Askja Tour by Bus 4x4

Take a day trip into the wilderness of Iceland’s interior, and explore the Askja caldera. See the beauty that is the nature reserve Herðubreiðarlindir and Lake Mývatn on this wonderful journey.

 

Duration: 11-13 hours.

Departure: 07.40am from Arnarnes, road nr. 848. 2 km south of Reykjahlíð 

You need to bring: waterproof jacket and trousers, good hiking shoes/boots, drinking water and food.

Minimum: 1 adult. 

Season: June -September

Price: 32.000 ISK per person. Children (6 - 12 years) receive a 50% discount and free for kids (0 - 6 years).

We take you by bus to a crater that was formed by an eruption back in 1961. From there, you have an easy 35-minute stroll to the rim of Lake Öskjuvatn and the crater - Víti ('Hell') – caused by the blast. This is where you will get the opportunity to swim in the milky-blue waters of the geothermal lake found inside the crater. You will have plenty of time to relax and explore the Askja landscape before the bus takes you back to Lake Mývatn.

 

People visiting Lake Mývatn over the years have made the Askja Lunar Tour the most popular guided day tour available. The total trip take about 11-13 hours, with 4x4 buses taking passengers across the rugged Icelandic wilderness. There are countless sights to see, with one of the most popular being the lunar landscape that served as the training ground for US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin before they made the trip to the moon in 1969. You will also get to see the freshwater springs that run down the lava flow at Herðubreiðarlindir nature reserve. The vegetation that grows around these spring is stunning and is home to birds and flowering plants that really should not exist in such a barren landscape. The background of the nature reserve is where (table mountain) Herðubreið (1682m) can be seen. Known as ‘the Queen of Icelandic mountains’ this natural beauty rises to dominate the landscape.

 

Just north of the Vatnajökull glacier is where Askja, a massive caldera and volcano, can be found amid the Dyngjufjöll mountains. The caldera is made up of bedrock that sits atop a huge magma chamber that is still growing. It was the 19th century before Askja was properly explored, with a series of eruptions between 1874 and 1875 making the area a place of interest for locals and scientists alike. There was a particularly large eruption in March 1875, with about 2 billion cubic meters of ash and pumice sent skywards. The blast formed a new caldera inside the existing one. In the years that followed, the caldera filled with water and formed the 11km² Lake Öskjuvatn, one of the deepest in all of Iceland. There were a few other eruptions in the 1920’s, but the volcano has been silent since it last erupted in the autumn of 1961.

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