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Landmannalaugar or Þórsmörk for a Day Trip?
Two southern highland day trips from Reykjavík: one is rhyolite colour and a hot pool, the other is glacier valleys.
Check dates and availability ↗The two southern highland day trips compared
| Factor | Landmannalaugar | Þórsmörk |
|---|---|---|
| Access road | F208 / F225, then F224 | F249 Þórsmerkurvegur |
| Hardest obstacle | Two fords in the last 2.4 km of F224 | The Krossá, at the very end of F249 |
| Highland Bus season 2026 | 13 June – 20 September (HB02) | 1 June – 24 September (HB01) |
| Landscape | Rhyolite colour, geothermal steam, obsidian lava | Birch valleys framed by Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull |
| Bathing on arrival | Yes — free natural geothermal pool | No natural bathing pool |
| Self-drive in a rental car | Possible with a 4x4; park at P1 to avoid the fords | Generally prohibited by rental agreements |
They are neighbours, connected on foot
These are the two obvious highland day trips from Reykjavík, and they are the two ends of the same trail: the Laugavegur runs 55 kilometres from Landmannalaugar down into Þórsmörk. They sit in different country, though. Landmannalaugar is high, open and mineral — rhyolite ridges, steam, black obsidian, almost no vegetation. Þórsmörk is a sheltered valley system, green with birch scrub, hemmed in by the Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull ice caps and cut by braided glacial rivers. If you have one day and want colour and a hot soak, go north. If you want glaciers, woodland and gorges, go south.
The Krossá is why you should not drive to Þórsmörk
Access to Þórsmörk is by the F249, which ends at the Krossá — a glacial river that shifts its depth and its channels daily, sometimes within a single afternoon, and which is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous crossings in the country for drivers. Icelandic rental companies routinely prohibit their vehicles on the F249 outright, and vehicles that attempt it have been swept downstream. The realistic ways in are the scheduled highland bus or a guided super-jeep, both of which use vehicles built for exactly this. Landmannalaugar is the more forgiving self-drive proposition, because the P1 car park lets you avoid water entirely.
What each place gives you in a day
A day at Landmannalaugar is usually one walk and one bathe: the Laugahraun obsidian field or the climb up Bláhnúkur, then the free pool where the hot and cold streams meet at 36 to 40°C. It is a compact site — hut, campsite, shop and pool within a few hundred metres. Þórsmörk spreads across several valleys, chiefly Húsadalur, Langidalur and Básar, each with its own huts and campsite, and the walking is more varied but more dispersed: viewpoints such as Valahnúkur at around 458 metres, gorges, and glacier outlooks. There is no equivalent of the Landmannalaugar pool.
Þórsmörk has the longer season
Þórsmörk sits lower and further south, so its access route clears earlier and stays open later. In 2026 the Reykjavík Excursions Þórsmörk service runs from 1 June to 24 September, against 13 June to 20 September for Landmannalaugar — roughly a fortnight more at each end. If your trip falls in early June or the second half of September, Þórsmörk is the more reliable booking, and in a late spring it may be the only one of the two that is open at all. In high summer both are dependable, and the choice comes down to landscape rather than logistics.
Doing both, and the trail between them
Two separate day trips from Reykjavík will cost you two long travel days, since neither site is reachable in under three hours and there is no direct highland connection you can drive between them. The efficient way to see both is to walk the Laugavegur: bus in to Landmannalaugar, four days over the pass, and bus home from Þórsmörk. If that is more than you want, pick on landscape. Most first-time visitors who can only do one choose Landmannalaugar, because the combination of the colour and a free hot pool at the end of the walk is genuinely unlike anywhere else in Iceland.