Vík

Drive over the last hill on Route 1 and Vík appears all at once: a red-roofed church on a green slope, a handful of houses, black sand in every direction and three dark sea stacks standing in the surf offshore. Then the wind finds your car door. This is the south coast in its purest form, or at least its breeziest.

Vík í Mýrdal, usually just Vík (and sometimes searched as Vik Iceland), is the southernmost village in Iceland, home to only a few hundred people. It sits squeezed between the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap and the North Atlantic, and it's the natural overnight stop on a South Coast trip: close to Reynisfjara, Dyrhólaey and the Katla ice cave, and the last real village before the long, empty crossing of Mýrdalssandur to the east.

Tours that visit Vík

top pick

Lava Show Vík

50 minutes · From Vik

4.9(1,766)

From 6.590 ISK

Katla Ice Cave & Super Jeep from Vík

3 hours · From Vik

4.4(315)

From 29.990 ISK

Vik to Katla Ice Cave Adventure: Explore Iceland's Frozen Wonders

3 hours · From Vík

4.4(284)

From 29.900 ISK

Private Vik to Katla Ice Cave Adventure

3 hours · From Vík

From 175.000 ISK

Private Landmannalaugar Highlands Super Jeep tour from Vík

9 hours · From Iceland

From 209.498 ISK

popular

Private South Coast to Vík in Minivan

9 hours · From Reykjavík

4.9(621)

From 192.000 ISK

Things to do in Vík

Start with the church. Walk up the hill behind the village and you get the postcard view: church in the foreground, the Reynisdrangar sea stacks lined up in the sea, the black beach curving away. Local legend says the stacks are trolls who were caught by sunrise while dragging a ship to shore.

The beach at Vík itself is a long, open stretch of black sand, less crowded than Reynisfjara on the other side of the mountain. It's a lovely walk, but the sea here is exactly as dangerous, with the same sneaker waves that can run far up the sand without warning. Stay well back from the water and never turn your back to it.

The village has a supermarket, a fuel station, a swimming pool, a few restaurants and cafés, and a wool shop selling Icelandic sweaters. Vík is also home to the Lava Show, where real molten lava is poured into a room in front of the audience. It's a good plan for a rainy afternoon, and there's no shortage of those here.

Pro tip: fill up the car and buy snacks in Vík if you're heading east. The stretch towards Kirkjubæjarklaustur crosses a huge black sand plain with very little on it, and in bad weather it's not where you want to discover the fuel light.

How far is Vík from Reykjavík?

Vík is about 187 km from Reykjavík, roughly two and a half hours' drive on Route 1, longer in winter. On the way you pass Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss and the turn-off for Sólheimajökull glacier, so most people take the whole day to get there. Reynisfjara is a few minutes back west, and Dyrhólaey a little further.

Best time to visit Vík

Summer brings long days, green hills and puffins on the cliffs around the village and at Dyrhólaey, roughly from May to August. From about September to April, the dark skies outside Vík are good for northern lights when the clouds allow, and the Katla ice cave tours from Vík run all year. Whenever you come, pack a windproof layer. Vík has plenty of weather, and most of it arrives sideways.

Tours from Vík include the Katla ice cave by super jeep and the Lava Show, and many South Coast day tours from Reykjavík stop here for lunch. Tours that include Vík are below.