Iceland Coast to Coast is a 10-day small group adventure on Iceland's Ring Road, run under the midnight sun. One minibus, one tour leader, one knowledgeable driver, 20 guests max.

We drive the entirety of Ring Road clockwise, with thoughtful detours onto the Snæfellsnes Peninsula and out to one of the best puffin colonies in Iceland.

Together we'll explore some of Iceland's 🇮🇸 most iconic areas such as the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Akureyri, Mývatn, Hengifoss, Vatnajökull, Vestrahorn, The South Coast, Skógafoss and WAY more (check out the day by day itinerary for more) as we drive the entirety of Ring Road under the Midnight Sun.

If you've ever looked at a coach tour of Iceland and thought "there has to be a better way to do this," there is. It's this one. The cap on guests means this tour has nearly 70% fewer guests than your typical coach tour.

You get all the benefits and support of a guided group trip, without the constraints or cluster of traveling on a large motor coach.

And if you want the complete Icelandic experience, consider tacking on the optional 2-night extension in Reykjavik and a detour to the Blue Lagoon upon arrival.

This tour takes place over the following dates:

📆 June 12th - 22nd, 2027

Please remember that weather in Iceland can be unpredictable, and should it impact any of our planned activities we will make the necessary adjustments to the itinerary to ensure the safest experience possible.

Review the tour cancellation policy here.

My name is Wes - I'm a travel junkie who has visited 30+ countries and counting.

I love travel because it's a great way to experience different cultures, visit some of the most beautiful places on Earth and take part in adventurous activities unique to the destinations I visit.

I was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio 🇺🇸 which I still call home to this day. It serves as the perfect home base for enjoying life back home when I'm not out on the road exploring!

On my tours you'll enjoy a high level of attention to detail and planning.

Iceland holds a special place in my heart. The natural beauty is unmatched, landscapes that will make you think you've been teleported to another planet and the feeling of remoteness that comes with it.

You can learn more about me, my travels and join the 60,000+ people who already follow along with me on social media using the links below:

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Facebook

Be sure to check out my 5.0 star ⭐️ rating on Google! You can also read reviews from travelers who have participated in my tours.

Have a question about the trip? Shoot me a message on Instagram or text me at 513-202-3064, I'm here to help!

You can submit your deposit directly on this page to secure your spot on the Iceland Coast to Coast Ring Road Adventure today!

I'm also always happy to set up a time for us to chat, video call or answer questions about my tours over email.

You can find my contact information below:

Wes Mergard

513-202-3064

wes@travelwithwes.com

www.travelwithwes.com

My social links:

Instagram

TikTok

YouTube

Facebook

If you're located in Cincinnati, I'm always happy to meet in person over coffee to discuss.

Once you're ready to reserve your spot, you can do so by submitting your deposit using the form on this page.

Can't wait to explore Iceland with you!

You land at Keflavík International Airport (KEF), you'll have a transfer into Reykjavík scheduled on your behalf, and then check into our hotel.

The afternoon and evening are yours. Wander the harbor. Pop into Hallgrímskirkja. Eat your first plate of arctic char at a real Icelandic restaurant. Get a feel for a sky that doesn't get dark.

Rule of thumb: book your inbound flight to land by 1PM if you can. That arrival time should get you to our hotel around check-in and maximize your first evening in Reykjavik.

Blue Lagoon Add-On - if experiencing the Blue Lagoon was on your Iceland bucket list, this will be your best opportunity. After arriving in Keflavik International Airport, you'll be shuttled directly to the Blue Lagoon.

There's a luggage check available, and given the lagoon's proximity to the airport, this makes the most logistical sense. It's a great way to refresh from the long overnight flight and immediately immerse yourself into the Icelandic spirit!

Since guests will be arriving on separate flights and not every guest will select this add-on, this is the only activity we won't do as a group.

We're on the road by 8:00 AM heading north to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, often called 'Iceland in Miniature' because it packs a glacier, lava fields, fishing villages, basalt sea cliffs, and a perfectly photogenic mountain into a single day-long loop.

The whole peninsula is essentially a warm-up for the variety you'll see all week.

Today's lineup includes:

Ytri Tunga

Arnarstapi

Rauðfeldsgjá

Saxhóll

Kirkjufell

Overnight in the Grundarfjörður area

This is the longest driving day on the trip and I'm not going to pretend otherwise, there's about 5 hours total.

We break it up with two strong stops and a break for lunch. By dinner you're in Iceland's second largest city with free time to explore town.

