Snæfellsjökull Glacier & National Park

If you’re traveling Iceland’s Ring Road or exploring West Iceland, you won’t want to miss a detour to Snæfellsjökull National Park. Located at the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, the national park was established in 2001 and gets its name from the glacier.

It’s not just a glacier that you’ll find here though. In fact, the mountain that the icecap sits on is actually a stratovolcano. Also called Snæfellsjökull, the volcano is around 700,000 years old and hasn’t erupted for 1,800 years.

Fun fact: Snæfellsjökull is one of the volcanoes that inspired Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Of all the ways you can experience glaciers in Iceland, guided glacier hiking is one of the best. Joining an expert-led excursion on Snæfellsjökull glacier lets you get up close to the ice while learning from a knowledgeable guide.

For more mind-blowing scenes, you could take a guided tour of Vatnshellir cave where you’ll head into an 8,000-year-old lava tube. Here, you’ll discover colorful lava formations and vast underground caverns.  

You’ll also want to check out the rock formations at Djúpalónssandur beach. The towering pillars dotted across the black sand beach are the eroded remains of ancient lava fields.

Just 8 km (5 mi) to the east, you’ll come to the visitor center at Malarrif, where you can ask the park rangers for recommended walks. 

One they’re bound to mention is the clifftop path between the villages of Arnarstapi and Hellnar. This is a stunning section of the coastline made up of countless basalt columns and defined by its rugged sea stacks and rock bridges.