There are lots of cool things to do in Iceland—soak in steamy hot springs, hike to epic waterfalls, and scale ancient glaciers. But one of the most unique activities is to snorkel through crystal clear glacial melt water at Silfra, a fissure that’s located between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates in Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park.
Sounds pretty crazy? It is!
It’s also one of the most beautiful, unique, and memorable experiences from my husband, Justin’s and my two week road trip around Iceland. It’s actually one of the only places in the world where you can snorkel between two tectonic plates. So if you want to experience this otherworldly adventure for yourself, here’s everything you need to know about Silfra snorkeling in Iceland.
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What is Silfra?
Iceland is a unique country in many ways, but one of its most interesting aspects is its location along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This geological feature is considered to be the longest mountain range in the world and marks the boundary between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. There are obviously tectonic plates all over the world, but their boundaries are usually found under water, making Iceland one of the few places that you can observe this geological feature on land.
Every year, these tectonic plates pull apart by approximately two centimeters. This tectonic movement is why the country has so much geothermal activity and all of its steaming volcanoes, hot springs, and hot pots. It also can cause cracks to form in weaker sections of the earth that are between them.
Silfra is one of these cracks that formed from the two tectonic plates pulling apart.
This fissure is now filled with meltwater from the nearby Langjökull Glacier.
This water has been filtering through the porous volcanic bedrock of the island for the last CENTURY before it flows into Silfra and on to Þingvallavatn Lake. When Justin and I went snorkeling in Silfra, we were losing our minds that the water we were snorkeling through originally melted from the glacier in 1925—i.e., when The Great Gatsby was originally published and Charlie Chaplin was crushing it on the silver screens.
Because of its extensive filtration, the water in Silfra is crystal clear. The exceptional clarity allows light to penetrate more deeply through the waters than it normally would, which emphasizes the blue wavelengths and makes the water appear brilliant colors.
Besides being exceptionally clear, Silfra is also exceptionally cold, with a consistent temperature of 2–4 °C, regardless of the time of year.
Where is Silfra?
Silfra is located in Thingvellir National Park, which is located in southwestern Iceland, about an hour north of the capital city of Reykjavik.
Besides being home to Silfra, Thingvellir National Park is renowned for its unique geological location between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. It also has been named a UNESCO World Heritage Site, thanks to the fact that the world’s first ever parliament was held here in 930 AD by the Vikings (pretty cool, right?!).
The national park is part of the Golden Circle, which is essentially a popular route of three sites around Reykjavik—Thingvellir, Geysir Geothermal Area, and Gullfoss Waterfall. Thingvellir is the closest of these sites to Reykjavik and is usually the first stop on most visitors’ Golden Circle itinerary.
There is no public transportation option to get to Silfra from the city, so your best bet is to either:
- get a rental car (to be honest, Iceland was made for road trips so I’d recommend getting one, anyway!) or
- go on an organized tour from Reykjavik, like this option or this option (which includes free photos!), that includes transportation to and from Silfra.
Parking in Thingvellir National Park
There are LOTS of parking lots in Thingvellir National Park, so, if you have a rental car, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding a spot here.
However, you may have to walk a bit from whatever lot you park in to where you meet up with your tour guide. Many groups meet in this parking lot, but, before your tour, be sure to check with your operator where you need to meet them.
We parked in the closest lot to the meeting point, Þingvellir Parking P5, and it was about a 7 minute walk. And if you need to park farther away, you may have to walk 20 minutes or more. All that is to say, just be sure to get to Thingvellir National Park WELL ahead of your scheduled tour time.
There are parking fees in the national park’s lots, starting at 1000 ISK for a small car.
How to go snorkeling in Silfra
If you want to go snorkeling in Silfra, you’ll need to go with a guide, who is authorized to enter the water in the national park. and has the necessary equipment, like drysuits and thick neoprene gloves and hoods. This gear will keep you dry and warm and protect you against the near freezing water.
There are TONS of operators who offer tours for Silfra snorkeling, but here are a few I’d recommend:
Silfra Snorkeling Tour with Underwater Photography
This option, with the popular operator, Troll.is, was the exact tour that we did.
We had an AWESOME time on the tour, with our guide checking that all of our equipment was functioning properly and always making sure that we were comfortable in the water. He also took LOTS of photos with his GoPro both before and while we were snorkeling (which are included with the package!).
The tour was even capped off with a sweet little chocolate bar and some hot cocoa. Since we woke up quite early for our tour, this definitely made a lasting impression on us!
Silfra Snorkeling Tour Between Tectonic Plates
This option is with the most popular scuba and snorkeling operator in Iceland, Dive.is. Accordingly, this company has excellent gear to keep you dry and warm in the water and the guides are amazing at making sure you feel safe and comfortable.
