Ultimate Glacier Lagoon and Diamond Beach - Helicopter Tour from Reykjavik

On this full-day tour, we take off from Reykjavik airport and head to the famous Golden Circle route where the first fly-over is Þingvellir National Park known for the Alþingi, the site of Iceland's old parliament, allegedly the oldest running parliament. Onward we fly into Haukadalur geothermal valley further east, home to the famous hot spring area Geysir and close by Gullfoss waterfall. We head further southeast to our first landing stop in Þórsárdalur Valley where we will visit the third-highest waterfall in the country, Haifoss, with its 122m drop, and its lower neighbor, Granni.

As we head towards Landmannalaugar, the second landing spot of the tour, we fly over the northeast part of Hekla's volcanic system and its wasteland which mixes with land shaped by large eruptions. At Landmannalaugar we fly over the Jökulgil valley, a landscape painted by colorful rhyolite mountains, black lava, and ash fields and mountains, winding glacial rivers, fumaroles, and moss. As we enter the Landmannalaugar and over the Jökulgil valley the landscape is painted by colorful rhyolite mountains, black lava, ash fields, and mountains, winding glacial rivers, fumaroles, and moss. Landmannalaugar is also known for its natural geothermal baths as its name suggests, the „people's pool“, and as a starting or end point of the most famous hiking trail in Iceland, the Laugavegur. It's a breathtaking visual experience enhanced by the bird's eye view perspective from the helicopter

From Landmannalaugar we fly over Langisjór, a 20 km long lake up in the highlands, 670 m above sea level, and the Lakagígar crater chain. A 25 km long row of about 135 craters, formed in the years 1783-1784, during one of the largest volcanic eruptions in recorded history. During the 8-month eruption period, it is estimated it poured out 42 billion tons (14 km3) of basalt lava and clouds of poisonous gases and ash that led to the death of 50% of Iceland's livestock, and almost a third of the Icelandic nation died. Furthermore, the eruption in Lakagígar and its aftermath have been linked to some global events.

After these "wet" and "hot" experiences we will cool our senses by approaching and flying over the south edge of the Vatnajökull glacier on our way to the famous Glacier Lagoon (Jökulsárlón) and Diamond Beach. On the north side of the flight, we will have the sea of white - the vast ice cap of Vatnajökull, Europe‘s largest glacier. On the south side, the landscape will be breathtaking and diverse while we fly over some of the many outlet glaciers of Vatnajökull with a variety of cliffs, canyons, and waterfalls in between. To name a few, Síðujökull, Morsárjökull, Skeiðarárjökull, Skaftafellsjokull and Öræfajökull. And yes, “jökull” means “glacier” in case you haven’t figured that out yet. Öræfajökull is considered the largest active subglacial volcano in Iceland, hosting the tallest point in Iceland, Hvannadalshnúkur at 2110 m. It had 2 large eruptions in known history in 1362 and in 1727. As we leave behind Öræfajökull, we approach the Glacier. You will notice a lagoon that is fed by the melting of the outlet glacier for our third landing. This procession of ice on water with the mountains in the background and glimpses of the main ice cap creates a scenic landscape, for which the lagoon is so famous. Once in the ocean, the ice chunks are brought back to shore on the black sandy beach nearby, giving its name as Diamond Beach.

From this point, we fly back westward and towards our base at Skaftafell Terminal, for refueling and refreshment stop. We fly along the shoreline to the southernmost tip of Vatnajökull, enjoying intricate riverbeds and Öræfajökull with its outlet glaciers. One of the most popular ones is Svínafellsjökull which looks so out of this world, that it was fittingly used as the shooting location for an alien ice planet in the 2014 blockbuster Batman Returns, Interstellar, and further was featured in Games of Thrones in some of its episodes to name few.

After taking off from Skaftafell Terminal we head on over to Skeiðarársandur, a vast plain of black sand, we, then, fly past Lómagnúpur, which houses one of Iceland's four guardian spirits that can be seen in Iceland's coat of arms, the „rock-giant“ (Bergrisi). He stands at the top of Lómagnúpur, holding his iron rod protecting the south coast from evil spirits. We had now to Mýrdalsjökull, hovering on the way, over the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon, made famous by Justin Biber who used the location for one of its video clips. It is a visually stunning and ancient location, dating back to the Ice Age 2 million years ago. As we get closer to Mýrdalsjökull, the land gradually reveals the planes on which glacial floods happened, after eruptions of the volcano Katla. Katla is a large active volcano that sits basically under the ice cap of Mýrdalsjökull. Then we turn towards Eyjafjallajökull glacier which hosts under its cap a volcano that last erupted in 2010 where we have the option to land. After Eyjafjallajökull, we head to the coastline from where we can spot the mysterious Vestmannaeyjar archipelago of about 18 islands, just off the south coast of Iceland. From this point we keep flying along the coastline in the direction of Reykjavik airport, noting a few more places on the way.