Raufarhólshellir Underground Expedition: The Hour, Minute by Minute
This is the operator's own tour at the cave door: $70.48, one hour, hourly departures from 9:00 to 17:00, and 1,942 reviews behind it, more than any other tour into Raufarhólshellir. You drive yourself, you walk a lit footbridge through the front of a 1,360-meter lava tube, and at one point the guide turns every light off. Here is what the hour holds, and where it falls short.
About This Tour
About 55 to 60 minutes underground, start to finish at the entrance
Per person. The operator lists it at 8,900 ISK on its own site, roughly the same money
Reception on Þorlákshafnarvegur, off Route 39, a 30-minute drive from Reykjavík
9:00 to 17:00, every day of the year, including Christmas week
Fitted at reception, with crampons handed out through the winter months
The most-reviewed tour into this cave by a wide margin
Check Dates at the Cave
Live availability for the hourly departures. Between June and August the 10:00 to 14:00 slots go first, because that is when the coach tours from Reykjavík arrive.
The Hour, Start to Finish
Reception, helmet, and a warning about the floor
You check in at a low service building beside the car park, 15 minutes before your slot. A guide fits a helmet and a headlamp, hands out crampons if there is ice, and explains the two rules that matter: stay on the bridge, and watch the ramp on the way in.
This is the cheapest way into the cave if you are driving; the other lava tunnel tour options at Raufarhólshellir add transport or depth. Groups are whatever has booked that hour. In February that can be six people. In July it is a full departure, and the 11:00 and 12:00 slots are the busiest of the day.
Down the slope, under three columns of daylight
The entrance is a collapse, not a doorway: a rubble slope dropping into the tube, with three holes in the roof above it where the ceiling fell in. Each one drops a column of light onto the floor, and on a clear winter afternoon that light lands blue on old ice.
This is the photogenic stretch, and it is the only place where you get cave and daylight in the same frame. Everything past it is lit by the walkway.
The lights go out
Partway along, the guide kills the floodlights. In a tube 30 meters wide with no daylight reaching it, the dark is complete, and your eyes never adjust because there is nothing to adjust to. It lasts under a minute and it is the thing most people bring up afterwards.
The rest of the hour is storytelling on the move: the Leitahraun eruption 5,200 years ago, the lava straws that visitors broke off from the 1950s onward, the 2016 closure and the walkway that let the cave reopen, and the film crews. Noah with Anthony Hopkins was shot here, and the Secret Solstice festival ran concerts inside in June 2017.
The Cave on Video
Guide to Iceland's footage of the lit section, shot on the same walkway this tour uses.
What You Actually See
Rock that was liquid at the same moment
Everything the lights pick out was moving 5,200 years ago. The ledges along the walls mark where the lava level paused as it drained; the ripples underfoot froze mid-flow. Iron and other minerals give the walls their rust, green and purple-grey.
What the walkway passes:
- Three collapse skylights and the rubble piles beneath them
- Wall ledges at two or three heights, one per pause in the draining lava
- Ice sculptures inside the mouth from late autumn, biggest in December, January and February
- Mineral colour in the walls, best where the lighting is set low and warm rather than white
- The dark section beyond the lit part, which only the Lava Falls Adventure tour enters
What you do not see on this ticket
The lit section covers the front of the tube. The main tunnel runs about 900 meters before splitting into three branches, and the lava falls at that far end are not on this route.
If that is what you came for, the adventure tour is the one that goes there: 3 to 4 hours, head torches, boulders, minimum age 12, $219.39.
How the Visit Runs
-
15 min before
Check in at reception
Service building beside the car park at Raufarhólshellir, off Route 39. Bathrooms and coffee here.
-
0:00
Helmet and headlamp
Gear fitted, safety brief, crampons in winter. Groups leave on the hour.
-
0:05
Down the entrance slope
Loose rock and steps under the three skylights, the one part of the route that is not a bridge.