Plus, they provide hot chocolate and COOKIES at the end of their tour, which is always a big bonus.
Silfra Snorkeling Tour with Underwater Photos and Pick-up in Reykjavik
As mentioned above, if you don’t have your own transportation to Thingvellir National Park, there are tours that will pick you up and drop you off at your hotel in Reykjavik, so you can kick back and relax, as someone else takes the wheel (quite literally!).
I like this tour option because you’ll be provided with photos taken by your guide during your tour, instead of being charged some egregious sum of money after the fact.
What can you see when Silfra snorkeling?
To set expectations, snorkeling in Silfra is quite a bit different than experiences you might have had in warmer destinations.
For one, it’s pretty unlikely you’ll see any wildlife. While Ice Age Brown Trout or Arctic char live in the neighboring Þingvallavatn Lake and occasionally swim over to Silfra, our guide says he only sees them on an outing every couple of months.
Instead, the main attraction to snorkel in Silfra is to see the brilliant blue crystal clear water; colorful algae with fun mystical-sounding names, like Troll Hair; and the rugged volcanic rock formations underwater. Because the water is so clear, you can see all the way down into the depths of Silfra’s fissure, which plunges up to 207 feet deep.
While I was snorkeling there, it BLEW my mind that the rocks that I saw around me are constantly shifting and changing, due to the tectonic plates always pulling slightly apart. If I ever come back to Silfra to snorkel here again, it won’t look the same!
Scuba diving in Silfra
It’s worth mentioning that you can also scuba dive in Silfra on a guided tour if you have your drysuit scuba certification and a logged drysuit dive within the last two years, like this option or this option, which includes pickup in Reykjavik.
Some operators allow you to dive without the drysuit certification if you have 10 or more logged drysuit dives in the past two years (which, at that point, I imagine you’d have your drysuit certification, but I digress).
Scuba diving provides a similar experience to snorkeling here, although you can obviously dive at depths up to 60 feet through the otherworldly rock formations. One of the highlights of diving here is that you can swim through narrower parts of the fissure and get a photo of the “Big Crack”, where you can touch both the North American and Eurasian sides of the crack at the same time.
What to wear while snorkeling in Silfra
You should figure out what you’re going to wear snorkeling in Silfra before the morning of, so you’re not scrambling to find something at the last minute.
Your drysuit will cover up everything other than your hands and head (which will be covered by thick neoprene). So, as weird as it sounds, you’re just going to wear regular ol’ clothes while snorkeling here—just under your drysuit.
I’d aim to choose several layers of moisture-wicking clothing that’s not too bulky but still warm, like fleece-lined leggings or thermal tops (here’s an option for men and here’s an option for women). Justin and I both wore our puffer coats while we were snorkeling, but if you have a bulky, waterproof parka, it might not fit under the drysuit, so I’d suggest piling on some extra layers for warmth instead.
I know it sounds like you’d be absolutely freezing in the water, but I honestly didn’t think it was too bad! While snorkeling in Silfra, my hands and face felt the coldest, given they’re the only things that get wet, but, even they seemed to mostly adjust after a few minutes.
After our experience here, we actually used a drysuit to snorkel in Antarctica and I can definitely confirm the water felt WAY colder there.
What to expect when snorkeling in Silfra
If you’re anything like me, you might be a bit nervous about snorkeling through near freezing cold water in Iceland for the first time. So here’s exactly what you can expect.
Getting geared up
After parking and walking to your meeting spot, your tour operator will have a team of people that will help you get outfitted with your gear.
Insider tip: Make sure to go to the bathroom before you put on your drysuit. You’ll be wearing it for the next couple of hours and, unlike a wetsuit, you can’t just pee in it in the water while you’re snorkeling if you need to go to the bathroom or you’ll be quite literally peeing your pants!
It may vary by operator, but with our tour, we were first given a drysuit undersuit, which is essentially like a big thermal onesie, to put on in a heated trailer and then a drysuit on top of that.
Putting on the drysuit is surprisingly aerobic, especially shoving your head through the latex seals on the wrists and on the neck. If you have long hair like me, be sure to bring along a hair tie or else shoving your head through the neck seal will be extra painful.
After your drysuit is zipped up comes the worst part—most companies use a thick rubbery belt, ratcheted down tightly around your neck and wrists to prevent water from getting into your drysuit.
I don’t love having stuff around my neck in the first place and having a super tight belt on it was VERY uncomfortable for me—but, if you’re having trouble breathing or moving your neck around, your guide should be happy to assist you. I just might suggest avoiding this activity if you have any kind of sensory issues or breathing problems.
And I suppose it’s much better than having your drysuit leak and getting soaked by icy cold water.
