other · Iceland · West
On the route
- Time needed
- 30 min – 8 h
- Price
- Free — No charge to stop; the glacier and cave tours that start here are priced on their own pages.
- Season
- Year-round from the west on roads 50 and 518; road 550 over Kaldidalur is closed from October until June (intotheglacier.is, read 2026-11-01).
- Access
- Paved roads 50 and 518 from the Ring Road near Borgarnes; the gravel track up to the glacier edge at Klaki is a summer 4x4 road only.
- Checked
- 1 November 2026
64.695, -20.873 · Iceland
Húsafell
Photograph: Birch scrub and summer houses at Húsafell under the white line of Langjökull — Rémih / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Húsafell is the last settlement before Langjökull on the west side, and the reason most people drive here is to leave their car: it is the meeting point for the Into the Glacier ice-tunnel tour and the shuttle to Klaki base camp, and the Víðgelmir lava cave's service house is about 15 minutes further on. From Borgarnes it is roughly an hour on paved road (OSRM on OpenStreetMap: 63 km, 56 minutes), from central Reykjavík just under two hours.
The practical line, read today on the glacier operator's pages: in winter (16 October to 31 May) use road 1 towards Borgarnes and then roads 50 and 518; road 550, the Kaldidalur short-cut from Þingvellir, is closed from October until June. The track from Húsafell to Klaki base camp at the ice edge is rough gravel, open roughly June to mid-October depending on the year, and the operator recommends 4x4 vehicles only; everyone else takes the shuttle from Húsafell. There are toilets at Húsafell and dry toilets at Klaki.
Hraunfossar is a short way back down road 518, so a Húsafell morning and a waterfall afternoon fit one day from Borgarnes. Check road.is before driving 518 in winter.
Something changed here? Tell us; we re-check against the source and print the new date.
What you can do from Húsafell
- Into the Glacier ice tunnel on Langjökull
A glacier-truck ride and an hour in man-made ice tunnels at about 1,260 m, all year from Húsafell, about four hours, from 24,900 ISK; an hour from Borgarnes.
ice cave · Iceland3.5–4 h · High costadds 6 h 35 to a day - Krauma baths at Deildartunguhver
Five hot pools and a cold one filled from a boiling spring, daily 11:00–21:00, 7,900 ISK adult, children under 13 for 500 ISK; 33 minutes from Borgarnes.
lagoon / hot spring · Iceland1.5–2 h · Mid costadds 2 h 50 to a day - Víðgelmir lava cave near Húsafell
A 1½-hour guided walk on boardwalks through a 148,000 m³ lava tube, 9,000 ISK adult on November dates; 12 minutes from Húsafell, an hour from Borgarnes.
other · Iceland90 min · Mid costadds 4 h 20 to a day
Nearby on the same roads
