Vatnajökull Glacier Crystal Cave

Anaconda Ice Cave


Useful Information

Location: Vatnajökull glacier.
Glacier Adventure at Hali, 2, Suðursveit, 781 Höfn í Hornafirði.
(64.13210036498107, -16.22148004885958)
Open: Glacier Adventure: NOV to MAR daily 9, 9:30, 13, 13:30.
Guide to Iceland: OCT to APR daily 10, 13.
Arctic Adventures: OCT to MAR daily 10, 13:30.
[2020]
Fee: Glacier Adventure: Adults ISK 19,500, Children ISK 10,900.
Guide to Iceland: Adults ISK 19,900.
Arctic Adventures: Adults ISK 19,500, Children (6-12) ISK 15,749.
[2021]
Classification: SpeleologyGlacier cave
Light: natural
Dimension:
Guided tours: Glacier Adventure: D=3-4 h, Max=12, MinAge=10.
Guide to Iceland: D=3 h, MinAge=10.
Arctic Adventures: D=3 h, MinAge=6.
Photography: allowed
Accessibility: no
Bibliography:
Address: Glacier Adventure, Hali 2, Suðursveit, 781 Höfn í Hornafirði, Tel: +354-571-4577, WhatsApp: +354-699-1003. E-mail:
Guide to Iceland, Laugavegur 12, 101 Reykjavik, Tel: +345-519-79-99. E-mail:
Arctic Adventures, Skutuvogur 2, 104 Reykjavík, Tel: +354-562-7000.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then.
Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

2005 cave discovered.
2008 Vatnajökull National Park established.
2024 accident in front of the cave due to an avalanche.

Description

Vatnajökull Glacier Crystal Cave is the most visited glacier cave in Iceland. It is famous for being spacious enough to accommodate up to 100 people at once. The cave is visited by numerous tour operators and known under various names. The most common are Crystal Cave, Crystal Ice Cave, Blue Ice Cave, Skaftafell Ice Cave, Vatnajökull Ice Cave, or Breiðamerkurjökull Ice Cave.

Vatnajökull glacier covers an area of 7,900 km² which equals about 8% of Iceland and is protected by the Vatnajökull National Park. Jökull means glacier, so the name is simply Vatna glacier. The large glacier has various extensions which have their own names. The cave is located in Breiðamerkurjökull, an outlet glacier which ends at Jökulsárlón (glacial river lagoon), which explains one of the names. Today there is the Vatnajökull National Park which was established in 2008 and is one of Europe’s largest national parks. It was formed by merging Skaftafell National Park and Jökulsárgljúfur National Park. Before 2008 this cave was part of Skaftafell National Park, which explains the name Skaftafell Ice Cave.

In the summer of 2024, the ice cave was in the news worldwide. After an ice avalanche, a U.S. tourist was dead and his wife in hospital. The heading of the news was typically something like "ice cave collapsed" and the discussion about ice cave tourism in Iceland was fueled. In general, it is more dangerous to visit ice caves in summer, as melting ice may collapse, but unfortunately, most tourists avoid Iceland in winter. But actually, the whole discussion is wrong in an important fact: the cave did not collapse, there was an avalanche outside the cave. The two injured tourists were injured because they were outside, those in the cave were unharmed. The danger of such avalanches is a general danger on glaciers, and any tourism on the glacier is dangerous, though probably less dangerous than crossing the road.