Katla
The Katla ice cave: a different glacier, and a season that never closes
Katla is the ice cave people book when the crystal caves are shut, when they are short of time, or when they are not driving five hours east. It is a genuinely different product from the blue caves of Vatnajökull, and the difference is worth understanding before you choose between them.
Quick answer
The Katla ice cave sits in Mýrdalsjökull, the glacier above Vík on the south coast, and it can be visited all year. It is about two and a half hours from Reykjavík rather than five, and the ice inside is darker and much more heavily ash-banded than the crystal caves at Jökulsárlón. People who book it expecting the deep-blue photograph are sometimes surprised; people who book it for what it is are usually delighted.
The Katla ice cave, at a glance
- Which glacier
- Mýrdalsjökullabove Vík on the south coast
- From Reykjavík
- About 180 kmroughly two and a half hours
- Season
- All yearunlike the Vatnajökull crystal caves
- The ice
- Darker, heavily ash-bandednot the deep blue of the crystal caves
- Why
- Katla is an active volcanounder the glacier, and it has left layers
- Getting there
- Super jeep from Víkthe track is not for hire cars
- Typical tour
- 3 hoursfrom the meeting point near Vík
- Combined with
- The south coast waterfallson the longer day tours
- Supplied
- Helmet and cramponsas on every tour on this site
- Best for
- Summer dates, short tripsand anyone not driving to the lagoon
Why Katla is open when the others are not
A different kind of cave in a different kind of ice
Katla trades colour for certainty. That is the whole difference.
The crystal caves of Vatnajökull are drainage channels. Meltwater cuts them in summer, they drain in winter, and they are safe to enter only while the ceiling is frozen hard. That is a narrow window and it closes.
Katla’s caves form differently. Mýrdalsjökull sits on top of an active volcano, the ice is thick and heavily layered with ash, and the caves here are more stable through the year — the guiding operations run continuously and the entrances are monitored rather than rediscovered each winter. That is why a Katla tour can be booked in July and a crystal cave tour cannot.
The trade is colour. Ash layers that make the cave structurally interesting also make it darker. You get bands of black and grey through ice that is blue in places rather than blue everywhere, and the overall impression is of something geological rather than something jewel-like. Photographers love it. People who saved a saturated blue image to their phone and went looking for that exact thing sometimes do not.
The honest summary: if you want the photograph and you are here in winter, go to Vatnajökull. If you want to walk inside a glacier and your dates or your itinerary do not allow five hours of driving each way, Katla is a real ice cave and it is open.
Every trip, current fare
Every tour on this site, for comparison
The tours on this site go to Vatnajökull and Langjökull. Katla sits between them in every sense: closer than the first, more natural than the second.
| Tour | Length | Price | Inside the ice? | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skaftafell: Blue Ice Glacier Hike on VatnajökullThe blue ice of Vatnajökull on foot, most reviewed here | 4 h | $100 | No — on top | $25.00 | 4.7 · 1,501 |
| Skaftafell: Blue Ice Maze Glacier Hike on VatnajökullBetween crevasse walls rather than under a roof | 4 h | $133 | Crevasse, no roof | $33.25 | 4.4 · 275 |
| Iceland: Vatnajokull Glacier Hike and Ice Cave TourA walk on the glacier and a cave, cheapest inside | 4 h | $149 | Yes, natural | $37.25 | 4.6 · 21 |
| Jökulsárlón: Vatnajökull Glacier Ice Cave Tour by Super JeepStraight to the cave with the shortest walk | 3 h | $151 | Yes, natural | $50.33 | 3.4 · 6 |
| Skaftafell: Blue Ice Cave & Glacier Hike on VatnajökullA glacier walk and a cave under it, small group | 4 h | $152 | Yes, natural | $38.00 | 4.6 · 849 |
| Jökulsárlón: The Original Ice Cave Tour on VatnajökullThe longest-running cave tour from the lagoon | 3 h | $159 | Yes, natural | $53.00 | 4.6 · 1,131 |
| Jökulsárlón Ice Cave Tour - Inside Vatnajökull glacierThe shortest cave tour on this page | 2.5 h | $163 | Yes, natural | $65.20 | 4.7 · 65 |
| From Jökulsárlón: Crystal Blue Ice Cave Super Jeep TourThe crystal cave, reached by super jeep | 3 h | $164 | Yes, natural | $54.67 | 4.5 · 605 |
| Jökulsárlón: Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier Ice Cave TourThe glacier that calves into the lagoon | 3.5 h | $171 | Yes, natural | $48.86 | New |