Insider tip: If you have one takeaway from the article, I hope it’s this—be sure to book the FIRST tour that you possibly can in the morning and show up early for your tour. This way, you’ll put on the drysuit and get to go directly in the water without having to wait around for a super long time in the uncomfortable getup.
Every operator shares the same metal stairs, which serves as the entry for snorkeling and diving, and they only let a small amount of people in the water at any given time. So, if you book a later tour, you can be standing around in your drysuit, getting lightly choked, for HOURS. And no one wants to spend their time in Iceland doing that.
I had heard this advice before we went to Iceland, so I booked the first tour at 8:30 AM. And, sure enough, we were able to quickly put on our gear and immediately head over to Silfra to go snorkeling, while we saw tons of other groups just waiting around awkwardly in their drysuits.
Afterwards, you’ll pick up your mask and fins and make sure they fit around your head and feet.
The final touch of your snorkeling getup will be putting on a thick neoprene hood and lobster-like zip-up gloves that your guide will most likely help you put on.
Each group typically has six to ten people in it. Once everyone on your tour is all suited up and there aren’t too many groups already waiting in line to get in the water, you’ll walk the five or so minutes over to the metal staircase that leads down to Silfra’s water.
Snorkeling in Silfra
When it’s your turn to get in the water, you’ll slowly step down into the water. It’s a WEIRD feeling, as the pressure of the water pushes the drysuit tight against your legs, but you don’t get wet—kind of like your legs getting vacuum-sealed in a plastic bag.
Your guide will then make sure everyone is able to flip and float on their back, in case of an emergency. I was SO surprised how buoyant your drysuit makes you—you kind of effortlessly float on top of the water.
From here, you’ll snorkel for about 20 minutes or so down Silfra’s main channel. The glacial meltwater is constantly seeping through the volcanic bedrock here towards Þingvallavatn Lake, so there’s a gentle current that feels just like a lazy river—so you don’t really have to do much work!
Silfra has been divided up into four different sections—Silfra Big Crack, Silfra Hall, Silfra Cathedral, and Silfra Lagoon.
For those snorkeling, there’s really no discernible difference between the first three areas, although your guide will likely point out whenever you’re entering a new area. They’re all deep canyons made out of rugged basalt rock, with the water different shades of brilliant blue, depending on its depth and how the light is hitting it.
Towards the end of the lazy river portion of Silfra, the current gets a bit stronger as you get closer to Þingvallavatn Lake, so your guide will direct you to make a hard left into the Silfra Lagoon.
The lagoon is shallow and has a white, sandy bottom, so the water here has a much lighter coloration that you’d expect in the Caribbean or the Maldives.
Here, you’ll have about ten or so minutes to snorkel around the lagoon on your own. There are some points of interest here, like another smaller Silfra-like fissure and lots of cool, colorful algae on the sandy floor.
You can exit on the water from the Silfra Lagoon on a metal staircase and wait for the rest of your group to finish up. Afterwards, you’ll head back to the spot you met.
Once you get out of the water
Back at the meeting spot, you’ll return all of your gear and put your mask in a bucket to be sanitized.
Most tours include some sort of hot chocolate and sweet treat at the end. We were also provided a QR code, where we could download the photos from the tour.
The tour was advertised as lasting three hours, but, for us, it was actually less than two, since we didn’t have to wait around at all. So, we snorkeled between two continents and had a cup of hot chocolate before it was even 10:30 AM! Not a bad start to the day.
Requirements for Silfra snorkeling
Unfortunately, not all travelers can snorkel at Silfra, due to safety concerns, and you may be required to have your doctor sign an authorization form if you have certain conditions.
Each operator has their own requirements, but here are some common ones:
- Be between 12-69 years old
- Be of moderate physical fitness
- Be able to swim
- Not require a wheelchair or most other mobility devices
- Be 135 cm-200 cm in height and weigh 30-140 kilos
You may need to get a doctor’s authorization if you have any kind of conditions that impact your heart, lungs, and blood pressure or are over 60 years old.
I’d recommend erring on the side of caution with this—on the tour directly in front of us, a man and his wife had to head back RIGHT before he got in the water, because he had emphysema and the rubber belt on his neck was making it too difficult to breathe. It would definitely stink to spend over $150 USD per person on this tour and have to turn around for medical reasons.
One thing that isn’t required to snorkel at Silfra? Prior snorkeling experience! One girl on our tour had never snorkeled before—I suspect all of her future snorkeling adventures will not be as cool and unique as the one here!
Honestly, our experience snorkeling in Silfra was one of our favorite adventures during our month-long trip to Iceland. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did! Do you have any questions about this unique experience? Let us know in the comments below!
