Kayaking Among the Icebergs of Jökulsárlón at Dawn

Paddle between drifting icebergs and resting seals on Iceland's great glacial lagoon before the tour boats start their engines.

Icebergs at Eye Level

You set off from the main car park at Jökulsárlón, where your guides fit you with a dry suit and life vest and show you how to handle the sit-on-top kayaks. You don’t need any experience: the kayaks are stable and easy, and the lagoon is calm most of the time.

From the launch, icebergs fill the lagoon on every side, with the glacier wall across the water at the far end, where the outlet glacier feeds new ice in from above. The bergs drift slowly on the current, some turning as they go, and only at water level do you grasp their size, with several metres of glacial ice rising above you. Seals are regulars here, hauling out on the ice to rest and so used to kayaks that you can watch them up close without disturbing them, while Arctic terns nesting nearby dive into the lagoon through the season.

A Lagoon Still Growing

Jökulsárlón appeared in the 1930s as Breiðamerkurjökull, an outlet of Vatnajökull, began to retreat. The glacier once reached almost to the Ring Road; since then it has pulled back and the lagoon has grown to 18 square kilometres, and it’s expected to keep growing.

The icebergs vary in age and look. White ice is younger and full of air bubbles that reflect light, while blue ice has been squeezed over centuries until most of its air is gone; some bergs spent hundreds of years inside Vatnajökull before starting for the sea. The lagoon’s otherworldly scenery, easy to reach from the Ring Road and unlike anywhere else in Europe, has appeared in major films including James Bond and Batman Begins.

Before the Boats Begin

Jökulsárlón is busy, with shared boat tours running from around 9 am, carrying 20 to 40 passengers at a time across the lagoon at speed, on fixed schedules. Paddling privately in the early morning, before the boats start and the car park fills, gives you a different relationship with the same place. The icebergs appear at their true scale, and the silence before the engines start is one of the most memorable parts of the morning.

Your guide’s attention is all on you, the pace suits whoever’s paddling, and the route follows wherever the ice is thickest that day. Setting off at 8 am or earlier also brings the best light and the fewest people, leaving the lagoon almost to yourselves before the mid-morning bustle. For a couple, it’s one of Iceland’s most magical starts to a day.

Paddling Through the Ice

You launch from a flat stretch of shore with the glacier wall and icebergs straight ahead. The dry suit keeps you warm against water that stays between 2 and 6°C all year, and the kayak is steady enough that first-timers relax within minutes. The ice is densest toward the glacier wall. Weaving between bergs takes care, because they move and turn with the current and may shift between your outward and return trips, so your guide leads the way and judges how close you can safely go. Meltwater and wind have carved many of them into curves that catch the light differently through the day.

The tour lasts two to three hours and returns to the launch point. Diamond Beach, where smaller icebergs wash up on black volcanic sand before melting into the sea, is a short walk away and makes a perfect addition the same morning. Your Out Of Office LGBTQ+ travel specialist can combine it with the Vatnajökull ice caves and a welcoming hotel nearby.