People often ask why I go to Iceland so much and one thing I often say is that I love the geothermal hot water and the volcanoes. Iceland is literally made of volcanoes and it’s such a novelty to be able to get so close up to them. The “fire and ice” tag is one adopted enthusiastically by the tourism industry and to that end, they want you to be able to experience volcanism (and make a profit from it; come on, I’m not that naive. Volcanoes are big business in Iceland).
If you can’t visit an actual eruption – while they’re reasonably regular at the moment, they’re obviously not the safest thing you can do in Iceland – you can still get to know what one looks and feels like and I think there are three major experiences you can have right in the heart of Reykjavik and in the comfort of a theatre to feel like you’ve got up close and personal with an eruption. In no particular order, let’s go:
The Lava Show (Grandi)
This will forever be my favourite. You take your place in a darkened theatre with a strange thin steel slide contraption. A Lava Master tells you about volcanoes and the direct impact they have on life in Iceland. You watch a film. You feel suitably threatened. Then they turn off the lights altogether… and lava comes oozing down the slide, right there in the theatre. Molten rock, glowing yellow and white and illuminating the whole room. You can feel the heat coming off it. It crosses your mind briefly that rock melts at a lower temperature than steel?? and then your Lava Master starts lifting the lava into a bridge and poking at it. It’s like melted cheese and it’s starting to glow red, until the Lava Master flips it over to reveal it’s still white-hot underneath.
Yes, it’s real lava. Compared to a volcanic eruption, it’s a tiny amount of lava and kept strictly under control but nonetheless, it’s lava. Once upon a time it was inside a volcano. It was gathered by the team as black sand and it can be melted down again and again to be reused as educational and entertainment lava. You have a mental picture of what an eruption looks like but crawling, creeping, fresh lava in motion is something most of us don’t get to see up close and here it is.
Volcano Express (Harpa)
If you’ve been to FlyOver, or whatever Disney ride entails sitting in a kind of rollercoaster seat while a panoramic screen takes you on a 4D adventure, you can probably picture Volcano Express. FlyOver, volcano edition.
It’s in the basement of Harpa. When you arrive, you’re in a dark basement where you can stroll and read about volcanoes, watch little films about various aspects of them and wait to be called for the main event. That this starts with a safety film was a surprise. Then you go into a theatre and take a seat. This is something of an action experience so you can leave large luggage in the storage boxes outside and there are smaller boxes between seats for things that might slip out of your pockets. Put the seatbelt on and buckle up for eight or so minutes of flying over, through and into volcanoes.
You get tilted, your seat rumbles as the magma tries to break through the surface, there’s wind and heat effects and it’s all great fun. You really realise why you need the seatbelt. The visuals are stunning, the work of photographer Gunnar Gunnarson during the 2021-2024 eruptions, if I remember rightly and it’s like you’re right there in the flying lava.
But… of the three experiences, I think this is my least favourite. FlyOver does the 4D experience a little better, albeit with a lot less lava and a lot more scenery and Into the Volcano… well, I’ll get to that in a second. Volcano Express is good, it’s just got competition for every element that’s better. It wins on “distance you have to walk (or bus or taxi) from downtown Reykjavik” and that’s about it.
Into the Volcano (Perlan)
Perlan is the weird thing on the hill, six massive hot water storage tanks with a revolving glass dome on top. Two of thos3 tanks now house exhibitions, bringing all aspects of Iceland’s nature to the big city. Some of it is self-guided – there’s a volcano exhibit with film downstairs and the aurora observatory, with an artificial cliff covered in birds. Upstairs is the glacier exhibit, the microscopic life in glaciers exhibit, the revolving cafe/restaurant, the gift shop and the rooftop – well, tank top – terrace with views over Reykjavik.
But when you enter, you’re given a sticker with a time on it (12:12 was mine, because precision!) and you’re guided through the fire & ice exhibit. First is the fire. You sit and watch a film of the 2021 eruption. This is pure beauty, enhanced by a faint volcanic scent wafted into the small theatre. Fun, but you can watch things like this anywhere, including YouTube. Gunnar Gunnarson again – if you do both this and Volcano Express, you’ll recognise some shots.
Then it’s time for the immersion event. This is another curved screen cinema but it’s much smaller, like being inside a golf ball and instead of being strapped into motion seats, you sit on ordinary stools, probably from IKEA, on a glass floor. Other than directly behind you where the door is, you’re completely surrounded by the screen, which takes you across the peaceful, mossy, beflowered Reykjanes peninsula before swooping you straight down inside the Earth, down into the volcano, down, down, down, into the magma chamber before erupting you straight back up and out.
It’s like Volcano Express but better! Despite the stools, you really feel like you’re moving and although the depths of the volcano have to be CGI (or the lava must be, at least), it looks and feels absolutely real. You genuinely wonder how the drone survived the heat down here, how it flew through the cracks and crevices. The volcano is all around you: under your feet, over your head, in your peripheral vision. And you can turn your head and look around without really encountering the edge of the screen and breaking the illusion. All it needs isa heat gun to complete it. Outstanding. 10/10, would go again.
And then you go into the ice cave, a tunnel made of compressed snow from the Blue Mountains, which is genuinely freezing cold – has to be, to stop the whole thing melting away. It’s a fun experience, especially when you’re the person in the group in sandals but it doesn’t really compare to Into the Volcano
Beyond Reykjavik
Of course, Iceland abounds with volcano tourism. The volcano shuttle is still operating if you want to visit the site of the eruptions and don’t fancy hiking – if you get lucky (and you’re sensible) you might even catch a live eruption.
The geothermal pools, from the likes of the Blue Lagoon to natural hot springs via local swimming pools and roadside hot tubs, are all powered by volcanic activity. There’s the LAVA Centre at Hvolsvöllur, on the way to the south coast. There are at least three lava caves open for guided tours.
And of course, there’s Inside the Volcano, where you hike 3km across the mountains to descend into the empty magma chamber of a real life volcano…