Getting around Vík and the coast

5 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Vík is a village of about 740 people on Route 1. It has restaurants, supermarkets and petrol stations, and many tours meet at addresses in the village. Outside the village there is almost no public transport, so you either bring a car or base your stay on tours that start here.

Tours that meet in the village

A good share of the activities around Vík start from addresses in the village itself, which means you can do them without a car. Typical meeting points, taken from the tour descriptions:

• Katlatrack runs its ice cave tours from its base at Austurvegur 16.
• Another Katla ice cave tour meets at the bus parking behind the Icewear and Krónan building, on the side facing the sea.
• The Lava Show is at Víkurbraut 5; you are asked to arrive 15 minutes before the start.
• The riding stable is at Smiðjuvegur 6, reached through the Orkan petrol station.
• For paragliding you park in front of the Skaftfellingur Museum and walk towards the brewery, then a jeep takes you about ten minutes to the take-off point.

Some super jeep tours collect you in Vík; one to Eyjafjallajökull picks up at 9:00, and the canyon tour to Þakgil finishes at the Ice Wear Center. Meeting points do change, so always check the details in your booking confirmation. The full choice is on our things to do page.

On foot in the village you can also reach the Katla centre, which has a free exhibition on the volcano and the Katla Geopark, and the church on the hill above the houses. A walk up Reynisfjall, the 340-metre mountain beside the village, is a favourite with locals according to Visit South Iceland. More on all of this on the Vík village page.

Driving along the coast

Everything else is a short drive along Route 1. The car park for the DC-3 plane wreck on Sólheimasandur is 27 km west of Vík, the turn-off for the glacier Sólheimajökull about 3 km further, and Skógar another 6 km after that. The glacier walks of Icelandic Mountain Guides start from their base camp at Sólheimajökull, about 25 minutes from Vík by car, and their buggy base at Ytri-Sólheimar in Mýrdalur is about 25 km west of the village.

Two places have their own road rules. At Dyrhólaey the last stretch to the upper viewpoint and the lighthouse is steep, narrow and partly rough; Visit South Iceland says a normal car is fine in summer if you take it slowly, but in winter the upper road is often closed entirely because of ice and wind. Parking there is paid, and the PARKA app is the recommended way to pay. Driving off the roads is prohibited throughout the reserve. On Sólheimasandur, driving out to the plane wreck has been prohibited since 2016.

The shuttle to the plane wreck

The wreck lies about 4 km from the car park, close to two hours there and back on foot. The shuttle bus covers the distance in 10 to 15 minutes. According to the operator it runs every day from 10:00, with the last departure depending on daylight, and the whole trip takes about an hour. It is not suitable for wheelchair users. More on the walk and the wreck on our page about Sólheimajökull and the plane wreck.

Buses

Public buses are of little use for local trips. Rural route 52 between Reykjavík and Höfn runs on four days a week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, and there is a separate Höfn to Vík service; check straeto.is for current stops and times. In summer the Highland Bus reaches Skógar and Þórsmörk from Reykjavík, but not Vík. Our getting there page has the timetables we could confirm.

Roads, weather and the highlands

Before any longer drive, and every day in winter, look at umferdin.is, where the road administration Vegagerðin shows road conditions and closures. The same information is available by phone on 1777. Safetravel, run by the search and rescue association ICE-SAR, publishes warnings and lets you leave a travel plan; the emergency number is 112.

The highland roads, marked with an F, open only for part of the summer, and Vegagerðin publishes the dates each year. Þórsmörk, Landmannalaugar and the Laki craters are therefore best reached from Vík on a guided super jeep tour; the options are on our super jeep and highlands page.