Fire and Ice

Arrival at Keflavik Inter­na­tion­al air­port, where we’ll have a shut­tle pick you up at 7:00 am or 11:00am. Enjoy the 45-minute dri­ve through lava fields to Iceland’s cap­i­tal, Reyk­javík. This quirky city, dot­ted with col­or­ful hous­es, is burst­ing with great restau­rants, shops and galleries.

The sched­ule for today will depend on your arrival time.

For those arriv­ing in the ear­ly morn­ing, our team will drop you off at the hotel to drop your lug­gage. You’ll have time to explore the city and grab a cof­fee before check­ing in at noon. We strong­ly rec­om­mend check­ing out the local geot­her­mal pool to relax after a long flight, our team can direct you to the pools upon arrival.

For those arriv­ing by or before noon, you’ll have the option to get your legs spin­ning on an easy ride just out­side the city’s cen­tre. Our guides will pick you up from the hotel at noon and head to our base to build bikes or get you suit­ed up with a rental. We’ll shut­tle to one of the local’s favourite pur­pose-built XC trails. We’ll catch sight of the Elliðaár  riv­er flow­ing with salmon as well as the local bike park, before con­clud­ing at the hotel.  The  guides will shut­tle the bikes back to our base and get them cleaned up for our next day of riding. 

Fol­low­ing a gen­er­ous break­fast, we’ll shut­tle 45 min­utes out­side of town towards Þingvel­lir Nation­al Park, an area bub­bling with geot­her­mal activ­i­ty (don’t for­get your tow­el! You’ll need it later).

We’ll gear up and begin rid­ing towards the moun­tains We’ll be reward­ed with views of the sur­round­ing lakes and tec­ton­ic fields. If it weren’t for the cityscape of Reyk­javík in the dis­tance, we’d feel like we’re rid­ing on a for­eign plan­et, with steam ris­ing from the ground and mud gush­ing from the earth’s crust. The trails we’ll ride here are known to locals only, with lit­tle traf­fic and tons of chal­lenges. The ter­rain today is chal­leng­ing with loose rock and exposed trails, includ­ing some climbs and short hike-a-bike sec­tions  with incred­i­ble scenery. 

After break­fast, we’ll pack our bags and check out as we’re off to the high­lands. The dri­ve through dark­ened lava fields and lush green­ery is incred­i­bly scenic. The weath­er dic­tates  the plan for the day. 

Today we will dri­ve towards one of Ice­land’s most beau­ti­ful water­falls, named Hái­foss. We start at a scenic point over­look­ing the water­fall  before start­ing our ride down into a canyon carved by the riv­er lead­ing into the Pjórsárdalur val­ley where we end our ride today. Then we’ll hop back into the Super Jeep to make our way to the high­land B&B.

Back at the B&B, it’s time to crack open a cold one and enjoy the local din­ner buffet. 

We’ll rise and shine ear­ly, check out of our B&B and hop into the Super Jeeps. It’s time to head for the highlands. 

We’ll stop to unload our gear at our moun­tain hut before head­ing out to the area known as Land­man­nalau­gar, famous for  its geot­her­mal activ­i­ty, colour­ful moun­tain views and pic­ture-per­fect singletrack.

Today the group will be split into two small­er groups to max­i­mize your expe­ri­ence. Choose between a chal­leng­ing hike-a-bike and high­er alti­tude ride or for a less demand­ing (equal­ly as beau­ti­ful) sin­gle­track ride. The rid­ing today will be inter­spersed with a few short hike-a-bike sec­tions.  These remote, far-flung reach­es are acces­si­ble by foot or moun­tain bike only — you won’t see a self­ie stick or tour bus for miles and miles around here. We’ll ride our bikes into the gold­en hours and as the beers are chilled to per­fec­tion, we’ll con­tin­ue our dai­ly reg­i­men of hot spring dips and post-ride cheers.

We’ll head  to our abode for the night where we’ll enjoy a camp-style BBQ din­ner and tra­di­tion­al Ice­landic cui­sine.  We’ll wrap up the evening by camp­fire shar­ing a glo­ri­ous tales from the day’s ride. 

After wak­ing up in our back­coun­try cab­in and fill­ing up on a hearty break­fast, we’ll pack up for the day’s adven­ture. After break­fast, we’ll head out on a  jeep safari fur­ther into the high­lands where our rid­ing starts after lunch at a remote moun­tain cabin. 

As we hop on our two-wheeled machines, we’ll mar­vel at the vis­tas ahead of us: far-off glac­i­ers, jagged moun­tain­tops, crisp water­falls flow­ing into pris­tine lakes and a thin line of hero dirt snaking its way through it all. This is where the now famous Yeti video was filmed.  You’ll ride through super scenic land­scapes, you’ll won­der: am I still on plan­et Earth!?

As we retreat to our cab­in for the evening, a deli­cious tra­di­tion­al Ice­landic din­ner will be wait­ing for us, fol­lowed by a well-deserved sauna. Around the camp­fire tonight, we’ll give our best attempts at pro­nounc­ing our next des­ti­na­tion: Eyjafjallajokull. 

We’ll wake up, enjoy a hearty break­fast and get ready for our final day of mind-blow­ing riding!

Again, weath­er will be the decid­ing fac­tor on which trails we ride today. In  any case, we will see the won­ders of Thors Gar­den where climbs are reward­ed by spec­tac­u­lar views. We’ll take a moment to enjoy the stun­ning views of glac­i­ers, snow-capped moun­tains and dor­mant vol­ca­noes. Serene birch forests and grassy mead­ows pro­vide a strik­ing con­trast against the black­ened  earth  on which we’ll ride. Sev­er­al rocky sec­tions and wild riv­er cross­ings will make for an unfor­get­table adven­ture as we head all the way down to sea level. 

We’ll then enjoy the scenic dri­ve back to Reyk­javík for our final night togeth­er with the option of adding one final ride before head­ing back to Reyk­javik. It’s time to crack open a Viking Lager (or two) and cel­e­brate like true Icelanders!

After break­fast, we’ll bid our farewells with hugs and high fives. We’ll dri­ve you back to the air­port, or you can feel free to keep explor­ing this mag­i­cal place.