Reykjavik Iceland & Solar Eclipse Budget

Welcome to Iceland! Our adventure begins. Once we've transferred from the airport to our hotel via Flybus transfer, the rest of the day is for exploration!

Please note: You will be escorted on this tour by an expert, English-speaking Icelandic tour guide. For this special solar eclipse tour, all of our guides have received dedicated solar eclipse training from award-winning astronomy communicator, science lecturer, author and board member of the Icelandic Astronomical Society, Saevar Helgi Bragason.

Reykjavik - Reykjanes - Blue Lagoon - Reykjavik. After breakfast, we embark on a sightseeing tour of the Reykjanes Peninsula, home to famous sites like Gunnuhver, Iceland's largest mud pool. We also see the lava rock pool of Brimketill and the geothermal area of Krysuvik. You can also admire the Bridge Between Continents, which is where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are crashing together.

Later, enjoy a relaxing soak at the Blue Lagoon before we return to Reykjavik, where our included city tour takes in all the highlights, including Hallgrimskirkja church and the Harpa Concert Hall. Your evening in Reykjavik is at leisure.

Your morning and early afternoon are at leisure in Reykjavik. You could head out on a whale watching cruise, or take a wander down Laugavegur, one of the city's main shopping streets.

At around 16:00 we will head down to the ocean with our guide, the perfect spot to witness the total solar eclipse. As one of the world's smallest capitals, there is minimal light pollution in Reykjavik to intrude on our view, and no skyscrapers either.

A total solar eclipse occurs incredibly rarely, only when the moon aligns perfectly in front of the sun, as the two orbit our Earth. It is a complete cosmic coincidence that this happens at all! The sun is 400 times further away than the moon, but also 400 times larger. This allows them to appear the same size when the alignment is perfect, which is why the moon totally blocks out the sun - known as totality. Just the sun's outer atmosphere, which is called the corona, is visible - a shimmering ring of light in the pitch dark.

We will position ourselves precisely at 64°08'50.1"N 21°54'26.4"W - one of the few optimal viewing points on the entire planet to marvel at this natural phenomena, along the central axis of the eclipse. Solar eclipse glasses will be provided to ensure you can see the eclipse unfold safely - you can remove them during totality to get the best experience.

At precisely 16:47:11, the partial eclipse will commence as the moon begins its slow journey across the sun. By 17:48:15, the total eclipse will take centre stage, plunging the world into complete darkness for an extraordinary one-minute experience. During this brief moment of totality, time seems to pause—the temperature drops, the birds fall silent, and an eerie stillness envelops everything. As the total eclipse concludes and sunlight gradually reappears from behind the moon, the celestial show continues for another hour, until 18:47.

Only here in west Iceland, Greenland, northern Spain and northeast Portugal (and a few spots in the ocean) will mankind experience a total eclipse on 12 August, 2026. This is a historic moment, the last total solar eclipse to take place in Iceland was in 1954, and there won't be another until 26 June, 2196. During the totality, depending on the conditions, it may be possible to spot Venus, Jupiter, Mercury and Mars, and the stars of the Big Dipper should also be visible directly overhead.

TOTAL ECLIPSE
Partial begins - 16:47:11
Totality begins - 17:48:15
Maximum Eclipse - 17:48:45
Totality ends - 17:49:15
Partial ends - 18:47:36

When the eclipse has ended, opt for a walk into Reykjavik for dinner and a celebratory drink.

Reykjavik - Gullfoss - Geysir - Thingvellir National Park - Reykjavik. Departing Reykjavik, we head first to Gullfoss, the Golden Falls. This is perhaps the most picturesque waterfall in Iceland (and there is a lot of competition!). At Geysir, witness the erupting Strokkur geyser, which projects boiling water more than 25 metres into the air every 5-7 minutes.

For lunch, we enjoy an included meal of hot spring-baked bread served with butter, boiled eggs, and local herring, washed down with ice cream from a family run farm.

Our day ends at Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to the oldest existing national parliament in the world, the Althingi, alongside spectacular geological formations. See the Mid-Atlantic Rift, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are tearing apart, and marvel at Thingvallavatn lake. After a day of exploring, your final night in Reykjavik is at leisure.

And just like that, our solar eclipse tour comes to an end. Enjoy your final morning in Iceland, before an included Flybus transfer takes you to the airport.