Shore excursions from Akureyri port

7 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Akureyri lies on Eyjafjörður, one of the longest fjords in Iceland, and the cruise quays are right at the edge of the town centre. Visit Akureyri says most ships dock very close to the centre or about ten minutes' walk away. On the Tangabryggja and Oddeyrarbryggja quays cruise guests get free Wi-Fi. Ships arrive mostly from May to the end of September, and the tours on this page are built around that season and around docking times.

Almost every tour here picks you up at the port; the city walk can also start at the Hof cultural centre on Strandgata. The first thing to settle is how many hours you really have between stepping off and the all-aboard time printed by your cruise line.

Matching a tour to your hours ashore

Goðafoss is the closest of the big sights, about 35 kilometres from the port. Tours there take 2.5 hours, which leaves time for a walk through town on a short call. Saga Travel adds coffee and kleina, the Icelandic doughnut, at Hotel Goðafoss and can drop you at the Forest Lagoon, the botanical garden or the town centre afterwards instead of the ship.

With three and a half to five hours you can pair Goðafoss with a soak in the Forest Lagoon, a geothermal bath in the woods just outside Akureyri, or with a turf farm such as Laufás or Grenjaðarstaður. A full day of six to eight hours is needed for Lake Mývatn, which lies about 85 kilometres away by road, roughly an hour and a quarter each way. Dettifoss is further still, about 150 kilometres, so the tours that include it run seven or eight hours and spend a large share of that on the road.

Return guarantees and what they promise

Read the inclusions for the words "return guarantee". Fox Adventure lists a cruise ship return guarantee on its Mývatn tours and says it brings guests back at least 40 and usually 60 minutes before the ship departs. Saga Travel names a return-to-ship guarantee for its short Goðafoss tour, for the Goðafoss and Forest Lagoon tour and for the Dettifoss day. The Saga lunch tour to Mývatn promises to drop you at the port at least an hour before departure and asks you to check your ship's times against the schedule before booking.

What none of the tour pages spell out is what happens if the guarantee fails and the ship sails without you, for example who pays for getting you to the next port. If that matters to you, ask the operator before booking. The three tours at the top of this page are chosen because they list a return guarantee, and the Dettifoss day also a refund if the ship cannot dock.

Other tours word it more loosely. Some say departures are designed to match docking times, or that the return is aligned with cruise schedules. Imagine Iceland Travel asks you to tell them which ship you arrive on, so that the driver waits at the right quay. None of this is a guarantee, and on a long tour it is worth keeping an hour or more in hand.

Delays do happen. Reviews of the Diamond Circle day by BusTravel Iceland describe a return to the ship far later than planned, and one guest on the Goðafoss and Forest Lagoon tour by the same company was moved to a later slot because the tour was overbooked, which made the day tight.

When the ship does not dock

This is the weak spot of booking ashore. Several reviews describe ships that skipped Akureyri or arrived late, and guests who did not get their money back for the tour. Every tour here can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours ahead, so if your cruise line announces a change of route in time, cancel through the booking page. Only the Saga Travel tour to Dettifoss, Goðafoss and Mývatn lists a full refund if the ship does not dock. For every other tour, including those with a return guarantee, the tour pages say nothing about a missed port beyond the usual 24-hour cancellation, so do not count on a refund on the day itself.

Mývatn and the bath question

The full-day tours follow a similar route: Goðafoss, the pseudocraters at Skútustaðir, the lava formations of Dimmuborgir and the steaming ground at Hverir or Námaskarð. They differ in what is included. BusTravel Iceland packs a sandwich lunch, the Saga lunch tour serves a light meal and the entry to the Mývatn museum, and the Fox Adventure tour advises bringing your own food because the café stop comes late in the day.

Several titles mention the Mývatn Nature Baths, which now operate as Earth Lagoon Mývatn. Fox Adventure stops there but does not include the entry, so you pay on site and bring swimwear and a towel. Imagine Iceland Travel and Star Travel Iceland may add the baths if time allows, also without the ticket. BusTravel Iceland's bath tour is the one where the ticket is part of the price.

The lake takes its name from its midges, and from June to September reviews of several Mývatn tours mention swarms of them, around the lava cave at Grjótagjá in particular. Guests wish they had been warned and had packed a head net. Other recurring complaints are short stops at the busiest sites and minibuses that are warm and crowded.

Goðafoss with a lagoon or a turf house

The short Goðafoss tours differ mainly in comfort. Reviews of the Soleil de Minuit and Saga tours mention old buses with air conditioning that did not work, waiting for latecomers at the start and confusion at the ticket hut by the terminal. The Imagine Iceland tour gives you an hour at the falls, though some guests found the bus more like an airport shuttle.

In high summer the Forest Lagoon can be full. Reviews of the Soleil de Minuit version describe an overbooked lagoon, and guests on that tour return by the lagoon's own shuttle to Hof, ten minutes on foot from the cruise terminal. The BusTravel Iceland version includes the lagoon ticket and notes that shuttles run from the lagoon to the harbour every hour. The Saga tour is the fullest package, with the Grenjaðarstaður turf house museum, the lagoon and a rental towel.

For a smaller group, Nordur Travel runs a tour to Goðafoss and the turf farm at Laufás with a viewpoint over the town on the way back.

Language on the bus

Most tours are guided in English. If you book another language, check that it is listed for that exact tour. Reviews of several tours describe guests who booked German or Spanish and got an English guide, or the other way round. Two tours run in German: a small group to Goðafoss and Mývatn with at most 19 guests and a local guide, and a BusTravel Iceland Mývatn tour with a packed lunch. On the BusTravel tour, one guest was told the day before that the German departure had been cancelled and was offered the English one.

Staying close to the ship

You do not need a coach to fill a port day. The whale watching tour by Special Tours sails on Eyjafjörður in a fast catamaran for about 2.5 hours and lends warm overalls. Reviews mention whales seen only at a distance on some days, and the second-chance ticket for trips without whales only helps if you are back in Akureyri another time. More boats, including longer trips from Húsavík, are on our page about whale watching in North Iceland.

Saga Travel also offers a three-hour city walk with local food at two restaurants, starting at Hof or at the port. On your own, the free city buses all start and end at the Miðbær stop in the centre. Our guide to Akureyri town has what you can see on foot. If you shop, tax-free forms go to the ship's agent at the port.