-
0:15
Along the footbridge
Steel mesh walkway with low warm lighting, stops at the ledges and the mineral colour, with the geology explained on the move.
-
0:35
Lights out
Total darkness for under a minute at the far point of the lit section, then the turnaround.
-
0:55
Back at the entrance
Out under the skylights and up the slope, gear returned at reception. Between 55 and 60 minutes underground.
Is an Hour Enough
The complaint that keeps coming up
Across 1,942 reviews the recurring criticism is that the tour feels short and some people wish they had gone further in. It is a fair reading: you are underground for an hour, and the walkway covers the front of the cave rather than all of it.
What you get for that hour is a lava tube most countries do not have, 30 minutes from a capital city, with a bridge that makes it walkable for a three-year-old. Book it as a stop on a driving day rather than as the day itself, and the length stops being a problem.
Who it suits
Families, anyone with a car, and anyone nervous about caves. The passage is up to 30 meters wide and 10 meters high, and reviewers who describe themselves as claustrophobic keep saying it was fine.
- Minimum age 3 when you meet at the cave
- Not suitable if you struggle with balance, uneven ground or steep steps
- No wheelchair access; the entrance slope rules it out
- Wear a waterproof jacket, the roof drips in every season
- Hiking shoes with grip; the ramp in and out is wet rock
Where to Meet
Reception at Raufarhólshellir, off Route 39 in Þrengsli, 35 km southeast of Reykjavík and 15 km west of Hveragerði.
Free parking at the door. The gate is locked between departures, so a walk-up without a booking is a wasted drive in summer.
Questions Before You Drive Out
How long is the Underground Expedition tour?
About 55 to 60 minutes underground, with check-in 15 minutes before. Departures run on the hour from 9:00 to 17:00 every day of the year. Allow two hours total from Reykjavík including the 30-minute drive each way.
How much is it and what is included?
$70.48 per person with free cancellation up to 24 hours before. That covers the guide, a helmet, a headlamp and crampons in winter. Transport is not included, which is the whole reason it costs half of what the coach tour from Reykjavík does. The operator sells the same hour at 8,900 ISK on its own site.
Can I do it with small children?
Minimum age is 3 when you meet at the cave. The footbridge covers most of the route and the passage is wide and tall, so children handle it well. The entrance slope is loose rock and steps, so a toddler needs carrying for that stretch. On the pickup tours the minimum age rises to 6 because a bus is involved.
Will I be cold?
The cave holds 3 to 4°C all year, which is jacket weather rather than expedition weather for a one-hour walk. Water drips from the roof in every season, so a waterproof shell matters more than thick insulation. Gloves and a hat are worth having from October to April, when the entrance ices over.
Is it frightening if I do not like caves?
Less than people expect. The tube is up to 30 meters wide and 10 meters high, so it reads as a corridor rather than a squeeze, and daylight reaches the first stretch through the collapsed roof. One reviewer took a claustrophobic partner through and reported no trouble. The one moment to know about is the lights-out stop, which lasts under a minute and is announced first.
Should I book the standard tour or the adventure tour?
Take this one if you have a couple of hours, children in the group, or no interest in scrambling. Take the Lava Falls Adventure at $219.39 if an hour on a bridge sounds like a taster: it runs 3 to 4 hours, uses head torches past the lighting, and reaches the lava falls at the far end. It is 12 and over, and hiking boots with ankle support are compulsory.
What Visitors Wrote
Nice easy trip down the tunnel. Plenty of space in the tunnel 15+ feet wide and high in most areas and even for my claustrophobic wife it was not an issue. The guide was very helpful in explaining the whole episode that created the tunnel.
We loved this tour. Our guide was so funny and very knowledgeable and made the tour so enjoyable. The tour is the perfect amount of time and doesn't drag on. Definitely recommend.
Stopped here on the way to the south coast and it fitted the morning perfectly. The moment they switch the lights off is worth the ticket on its own. Take a rain jacket, the ceiling drips.
The first two quotes come from the GetYourGuide listing for this tour, reproduced as written.