Natural Hot Spring
Landmannalaugar Hot Springs
South Iceland
Journey to Landmannalaugar, a renowned geothermal area nestled within the Fjallabak Nature Reserve in the southern Icelandic Highlands. Here, you can bathe in a natural hot river, winding through vibrant rhyolite mountains and lush green fields, celebrating its extraordinary natural beauty.
Wade into a genuinely wild hot river at the foot of rhyolite mountains, at the start of Iceland's most famous multi-day hiking trail.
Story
Landmannalaugar sits at the heart of the Fjallabak Nature Reserve, where rhyolite mountains streaked in green, ochre and pink rise above a black lava field called Laugahraun. At its edge, a cold mountain stream runs into a geothermal spring, and where the two mix, hikers simply wade in and sit down in the current — no pool walls or tiled edges, just a natural channel of water running anywhere from pleasantly warm to properly hot depending on exactly where you settle. This is also the traditional starting point of the Laugavegur trail, the famous 55-kilometre route to Þórsmörk, so a soak here is often the first or last stop of a multi-day trek. Landmannalaugar rewards a day trip on its own too — but reaching it means driving a genuine F-road through the Highlands, only possible in summer, which keeps the crowds far smaller than at Iceland's roadside attractions.
History
Landmannalaugar has drawn bathers to its natural hot river for generations, and became widely known once it was established as the starting point of the Laugavegur hiking trail within the Fjallabak Nature Reserve. There is no single founding date to cite — its history is that of an unmanaged wild bathing site rather than a built attraction.