Morning stop: Grábrók Crater. A 170-meter cinder cone with a wooden staircase that climbs the side and a rim path that gives 360-degree views over the moss-covered lava field, Lake Hreðavatn, and the Borgarfjörður valley. Twenty-minute climb, ten-minute walk around the top. A good leg-stretch.

Mid-morning detour to Kolugljúfur Canyon, with its dramatic waterfalls and observation platforms named for a folkloric giantess who supposedly lived in the gorge. Bridge view is the wide one. The unfenced path on the river's far side is the dramatic one. We'll stick to the platforms.

Arrival in Akureyri in the late afternoon: Akureyri is Iceland's largest urban area outside Reykjavík (about 20,000 residents) and sits at the head of Eyjafjörður fjord, about 100 km south of the Arctic Circle. Walk the main shopping street. See the basalt-column-inspired Akureyrarkirkja church on its hilltop. The botanical garden (one of the northernmost in the world) is free and worth a quick stop.

Plenty of good restaurants in town for dinner on your own.

This is the kind of day that justifies the whole trip.

We're up early and over to Húsavík, the whale-watching capital of Iceland, for a 3-hour tour on a traditional Icelandic schooner. The operator's cumulative sightings rate over 30 years is 97%.

Humpbacks are the headliner; minkes, white-beaked dolphins, and the occasional blue whale round it out. The harbor area is small and walkable, with the whale-themed timber church, the Húsavík Whale Museum, and a row of cafés.

After lunch we drive south to Goðafoss, the 'Waterfall of the Gods.' Twelve meters tall, 30 meters wide and horseshoe-shaped.

The day ends with a long geothermal soak in the Mývatn area, often called the 'Blue Lagoon of the North' but without the price tag or the cruise crowds.

Mineral-rich water sourced from 2,500 meters below the surface in the aptly named Earth Lagoon.

We'll wrap up after the soak and spend overnight in the Mývatn area.

A day of geothermal drama, volcanic history, and one of the most powerful waterfalls in Europe. We're moving east, but slowly, because these stops are why we drive this leg in the first place!

First we'll visit Dimmuborgir, a vast field of lava pillars and arches formed when a lava lake drained 2,300 years ago. Folklore says it's the home of Grýla, her husband Leppalúði, and the 13 Yule Lads.. Iceland's mischievous Christmas trolls.

Next we'll head to Hverir, a geothermal field of bubbling grey mud pots and actively steaming heat vents at the foot of Námafjall. The sulfur smell is intense (I'll warn you again in the bus) but it's all part of the experience.

Then we'll head up to the Krafla Volcanic Caldera and the turquoise crater lake at Víti.

We'll make our final marquee stop of the day when we head to Dettifoss. Standing at 44 meters tall, 100 meters wide, it sees an insane amount of flow. This is widely considered Europe's most powerful waterfall.

Late afternoon we'll drive east on Route 1 to our base in the Egilsstaðir area, where we settle in for two nights.

The group splits in the morning. Hikers head to Hengifoss, one of Iceland's tallest waterfalls at 128 meters, with a cliff striped in red iron-rich clay between basalt lava flows from 5 to 6 million years ago.

The hike is about 3 miles round-trip with 900 feet of elevation gain, takes 2-3 hours (plenty of photo stops included), and passes Litlanesfoss (another waterfall framed by some of the tallest basalt columns in Iceland) on the way up.

Non-hikers spend the same window floating in the hexagonal infinity pools at the Vök Baths on Lake Urriðavatn, Iceland's only floating geothermal pools, with the only certified drinkable hot spring water in the country. There's a swim-up bar, a sauna, a cold plunge directly into the lake, and an on-site bistro for lunch.

We regroup early afternoon, eat, and drive north over the Vatnsskarð Eystri pass on Route 94 to Borgarfjörður Eystri, a remote east-fjord village known in Iceland as the 'capital of elves' for the density of folkloric stories tied to the local landscape.

The evening anchor is Hafnarhólmi, a small rocky islet at the harbor where 8,000 to 10,000 pairs of Atlantic puffins nest each summer.

Boardwalks and viewing platforms put you within arm's reach of nesting puffins. We arrive in the late evening, when the puffins are most active and most other tours have left for the day, and we have the colony to ourselves under the soft midnight-sun light.

While I think the puffin colony might be my overall top stop from this trip, we still have so many heavy hitting stops left on the itinerary.

We'll spend the morning working through the Eastfjords, winding through mountains and coastal roads before breaking for lunch at Djúpivogur.

The first marquee stop of the day will be the Stapavík viewpoint, with sweeping views of the rugged Icelandic coast.