| From Húsafell: Into the Glacier Ice Cave AdventureSix hundred metres cut into Langjökull, open all year | 4 h | $176 | Yes, cut | $44.00 | 4.7 · 857 |
| From Jokulsarlon: Crystal Blue Ice Cave Discovery TourA crystal cave tour with a low group cap | 3 h | $178 | Yes, natural | $59.33 | 5.0 · 1 |
| From Jökulsárlón: Vatnajökull Glacier Blue Ice Cave TourA small-group run to whichever cave is holding | 3 h | $184 | Yes, natural | $61.33 | 4.6 · 962 |
| From Jökulsárlón: Ice Cave and Glacier Exploration TourFive and a half hours, and more than one cave | 5.5 h | $259 | Yes, often two | $47.09 | 4.7 · 225 |
| From Reykjavik: Into the Glacier Ice Cave TourThe Langjökull tunnel with the coach from Reykjavík | 11 h | $305 | Yes, cut | $27.73 | 4.6 · 202 |
| Reykjavík: Langjökull Glacier Snowmobile Tour with Ice CaveA snowmobile across the ice cap, then the cave | 10 h | $340 | Yes, cut | $34.00 | 4.6 · 154 |
| From Reykjavik: 3-Day South Coast Winter Tour with Ice CaveThree days, with beds, meals and the aurora | 3 days | $906 | Yes, natural | $37.75 | 4.8 · 208 |
Choosing between Katla and the crystal caves
Six questions that settle it
The two are not competing for the same booking as often as people assume.
- Which month are you here?
April to October settles it completely: the Vatnajökull caves are shut and Katla is not. In winter both are open and the choice is real.
- How far east are you going anyway?
If Jökulsárlón and Diamond Beach are already in your plan, a crystal cave costs you almost no extra driving. If your trip stops at Vík, Katla saves you a very long day.
- Do you want blue, or do you want inside?
The crystal caves are the blue. Katla is the inside. Both are real ice caves; only one looks like the photograph.
- How much daylight do you have?
In December there are about five usable hours. A Katla tour fits inside them comfortably from Reykjavík with a stop at the waterfalls; a lagoon tour does not.
- Are you driving yourself?
Vík is a normal drive on a main road. The lagoon is another two and a half hours beyond it, in winter, often in the dark.
- Do you want more than one thing in the day?
Katla combines naturally with Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and Reynisfjara, which is why so many south coast day tours bolt it on.
If your dates are in summer and you want the deepest blue you can get, the tunnel cut into Langjökull is the other year-round option.
Natural or cut by machine→Common questions
The Katla ice cave, answered
Is the Katla ice cave worth it?
Yes, if you go knowing it is darker and more ash-banded than the crystal caves. It is a real natural ice cave inside a glacier, it is open all year, and it is half the drive from Reykjavík. It is not the deep-blue chamber in the photographs.
Where is the Katla ice cave?
In Mýrdalsjökull, the glacier above Vík on the south coast, about 180 kilometres from Reykjavík. Tours meet near Vík and drive to the glacier by super jeep.
Can you visit the Katla ice cave in summer?
Yes. It is one of the few ice caves in Iceland that operates all year, because the ice there is thicker, more heavily layered and more stable than the seasonal drainage caves in Vatnajökull.
Which ice cave is better, Katla or the crystal cave?
Different things. The crystal caves in Vatnajökull have the blue; Katla has certainty, a shorter drive and a year-round season. In winter, with time to drive east, take the crystal cave. Otherwise take Katla.
Which tour company is best for a Katla ice cave tour?
Several operators run the same cave and the difference is group size and what else the day includes rather than the ice. Read the review count as well as the score, and check whether the south coast waterfalls are part of the ticket.
Do you need crampons at Katla?
They are supplied, along with a helmet, on every guided tour. Bring waterproof boots above the ankle; operators rarely supply those.
Go deeper
More on walking into an Icelandic glacier
What an Iceland ice cave tour costs
Sixteen tours priced per person and per hour, from $100 to $906.
Blue iceThe blue ice cave in Iceland
Why the ice is blue, where the caves are, and what a tour actually shows you.
VerdictThe best Iceland ice cave tour
Sixteen tours ranked for one decision, with a straight answer at the end.
Crystal caveThe crystal ice cave
The cave behind most of the photographs, and why it is never the same one twice.
SkaftafellIce caves and blue ice at Skaftafell
The other meeting point, an hour closer to Reykjavik than the lagoon.
VatnajokullIce cave tours on Vatnajokull
Europe's largest ice cap, its outlet glaciers, and which caves sit in which.
