How to Make the Most of Your 24 Hours in Lake Myvatn, Iceland

Lake Myvatn is a must-see on any trip to Iceland. The area, nestled in Northern Iceland along the ring road, is filled with old volcanoes, hot springs, AND was used for many Game of Thrones scenes. If you’re up for the ultimate adventure, we recommend spending a day here on our Ultimate Iceland Itinerary: 9 Day Road Trip. Otherwise, make a day trip of it from Reykjavik. Regardless of how or when you decide to go, read below for everything you need to know before hand.

Planning Your Trip to Lake Myvatn

Top Things to Do in Lake Myvatn

A really nice thing about Lake Myvatn, is the area is dense with lots of activities. Travel time between two top destinations can be as low as 5 minutes. Here’s our top recommendations, starting from the best. For your convenience, we’ve saved all the Lake Myvatn destinations in our Google Map below. For a complete list of all our destinations maps, see our Travel Maps page.

Hot Springs

Everyone’s heard of the Blue Lagoon, but did you know you can go to Lake Myvatn Nature Baths for a fraction of the cost? A tickets is about $40-50 USD and includes a locker. Hours vary depending on the time of year, but they are generally open until 9 or 10 pm. We recommend booking tickets in advance and just email/call if you need to change the time day-of (we had no problems in July 2022).

All Icelandic public bath houses and pools require attendees to shower beforehand. Natives will shower naked in the public showers, but a lot of foreigners will leave their bathing suits on. Myvatn Nature Baths also has a couple private showers.

Geothermal Lava Caves

Did you know the Lake Myvatn area was a major Game of Thrones filming location? And, you can visit THE cave from Jon Snow and Ygritte’s intimate scene. You’ll want to add Grjotagja on your list of must-sees on your trip to Lake Myvtan. If you have extra time, check out Storagja, too. But, Storagja is underwhelming compared to Grjotgja. These caves are free entry! Grjotgja is more popular, so you might have to wait 10 minutes before getting a good spot inside the cave to take a picture. Make sure you take advantage of iPhone night mode or a camera with a long exposure time.

Volcanic Craters

Lake Myvatn is basically volcano world, everywhere you look you’ll see old craters, lakes inside craters, geothermal spots, etc. There are two top destinations in Lake Myvatn that you have to see: Hverfjall Volcano and Krafla Volcano.

Hverfjall Volcano

Hverfjall Volcano is fairly simple to get to. You park in a free parking lot, and walk up the side of the volcano for 20-30 minutes. If you want, you can walk around the entire crater for a total of 2.6 miles (takes 45min to 1h15 to complete). The hike up is fairly steep, but the rim is flat. If you’re crunched for time, we recommend just doing the hike up and walking a bit around the crater (but not the whole thing). Seeing the crater was good enough for us. See the trail notes on AllTrails for more info.

Protip: when you get to the top, don’t forget to turn around! Sweeping views of Lake Myvatn from the top of the crater are waiting for you!

Krafla Volcano

Unlike Hvertjall, as long as you go in summer, Krafla Volcano can be visited with a car and a few steps to the lookout point. This crater is filled with water, creating a beautiful blue lake. If you’re into hiking, there’s a few trails in the area, but it’s not necessary.

Hverir Geothermal Area

You’ll probably smell Hverir before you see it. And, as you get closer, it’ll just get smellier. But, it’d definitely worth the stop. As with most Volcanic areas, the sulfuric smell will be everywhere. The Hverir area is full of bubbling pools of blue mud and fumaroles emitting sulfuric gas. The mix of orange, beige, blue, and gray is truly remarkable.

Dimmuborgir Lava Fields

Iceland is full of lava fields, but these were by far our favorite. The main reason these were our favorite: there are plenty of paved trails that guide you through the best spots in the lava fields. Also, Dimmuborgir was a Game of Thrones film location! The winter version of the landscape was perfect for scenes with wildlings and white walkers north of the wall. We recommend going in summer, so beware it might not look as familiar without the snow and ice.

Lake Myvatn

While the Lake Myvatn area is popular for it’s volcanic destinations, the lake itself is also something you don’t want to miss. Driving around the lake, there will be plenty of pull-off points where you should stop and admire the lake. It is especially beautiful around sunset or sunrise.

Where to Stay in Lake Myvatn

For close proximity to most of the top attractions in Lake Myvatn, we recommend staying on the east side of the lake. Most of the campsite and hotels are in the northeast side. If you’re on our 9 Day Iceland Roadtrip and headed out of town, Laugar Camping, 30 minutes west of Lake Myvatn is a good end point to a day in Lake Myvatn and start towards the next top destination, Godafoss. Laugar Camping accepts the Iceland camping card and has a relatively large facility for cooking, showering, and laundry. The actual camping area is relatively small, so get there early to secure a spot during high season.

