck.

Just a few minutes of drive passed by when Reynir saw a group of reindeers pretty close to our car. He immediately slowed down the car so that we could admire these cute Icelandic inhabitants. A few minutes later, another group of reindeers were welcoming us on our road to the glacier. And as a bonus, we were even able to take beautiful pictures like these of reindeers standing in front of the magnificent glacier!

Glacier hike

Around 11AM we arrived at the “glacier car park” where more than 10 different tour companies parked their super jeeps as well. All of them were heading towards the most popular and touristy attraction – sapphire ice cave. We, however, didn’t go their way. Reynir took a totally different route to avoid all other groups.

We started our trip by a 45-minute long glacier hike. The sun was shining and everything around was silent. It was just us, the glacier and a beautiful day. The hike was fairly easy and not very demanding, it was more of a walk. Reynir finally brought us to a remote part of the glacier lagoon, right next to the amazingly beautiful huge glacier chunk! Right at this spot we ate our picnic lunch and admired the view.

Ice surprises

Around 12:30 we continued to our first “surprise” stop. Another ice cave, the one not visited by tourists at all! We explored the ice cave for about 30 minutes and Reynir told us all the interesting things about have ice caves are being created and how it is possible we can walk there. Already happy with what we’ve seen, we were now supposed to be heading towards the most popular ice cave – the sapphire ice cave – the one all these masses of tourists usually visit.

All the time, we were hiking a glacier. Reynir was making checks of all different kinds to ensure our safety – checking the depth of the ice below us, doing the sound checks or manually examining the surface. You cannot go on a glacier yourself if you don’t want to die and this is what the guide is actually for. To lead you safely around the area. Guides like Reynir actually even go out every year to scout for the new cool places to visit, so this is the ever-changing environment!

On our way towards the sapphire ice cave, another “surprise” awaited us. Reynir took us to an amazing blue-ice tunnel! This was probably the true highlight of our entire trip! This ice formation is fully natural and we had it all just to ourselves. We’ve never seen anything not even remotely similar to this. This place was really breath-taking and virtually made our day.

Sapphire ice cave

Finally, after a few more minutes of hiking, we made it to the most famous and visited place – the blue ice cave, also called the sapphire ice cave. The sapphire ice cave is the ice cave where all these masses of tourists flow constantly. Why? Because it’s beautiful and easily accessible. It’s the closest spot from the jeep car park out of all spots we’ve visited.

So, is the sapphire ice cave worth visiting then? Yes, it definitely is. It’s still probably the most beautiful ice cave in Iceland available to public. The only downside is – expect crowds. But this wasn’t exactly the case for our trip, because we’d already spent hours alone on the glacier and other breath-taking places before we came into sapphire ice cave.

We spent around 1-1.5 hour exploring the ice cave and Reynir gave us all the time we wanted. The cave is pretty big (and long) and he took us all the way to the end of the cave. There were multiple brilliant spots for amazing pictures. These were the final moments of our day full of glacier adventures which we enjoyed to the fullest. Thanks to both Reynir and also a great weather.

We arrived at the jeep car park around 4 PM and back at Jokulsarlon after 16:30. A long day but more than just worth the time! Local Guide of Vatnajokull has proved to be a great choice!

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