Every year, hundreds of thousands of travellers pass through the Reykjanes Peninsula on their way between Keflavik Airport and Reykjavík. Almost none of them stop. This private full-day tour explores the peninsula properly - and reveals a landscape of extraordinary volcanic character that most Iceland visitors never see.
The Reykjanes Peninsula sits directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates - one of the only places on earth where this boundary comes fully above sea level. The Bridge Between Continents marks the spot where you can walk from one tectonic plate to the other in a matter of steps. The geology here is recent, raw, and in places still active.
The tour takes in the full character of the peninsula. Garðskagaviti Lighthouse stands at the northernmost tip, overlooking the convergence of the Atlantic and the waters of Faxaflói Bay - a reliable seabird and whale watching vantage point in season. The solitary Hvalsneskirkja black church sits quietly in the lava landscape, its dark walls and remote setting giving it an atmosphere entirely its own. At Reykjanesviti, Iceland's oldest lighthouse, the coastline becomes dramatic and exposed - and just below the headland, Valahnúkamöl delivers a stretch of wave-battered lava cliffs and columnar rock formations that few tourists ever reach. Offshore from here, the sheer rock of Eldey rises from the open Atlantic - home to one of the world's largest gannet colonies, and the last known location of the great auk before its extinction in 1844.
The Gunnuhver Geothermal Area is Iceland's largest geothermal hot spring field - a seething, steaming expanse of boiling mud, venting fumaroles, and vivid mineral colour set against a landscape of dark lava. The peninsula's volcanic character reaches a different kind of conclusion at Brimketill, a naturally formed lava rock pool carved by centuries of Atlantic waves into a perfect bowl - one of Iceland's most dramatic coastal formations.
This tour starts from either Keflavik International Airport (KEF) or your Reykjavík hotel, making it ideal as an arrival day tour, a departure day experience, or a standalone day from the capital.
