Landmannalaugar is one of those places where, after hours of crossing black lava fields and icy rivers, you suddenly find yourself in a completely different Iceland: a valley filled with colourful mountains, steam rising from the ground and a hot spring waiting for you.
Where is Landmannalaugar?
Landmannalaugar sits at an altitude of around 550 metres in Iceland’s southern Highlands, right in the middle of the Fjallabak Nature Reserve. Established in 1979, the reserve covers 470 km². Its name literally means “behind the mountains”, and that’s exactly how it feels: this is where you truly leave the inhabited coast behind.
It’s about 180 kilometres from Reykjavík, roughly a three-hour drive. The final stretch follows the F-roads F208 and F225, unpaved Highland tracks with river crossings. They’re only accessible by 4x4 or Highland bus and usually open from late June to mid-September.
The name Landmannalaugar means “the pools of the people of the land”. For centuries, local farmers used the hot springs here as a resting place when they went into the Highlands in autumn to round up their sheep.
Arrival tip
The drive to Landmannalaugar is an adventure in itself. Take your time on the final stretch along the F-roads and plan your arrival carefully, so you have a moment to settle in before setting off on your first hike.
Why are the mountains here so colorful?
Landmannalaugar’s rainbow mountains are made of rhyolite, a light-coloured volcanic rock rich in silica. Fjallabak is Iceland’s largest rhyolite region. Minerals such as sulphur and iron turn the rock yellow, red and orange, while green moss covers the slopes.
Those colours are the work of Torfajökull, a central volcano capped by a glacier. The bedrock in the area is around 8 to 10 million years old, but the volcano has never fully gone quiet. After Grímsvötn, it’s the country’s most active geothermal area, with bubbling, hissing and steaming ground everywhere you look.
The most recent eruption took place in 1477. It created Laugahraun, a rugged lava field filled with shiny black obsidian, which now lies right next to the hut and campsite.
The hot spring: a bath with a view
Landmannalaugar’s most famous spot is the natural hot spring on the edge of the lava field. Warm groundwater mixes with cool mountain water here, keeping the temperature between 36 and 40 °C all year round. The closer you get to where the hot water flows in, the warmer it gets.
Bathing in the spring is free, and there’s room for around 10 to 20 people at a time. Bring flip-flops, come early in the morning or late in the evening if you prefer it quieter, and don’t use soap or shampoo in the water. The showers in the facilities block are about 100 metres away.
After a day of hiking, or just before setting off on a multi-day trek, there’s little that feels better than soaking in the water while taking in the colourful mountains.
The best hikes around Landmannalaugar
Landmannalaugar is a hiking paradise, even if you're only staying for a day. These routes all start close to the hut:
- Laugahraun: a short 1- to 2-hour loop through obsidian fields, steaming fissures and valley views.
- Grænagil: a short hike of about 1 hour through a narrow gorge with vivid green and ochre-colored walls.
- Bláhnúkur (943 m): about 5 km there and back, with a steep climb of around 350 meters to the Blue Peak.
- Brennisteinsalda (855 m): 6.7 km, with steaming fumaroles and the area's brightest colors.
- Loop over both peaks: about 10 km, combining the best of Landmannalaugar in a single day.
- Ljótipollur: 9 km one way to a 1.5-km-long crater lake with deep blue water.
Brennisteinsalda is also the first slope of the Laugavegur trail. Climbing this peak gives you a taste of what's waiting the next day.
The Start of the Laugavegur Trek
Landmannalaugar is the unofficial starting point of the Laugavegur, Iceland’s most famous multi-day hiking trail. The route was mapped out in the 1970s and covers around 55 kilometres to the green Þórsmörk valley, at the foot of the glaciers. The Iceland Trail also starts here.
The first stage to Hrafntinnusker is a challenging introduction: around 12 km, taking 4 to 5 hours of hiking, with a climb of about 470 metres to a hut at over 1,000 metres above sea level. Along the way, you’ll pass the colourful slopes of Brennisteinsalda, the obsidian fields of Laugahraun and the Stórihver hot spring, one of the day’s few green spots.
If you’re starting your trek here, it’s worth taking some time to acclimatise, loosen up your legs and give your backpack one more check.
Good to know
The highland roads usually open around 20 June and close in mid-September. July and August are the busiest and mildest months. In winter, the area is covered in snow for around eight months of the year.
In summer, temperatures range from 5 to 15 °C, with strong winds on most days. The weather can change within an hour, so always pack waterproofs and a warm layer. Check vedur.is before every hike.
Accommodation and facilities
Ferðafélag Íslands has run this hut since 1951. It has 78 beds across two floors and a kitchen with gas stoves. Bring your own sleeping bag. Next to it, you'll find a large gravel campsite. Tent pegs are hard to get into the ground, so campers use rocks to secure their tents. A hut warden is always on duty in summer.
There's also a facilities block with toilets and pay-per-use showers, a visitor centre with maps and weather reports, and the Mountain Mall, a converted old school bus selling basic supplies. There’s no supermarket or petrol station.
Leave only footprints behind
The nature in Fjallabak is beautiful, but also particularly fragile. The moss growing on the lava fields grows only a few millimetres a year, so a single footprint or tyre track can remain visible for decades.
- Stick to the marked trails, even when a shortcut looks tempting.
- Take all your rubbish with you, including organic waste.
- Return any stones you used to secure your tent to the wooden boxes.
- Off-road driving is strictly prohibited in Iceland and can result in heavy fines.
This helps keep Landmannalaugar the colourful place it deserves to be for the hikers who come after you.
Your adventure starts here
Landmannalaugar isn’t a place you simply tick off your list. It’s a place you feel, in the smell of sulfur, the warmth of the hot spring and the silence of the Highlands. That’s why The Iceland Trail starts right here.
From the rainbow mountains, you hike through a landscape that changes every day, from obsidian and snowfields to black deserts and green birch forests. Discover The Iceland Trail.