How to Get to Lake Myvatn

Lake Myvatn is about a 6 hour drive from Reykjavik. If you’re road tripping around the Ring Road, it’s an easy stop along the way. If you’re doing day trips out of Reykjavik, budget 2 days, 1 for driving and 1 for exploring the area. There’s a ton of great stops along the way. For example, Akureyri is famous for whale watching. And, you definitely don’t want to miss Godafoss.

That being said, we recommend driving to Lake Myvatn. For more info on driving in Iceland, check out our blog post: Renting a Car in Iceland for Road Trip of a Lifetime!

How Much time to Spend in Lake Myvatn

Because all of the top spots in Lake Myvatn are within 30 minutes driving from each other, it’s easy to explore the whole area in just a day. Like we mentioned above, if you’re visiting as part of a road trip, spend just a day in the area. If you’re doing day trips out of Reykjavik, budget an extra day for driving there and back.

Best Time to Visit Lake Myvatn

As with most places in Iceland, the closer you get to winter months (even as early as October), the earlier you face road closures due to snow and ice. Hence, we recommend visiting in summer months (May – August), or early fall (September).

Lake Myvatn is also a famous place to see the northern lights, which start being visible in September.

Full 24 Hour Itinerary for Lake Myvatn

A day in Lake Myvatn fits perfectly into our 9 Day Iceland Road Trip, which is how we based the itinerary below. If you’re doing a day trip from Reykjavik, we recommend two days. Day 1: we recommend driving in one morning, completing half of the activities. Day 2: finish the rest of the itinerary and head to your next destination.

Whichever itinerary you choose for Lake Myvatn, plan on ending an evening at the Myvatn Nature Baths for a relaxing end of your day.

Morning: Krafla, Hevrir, and Caves

Start your morning at Krafla Volcanic Crater. Most of your time will be spent driving up to the crater from your previous stop (hotel, for example). Once there, it should only take 15 minutes or so to explore the area.

Next, drive over to Hverir. The drive is short, only 10 minutes. You can easily spend 1-2 hours in Hverir. Bring some shoes you don’t mind getting dirty, as you’ll be walking around in mud and dirt the whole time. There’s also optional hikes in the area if you want to spend longer.

Once you’ve had your fill of Hverir, drive over to Grjotagja. Again, the drive is short, maybe 10 minutes. The cave entrance is right next to the parking, though there are optional hikes that take you out farther. Spend about 30 minutes checking out the cave.

Grjotagja is pretty popular. If you want a more private experience or are worried about crowds, consider doing this stop first thing in the morning.

Afternoon: Hverfjall and Lava Fields

We’ve saved the hiking for the afternoon, so you’ve had time to wake up and eat some carbs to fuel your day. Head to Hverfjall, it’s only a 12 minute drive from Grjotagja. Once there, you’ll spend 30 minutes climbing up to the crater. You can either spend another hour hiking around the crater, or explore and bit and head back down. Budget 1.5-2.5 hours at Hverfjall.

Next, drive over to Dimmuborgir Lava Fields, which is another short 11 minute drive. Once there, you’ll find a sign with a map that shows you all the trail options. We liked this Kirkjuhringur – Mellanahringur trail we found on AllTrails. It was easy and took only about 1 hour to walk the flat 2.7 miles. It also takes you to the “Church,” a lava tube structure that resembled a church. Budget 1.5-2 hours in the Dimmuborgir Lava Fields.

Evening: Views and Nature Baths

For the remainder of the evening, drive our Lake Myvatn and enjoy the views. There’s a couple viewpoints bookmarked on our complete Iceland Travel Map for your reference. Finally, make a reservation at the Myvatn Nature Baths to round out your day.

Extra Time

If you have extra time to explore Lake Myvatn, there are a few more stop you can make that I’ve listed below:

• Storagja Cave: underwhelming compared to Grjotagja, but much less tourists.
• Endlose Dusche or the Perpetual Shower: cool concept, a shower that keeps running because of geothermal water pressure. We saw it while driving up to Krafla, but the reviews for us didn’t warrant an extra stop.
• Lofthellir Ice Cave Tour: our friends highly recommend an ice cave tour from the Myvatn area. We didn’t have enough time, but this would’ve been the first add if we did!

Found this post helpful? Subscribe to our blog or follow us on Instagram for our latest travel tips!