From there we'll move to one of my favorite hidden gems - the Hvalnes Nature Reserve Beach. This massive black sand beach goes for miles before seemingly disappearing into the horizon.

Next we'll make our way to Iceland's most photogenic mountains - Vestrahorn with time to explore the nearby Viking Village. Full disclosure - the village was created as a movie set. Although it wasn't actually inhabited by vikings it's still fun to explore and sets the tone for what life might have been like for settlers hundreds of years ago.

After a full day in the East Fjords we'll make our way to the harbor town of Höfn for our overnight stay.

Today we drive west along the foot of Vatnajökull, Europe's largest ice cap by volume, and arrive at Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon.

The lagoon began forming around 1934 as the glacier retreated, and today it covers about 25 km² with maximum depths around 248 meters, making it Iceland's deepest lake.

After taking in the icebergs from shore, we'll suit up with the licensed kayak operator and paddle directly inside the lagoon, between icebergs of all sizes, with the glacier face looming behind you.

Across the road is Diamond Beach, where icebergs that drift out of the lagoon through Iceland's shortest river are pushed back ashore by the tide and glitter on the black sand.

Afternoon stops include Kvíárjökull glacier viewpoint and the Svínafellsjökull glacier viewpoint, my personal favorite.

Today's overnight will be in the Skaftafell area.

Iceland's South Coast is jam packed with iconic spots and today we'll have a full lineup.

Stops today include:

• Fjaðrárgljúfur - a 100-meter-deep, mile long canyon carved by glacial meltwater at the end of the last Ice Age (about 9,000 years ago).

• Lunch in Vík - Iceland's southernmost mainland village.

• Reynisfjara - the famous black-sand beach framed by basalt columns and the offshore Reynisdrangar sea stacks.

• Dyrhólaey - a dramatic sea-arch promontory with sweeping views of the south coast and another chance to spot puffins.

• Skógafoss - a 60-meter waterfall plunging over a cliff. A 527-step staircase climbs the east side to a viewing platform at the top. Going up is optional, coming back down is mandatory.

• Seljalandsfoss: one of the only major waterfalls in Iceland you can fully walk behind. You will get wet. Wear your waterproof gear if you want to go behind it.

• Gljúfrabúi - from Seljalandsfoss walk to a hidden waterfall tucked inside a slot canyon, frequently missed by tour groups and arguably the more interesting of the two.

Overnight in the Seljalandsfoss area.

Our final day together is an active one. We drive to a family-owned outfit's base camp on Road 249 for a 2-hour off-road buggy adventure across the gravel tracks near Thórsmörk (river crossings + glacier viewing mandatory) all under Eyjafjallajökull, the volcano that grounded most of European air traffic for a week in 2010.

Our final scenic stop before Reykjavík: a guided walk inside one of Iceland's longest lava tubes. The Raufarhólshellir lava tunnel was formed more than 5,000 years ago during the Leitahraun eruption, when a river of molten basalt cooled into a crust on the outside and drained out the inside, leaving behind a tunnel 1,360 meters (4,500 feet) long, up to 30 meters wide, and 10 meters tall in places.

By late afternoon we'll return to Reykjavík and enjoy one final night in the city. The evening is yours, and Reykjavík has the strongest food scene in Iceland, so it's a fitting place to celebrate the end of the trip.

Some travelers will head home in the morning, others will extend their trip and spend some time enjoying more of what Iceland's capital city has to offer. If that sounds good to you - be sure to tack on the two night extension!

Some guests will head home with their prearranged airport transfer, while others will choose to spend two more days in Reykjavik soaking up the Midnight Sun.

If you choose the two day Reykjavik add-on, you'll start things off with a free day to spend as you choose.

This structure allows for maximum flexibility so that guests can fill out any remaining activities from their Iceland wish list.

Ideas on how to fill this day:

• Go fishing with local fishermen

• Explore the Golden Circle

• Horseback riding

• Silfra Snorkeling

• Visit local museums

• Warm up with the Reykjavik Lava Show

• Whale watching round two

• Join a Reykjavik Beer & Booze Tour

After a free day to decompress and explore on your own, we'll reconvene to start the day with a trip to the Sky Lagoon to enjoy infinity pool views of the sea and their signature 7 step ritual. It's the perfect way to unwind after a long journey around Ring Road.

Afterwards we'll head into town for a Reykjavik walking food tour where you'll try tons of traditional Icelandic foods across several different restaurants. It's the perfect way to learn about the city while eating your way through it.

You'll be free by the early evening to explore, grab dinner and celebrate a successful Icelandic adventure with your new friends!

Today the last of our group will say their goodbyes. Your transportation to the airport will be prearranged.