Why you need to visit the Glacier Lagoon & the Diamond Beach
This road trip tour gives you all you have ever dreamed of: volcanic landscapes, numerous (frozen) waterfalls, western-styled landscapes, glaciers. All this can only be topped by the final destination of this road trip: icebergs and a beach full of diamonds.
Read below, what to expect and see and why not to miss the Glacier Lagoon of Jökulsárlón and the diamond beach.
As already mentioned in the description for DAY 1: “Iceland South Coast: Seljalandsfoss to Vík í Mýrdal”, when in Iceland many times the route is the actual goal – This definitely applies, when driving all the way along the south coast to the Glacier Lagoon “Jökulsárlón”.
We started this day very early as we planned to drive to the Glacier Lagoon “Jökulsárlón” and back to our Airbnb within just one day. If you have more time, I would suggest to combine this itinerary with the DAY 1: “Iceland South Coast: Seljalandsfoss to Vík í Mýrdal” – tour and to do some stops along the route.
Nevertheless, it is possible to do this trip within one day – of course only if the weather and road conditions allow it.
The small city of Vík was covered in fresh snow, when we arrived just right for sunrise. The (left) picture was taken from a small hill behind the Vik i Myrdal Church. It is one of the best photo spots in Vík as you can get this very iconic photo of the small chruch and the Reynisdrangar stone formation in the background.
Right behind Vík the fresh snow was blowing over the streets and made it a little bit harder to drive – especially, while being distracted by the wonderful nature.
The snow slowly faded and lava fields lined up beside the narrow street. The fields offer an everchanging photo motiv and many different lava sculptures to be discovered. There are some spots along the route, where you can stop and go for a short walk through the lava fields such as Laufskálavarða.
The light of the rising sun dipped the landscape in an orange and red light. In combination with the massive mountain plateaus it almost reminds you of the Grand Canyon. Only the frozen waterfalls keep reminding you of the fact, that you are still in Iceland.
While driving through this western-styled landscape, you always have the Glacier and snow covered mountains right in front of you.
As soon as you arrive at the Skeiðarársandur Monument the glaciers “Skaftafellsjökull” and “Svínafellsjökull” are already within reach. Plan a small break at the Skeiðarársandur Monument rest area and enjoy the majestic mountains, covered in massive ice shelfs and powdered with snow.
Those glacier tongues will not be the last ones you will see, while continue driving into the direction of the Glacier Lagoon “Jökulsárlón”. The main Glacier atop the Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður mountain range has several glacier tongues, which sprawl down to the valleys below.
After one of the most scenic drives, which you can just imagine, we finally arrived at our destination: the Glacier Lagoon “Jökulsárlón” and the famous diamond beach.
I still remember the feeling, when I saw the first iceberg and it is just amazing. The floating icebergs and the whole Glacier Lagoon are a natural wonder and just magical.
The icebergs vary so much and not one looks like the other. They can contain several shades of blue – from baby blue to emerald and dark blue. But at the same time, they can also appear deep-back, as layers of ashes from previous volcanic erruptions are stored in the up to one thousand years old glacier parts.
The thinner ice floes vary from almost transparent to grey and black. They can be found in the most insane fomations all iover the lagoon and especially at the shores.
Take your time, sit down and enjoy this magical landscape. Before heading to the next highlight.
At the other side of the Austurland Bridge you will find the Diamond Beach. You can simply pass below the bridge by walking alongside the galcier streams. The black-sanded beach is covered with hundreds of small and big ice blocks. When the sun hits, the small ice blocks reflect the light. This makes the whole beach appear shimmering – just like diamonds.
Believe me or not – but you can easily spend hours and hours here as the small ice blocks have so many different shapes and offer so many unique photo motives.
At the same time, more and more iceblocks are washed up on the shore of the beach. The iceblocks once belonged to the Vatnajökull glacier, before they made their way through the “Jökulsárlón” Glacier Lagoon onto the open water. Eventually, the currents and the strong waves carry the iceblock back to the mainland and to the diamond beach.
The sunset made our visit at the Diamon Beach even more magical and romantic.
As we visited Iceland in winter and only had limited daylight, we decided to prioritize to visit the glacier lagoon and the diamond beach. This day trip can actually be enhanced by several more stops and when visiting in summer, I would even recommend to split this very scenic drive over several days.
There are further stops, which you can consider, when visiting the Glacier Lagoon and the Diamond Beach. Some of them are not accessible all year round, therefore I would recommend to check the accessibility in advance.
- Hjörleifshöfði Cave (Yoda Cave) – Even if you are not a Star Wars fan you should visit the famous “Yoda” cave. It is located 16 km east of Vík and you have to leave the Ring Road after about 15 km and follow a short gravel road, which leads you all the way down to the cave.
- Svartifoss – A stunning waterfall, which tumbles in front of a beautiful basalt wall. Parc at the Svartifoss parking lot (64.01489253136523, -16.96399929912644). A 3-kilometer-long hike takes you to the waterfall. On your way to the Svartifoss you will also come by the Hundafoss waterfall
- Múlagljúfur Canyon – The Múlagljúfur Canyon is a must when visiting Iceland in summer. The 6 km hike (about 3 km each way) leads you along a spectacular canyon before it finally opens up and presents the Múlagljúfur waterfall
- Fjallsárlón Glacier – The small “brother” of the famous Jökulsárlón galcier lagoon.
