What to do when the weather turns

From €4 to €1418 a person, with a typical price of €169. That is the median of 206 per-person day-tour fares we currently sell. Multi-day packages and private charters are priced differently and sit outside those figures.

Kerið Admission with Arctic Adventures, at €4 a person. Read what it actually is before booking on price alone — the cheapest line is sometimes an admission ticket rather than a guided trip, and a large coach costs less per seat than a small-group minibus because it gives you less time at each stop.

4 of the 593 are priced on request rather than published, which almost always means a private charter where the cost depends on group size and pickup point. Ask us and we will get a quote from the operator.

593 of them, from 137 operators: Your Friend in Reykjavik, BusTravel Iceland, Freedive Iceland, Iceland Premium Tours, Gravel Travel, Marina Travel and 131 more. Every one is a company we hold a contract with — we do not list everything in Iceland, on purpose.

Day tours run from 1 hour to 16 hours, most commonly about 5 hours. Pickup and drop-off are usually inside that figure, so a three-hour tour from Reykjavík can mean closer to four door to door.

3 of these are equipment rentals rather than tours — From Reykjavik: Waterpoof & Warm Parka/Jacket - Rental from €26. Useful if you are driving yourself and only need the kit.

52 of these are admissions or tickets rather than guided tours — Akureyri Airport Bus - To Airport from €10, for instance. Worth knowing if you are driving yourself and only need entry.

447 of 593 (75%) offer pickup. The rest ask you to meet on location. Pickup is the single most common cause of a missed tour in Iceland: it runs to a window rather than a time, and the bus will not wait long.

293 of the 593 are private, the other 300 are shared departures. Private costs more in total but is priced per vehicle, so for four or more people it often works out close per head — and you set the pace.

Across the next 360 days of live availability we hold departures in October, November, December, January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. That is a rolling window rather than the whole year, so a month missing from that list is not necessarily a month with nothing running.

58 of 593 run only part of the year; the other 535 run all year round. In Iceland that is usually about daylight or ice rather than demand.

Cutoffs run from 1 to 23 hours before departure, and 243 of them accept bookings inside 24 hours — so booking the night before is often possible. Popular winter tours sell out days ahead regardless of the cutoff.

435 of 593 (73%) allow free cancellation at least 24 hours before departure. The exact window is on each tour page and comes from the operator's own policy, not ours. If the operator cancels for weather you are refunded in full.

Operators rate them: 445 easy, 85 very easy, 57 moderate, 6 challenging. Iceland's ratings assume weather — an easy walk in still air is a different proposition in 15 m/s of wind.

195 of the 593 set one, ranging from 1 to 20 years. The rest have no stated minimum, which usually means infants are allowed but not that the tour suits them.

416 of 593 are marked family-friendly by the operator. That is their judgement rather than ours, and it usually means the walking is short and the vehicle has a toilet.

Operators have flagged accessibility on some: 74 for prams and strollers, 50 for wheelchair users, 46 for limited mobility, 25 for limited sight. Ring us before booking rather than relying on the flag alone — Icelandic sites vary enormously and a flag does not describe the terrain at the stop.

Varies by operator. Across these: admission fees on 176, wi-fi on board on 143, parking fees on 110, food and drink on 40, national park entrance fee on 34. Anything not listed as included is not included — Icelandic operators are literal about this.

435 of 593 are guided in person, with guiding offered in Arabic, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English and 18 more. English is standard on every shared departure in Iceland; other languages usually mean a private guide.

They start from Capital Region (Reykjavík), Vatnajökull (Skaftafell, Höfn), South Coast (Hella, Hvolsvöllur, Vík), Akureyri & the North, Golden Circle area (Selfoss, Flúðir, Þingvellir), Reykjanes & Blue Lagoon and 7 more. Where a tour starts matters more in Iceland than how long it lasts: the same tour from Reykjavík and from Vík are different days entirely.

The operator cancels and refunds you in full — Icelandic operators cancel readily, and that is a good sign rather than a bad one. What they will not do is refund you for a tour that ran and simply had poor visibility. Wind cancels more tours here than rain or cold.