Tours
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Classic with KeriðGolden Circle & Secret LagoonGolden Circle & Blue LagoonLanguage
English The most-booked tour · from €83
Six Golden Circle tours are built for cruise passengers: they collect you at the pier, time the day to your ship and bring you back to it. They take 6.5–9 hours and cost €141–170 per person, or €1,525 for a private car for up to six. Regular day tours also pick up at Skarfabakki, from €95, but leave at fixed times and don't wait for a late ship.
Check dates · cruise-terminal tour
1 / 3Set the time your ship docks and the all-aboard time: the table shows when each tour leaves the pier, when it is back and how much time you have left. A shore excursion leaves about 30 minutes after docking and is timed to your ship; a regular tour leaves at its own time and collects at the pier about 30 minutes earlier. A tour fits when it is back at the pier an hour before all-aboard.
Tour lengths, start times and prices per adult: GetYourGuide, checked Nov 2026. Assumed: 30 minutes from docking to the pier gate; a regular tour collects at the pier ≈30 minutes before its start and needs ≈30 minutes more to bring you back to it. The port excursion is counted as 8 h and the German tour as 9 h, the long end of their ranges. «Tight» means 30–60 minutes to spare. Check the exact times when you book.
Five group tours and one private car meet you at the pier and return you to it. The English small group at €141 is the most booked, with 839 reviews but the lowest rating here, ★4.2; the port shore excursion (★4.7) and the Skarfabakki small group (★4.8) cost €4–29 more. German and Spanish guides run departures of their own.
Guide in English, German or Spanish; collects at all three terminals.
Departure timed to your ship's arrival; the day runs 6–8 hours.
Starts once your ship docks, up to 2 hours after. Not every ship is covered: ask before you book.
Max 19 in a Sprinter minibus, from Skarfabakki 312; give the ship's name when you book.
The same 6.5-hour day as the English small group, with a Spanish-speaking driver-guide.
Mercedes V-Class from Skarfabakki or Miðbakki, paced to your ship; drop-off at the ship, a hotel or Keflavík airport.
Ratings, lengths, stops and minutes: the tours' GetYourGuide pages, checked Nov 2026. All six cancel free up to 24 hours before.
A regular day tour costs less — the classic with Kerið from €95 with a pickup at the pier, against €141 for the cheapest shore excursion — and 23 of them list Skarfabakki among their pickups. But they leave at 08:00–12:00 whatever your ship does and don't wait if it is late. A shore excursion costs about €46 more and is planned around the ship.
Start times and pickup lists: GetYourGuide, Nov 2026. Regular-tour range: the eight tours in the planner above.
Large ships dock at Skarfabakki in Sundahöfn, about 3.5 km east of the old town; smaller ones tie up at Miðbakki or Faxagarður in the Old Harbour, next to Harpa. The English and Spanish small groups collect at all three; the German tour and the Skarfabakki small group start at Skarfabakki only. Tap a terminal to see which tours collect there.
Terminal positions: GetYourGuide pickup markers; distance in a straight line to Harpa. Map: coastline LMÍ IS 50V, streets © OpenStreetMap contributors. More pickup stops on the route map.
One private shore excursion collects you at Skarfabakki or Miðbakki in a Mercedes V-Class for up to six. It costs €1,524.64 for the car — €254 each for six, €381 for four — and the guide paces the 7-hour day to your ship. It can also drop you at a hotel or at Keflavík airport, which helps on the day you leave the ship.
More private cars, with Kerið or extra stops, are on the private tours page.
One price for the car: how many of you share it?
Price per group from GetYourGuide on a sample date, Nov 2026; per-person figures are that price divided by the group size.
No listing promises to hold the ship or to pay if you miss it, so keep the margin yourself. The port excursion drops guests at least an hour before departure, the Skarfabakki tour waits up to two hours for a late arrival, and one guest whose ship came in seven hours late was still taken round the loop. Regular tours leave on time, with or without you.
Pick a tour that is back at the pier an hour before all-aboard. The planner above marks anything tighter.
The German tour asks for it when you book; the others plan the day around your ship's arrival.
Many minibuses wait at Skarfabakki. Read the meeting note in your booking before you leave the ship.
All six shore excursions cancel free up to 24 hours before the start.
The four shore excursions with reviews have 1,489 between them, rated ★4.2–4.8. Guests praise guides who talk through the whole drive and pickups that run to the minute; the complaints are cramped seats at the back of the minibus, a hot bus and a crowded pier where it took a while to find the right van.
“Pickup was perfectly on time and we were back at our cruise ship at the scheduled time.”
“The ship was 7 hours late. The golden circle shore excursion was phenomenal.”
“We had the rearmost seats in the minibus, from which you can hardly look outside.”
“It wasn't easy to find the right bus. There were countless minibuses in the port.”
Verified GetYourGuide reviews; quotes shortened, translated from German where the guest wrote in German.
Live dates, start times and the final price for the small group from the cruise terminal: pick the day your ship is in Reykjavík.
Large ships use Skarfabakki in Sundahöfn, about 3.5 km east of the old town. Smaller ships dock at Miðbakki or Faxagarður in the Old Harbour, next to Harpa. Shore excursions collect at the terminal you dock at.
6.5 hours for the two small groups from the terminal and the Skarfabakki tour, 6–8 hours for the port excursion, 7 hours private and 8–9 hours for the German tour with Kerið.
The shore excursions are planned around cruise schedules, and the port excursion drops guests at least an hour before departure. None promises to hold the ship, so choose a tour that ends an hour before all-aboard.
Yes: 23 day tours list a pickup at Skarfabakki, from €95 with the pickup. They leave at fixed times between 08:00 and 12:00 and don't wait for a late ship, so they suit long port calls.
German: the small-group shore excursion with Kerið, ★4.8 from 518 reviews, from €165, max 19. Spanish: the small group from the cruise terminal, from €141, new. The English small group can also run in German or Spanish.
No. The small groups give free time to eat at Geysir, the port excursion stops at a café or restaurant, and the German tour stops at Efstidalur farm for ice cream and waffles.
Only on the German shore excursion, which includes the entry. The other shore excursions keep to Þingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss, some with Öxarárfoss in Þingvellir.
All six shore excursions cancel free up to 24 hours before the start. Closer to the day, contact GetYourGuide through your booking.
