Iceland Cruise Route Guide: Round-Iceland Itineraries from Reykjavik and Southampton

A round-Iceland cruise circles a country larger than Ireland with a population of under four hundred thousand, calling at port towns that sit beneath glaciers, beside fjords and within reach of the geological features the island is famous for. The standard sailing is ten to fourteen nights, with the longer end of that range needed if the cruise begins in Southampton rather than turning around in Reykjavik. Either shape delivers the same core sequence of Icelandic calls, usually three to five of them, separated by sea days that cross the North Atlantic or skirt the south coast.

The three ports with published guides on PortAdventurer (Reykjavik, Akureyri and Isafjordur) appear on almost every itinerary, and they cover the three distinct faces of the country: the cosmopolitan capital and Golden Circle, the agricultural north with Lake Myvatn and Husavik whale watching, and the remote Westfjords where puffin colonies outnumber residents. Some lines add Seydisfjordur on the east coast or Grundarfjordur on the Snaefellsnes peninsula, which extend the route without changing its essential character.

Peak season runs May through September. Outside that window the weather is uncooperative for shore excursions, ports become tender-only or close entirely, and several lines reposition their tonnage south. Within the season, June and July bring near-continuous daylight that suits late-finishing excursions, while late August and September trade some daylight for the first chance of autumn colour and aurora.

Typical Itinerary Overview

A typical fourteen-night Southampton round-trip breaks the outbound crossing with a British or Irish call, then works through Reykjavik (often overnight), Isafjordur, Akureyri and sometimes a fourth Icelandic port, before another UK or Irish call on the way home. Twelve and ten-night versions usually drop the overnight in Reykjavik or skip one of the secondary calls; ten-night Reykjavik-turnaround sailings concentrate almost entirely on the ports themselves with minimal sea time.

Reykjavik calls almost always berth at Skarfabakki, the commercial cruise quay about four kilometres east of the city centre, with shuttle buses laid on by the line or by the port authority. Smaller ships occasionally tie up at the Old Harbour, which is walkable to Harpa and Hallgrimskirkja in fifteen minutes. Akureyri has several berths within a short walk of the town centre, and Isafjordur’s pier sits directly opposite the old town and takes ships of up to about 330 metres. Anything larger, Iona included, anchors and tenders as a matter of course rather than because of the weather.

Sea days are working sea days, not Caribbean lounging weather. Expect cool deck temperatures even in July, occasional fog, and scheduled scenic cruising past the south coast cliffs or into the deeper fjords where the ship’s draught allows. Cunard, Viking and Saga lean into the educational angle with onboard geology and saga-literature lectures; Norwegian, MSC and Princess run a lighter programme designed around the pool deck on the rare warm afternoon.

Main Ports on This Route

Reykjavik

The world’s northernmost capital, and on nearly every Iceland itinerary as either a port of call or a turnaround. Cruise ships berth at Skarfabakki, four kilometres from the centre, with shuttle buses to Harpa concert hall on the harbour edge. From there the compact downtown unfolds on foot: Hallgrimskirkja’s concrete tower with its lift to a 360-degree viewing platform, the Sun Voyager sculpture on the seafront, and the cafes and bookshops of Laugavegur. The two excursions that draw the most passengers leave the city entirely: the Golden Circle (Thingvellir, Geysir, Gullfoss) is a full-day loop, and the Blue Lagoon sits forty-five minutes south-west near Keflavik airport, though volcanic activity on the Reykjanes peninsula has forced repeated precautionary closures, so check before you book. Overnight calls are common and make both feasible without rushing.

Read our full Reykjavik cruise port guide →

Akureyri

Iceland’s northern capital, set at the head of Eyjafjordur, the country’s longest fjord. The deepwater berth is a five-minute walk from the small grid of streets that make up the town centre, where the Lutheran church on the hill, the botanical gardens and a handful of museums fill a half day comfortably. The bigger draws are inland: Lake Myvatn’s pseudocraters, lava fields and Nature Baths sit about an hour east, Godafoss waterfall thunders beside the road on the way there, and Husavik on the north coast offers some of Europe’s most reliable whale watching, with whale sightings on roughly 97 percent of summer sailings. Ship excursions cover all three; independent transfers run from the cruise quay.

Read our full Akureyri cruise port guide →

Isafjordur

Capital of the Westfjords, a peninsula of glacially-carved inlets in Iceland’s far north-west that road-trippers often skip for lack of time. Around 2,600 people live in the town, which sits on a sandspit beneath steep mountains, and the cruise pier deposits you a five-minute walk from its centre. The Westfjords Heritage Museum occupies the old fishing warehouses on the harbour and is worth an hour. The headline excursion is Dynjandi, a tiered waterfall about an hour’s drive south by ship-organised coach, often the single most photographed sight of an entire cruise. Boat trips to Vigur Island deliver near-certain puffin (roughly May to early August), eider and Arctic tern colonies on a small farmed islet thirty minutes from the pier.

Read our full Isafjordur cruise port guide →

Highlights of This Route

The defining quality of an Iceland cruise is geological proximity. Most ports put you within an hour of an active geothermal field, a glacier tongue, a tectonic rift or a waterfall fed directly by ice melt, and the ship itself spends its sea days threading coastline where basalt cliffs rise straight from the water. The character is closer to an Alaskan inside-passage cruise than to a Mediterranean port-hopper: scenery happens between the ports as much as in them, and binoculars earn their luggage allowance.

The second defining quality is light. Sailings in June and early July effectively abolish darkness, with civil twilight lingering until the small hours and full sun returning by four in the morning. This rearranges shore days, since excursions can run until nine in the evening without the daylight failing, and it changes the onboard rhythm too; blackout curtains in the cabin become genuinely useful equipment rather than a luxury upgrade.

The third is the marked difference between the south-west and the north-west. Reykjavik and the Golden Circle are well-trodden, with coach parks, paved walkways and a steady summer crowd. Akureyri is quieter but still a working town. Isafjordur and any Westfjords or Eastfjords calls feel genuinely remote, with single-track roads, sheep on the verges and infrastructure built for hundreds rather than thousands. A round-Iceland route is one of the few cruise products that delivers both registers on the same ship.

Top Excursions

Common Cruise Lengths

10 nights (Reykjavik turnaround)

The shortest practical round-Iceland sailing, beginning and ending in Reykjavik with three to four Icelandic ports and one or two sea days for scenic cruising. Viking runs this shape as a seven-night round-Iceland from Reykjavik, while Norwegian’s Reykjavik product is usually an open-jaw sailing between Reykjavik and Southampton. Both are normally paired with flights from the UK. Saga does not appear here at all: it sells no fly-cruises, and its Iceland sailings are no-fly round-trips from Dover or Portsmouth. Concentrates almost all time on the ports themselves.

12 nights (Southampton round-trip)

The middle of the range, with two sea days each way across the North Atlantic and three to four Icelandic calls in between. Ambassador runs a twelve-night Iceland sailing from London Tilbury. Avoids flying entirely for UK passengers but spends roughly a third of the cruise at sea, which suits passengers who enjoy ship time and find the open Atlantic part of the appeal.

14 nights (Southampton, four to five Iceland ports)

The fullest version of the route, adding either an extra Icelandic call (Seydisfjordur, Grundarfjordur or Heimaey), an overnight in Reykjavik, or a stop in the Faroes or Orkney on the way. P&O, Cunard, Princess and Holland America sail this length from Southampton. Fred. Olsen’s Iceland cruise is shorter still, at around nine nights from Newcastle. The most thorough way to see the country by sea, at the cost of two additional sea days.

Iceland and Greenland combined (14 to 17 nights)

Longer itineraries that bolt a Greenland section onto the Iceland circuit, typically calling at Prince Christian Sound, Qaqortoq or Nuuk. Viking, Holland America and Silversea run these sailings in July and August when sea ice allows. A different proposition from a pure Iceland route, but worth knowing about if the dates flex.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Geology, waterfalls and seabird colonies packed into a short port distance
• Avoids the long drives Iceland’s Ring Road normally demands
• Near-continuous daylight in June and July extends shore time
• Most ports berth alongside, with town centres walkable from the ship
• Cruise excursions handle Blue Lagoon and Vigur Island booking caps automatically

Cons

• Weather can cancel or shorten port calls even in peak summer
• Sea days from Southampton are cold and often grey
• Iceland is expensive ashore for food, drink and independent tours
• Tender ports in poor weather can mean missing Isafjordur entirely
• Aurora is unlikely during the lightest months when most cruises sail

Who This Route Is Best For

First-time visitors to Iceland who want a structured overview without renting a car or driving the Ring Road themselves. The three main ports cover the south-west, north and Westfjords between them, and ship excursions handle the longer transfers to Myvatn, Husavik and Dynjandi that would otherwise need multiple days of independent driving.

Passengers who already enjoy scenic-cruising itineraries (Alaska, Norwegian fjords) and want a comparable landscape product. The character of sea days and the proportion of time spent looking out at coastline rather than at the ship are closer to those routes than to a Mediterranean or Caribbean cruise.

Photographers and birdwatchers, particularly on sailings that include Vigur Island or a Westfjords call. Puffins are present from late May through early August, Arctic terns nest through the summer, and the long northern light gives extended golden-hour windows on either side of midnight.

Best Time to Cruise This Route

May and early June

Shoulder season at the start of the cruise calendar. Daylight is already long, puffins have returned to their colonies, snow still caps the higher peaks for photographs, and ports are quieter than in July. Sea temperatures and air temperatures both sit at the cool end of the range, with shore-day highs of 8 to 12 degrees common.

Late June and July

Peak season. Near-continuous daylight, the warmest air temperatures of the year (typically 12 to 17 degrees on shore, occasionally higher), all roads and excursions open, and the highest cruise traffic of the year. Booking shore excursions early matters more in these months, especially for Blue Lagoon and Husavik whale watching.

August and early September

Late season with a different visual character. Heather and birch start to turn, puffins have left their colonies by mid-August, the first real darkness returns towards the end of the season, and it is September sailings that carry a realistic chance of aurora on the final nights. Weather is statistically the wettest part of the cruise season, though days between fronts can be spectacular.

Essential Tips

1. Pack genuine waterproofs (jacket and overtrousers), not a showerproof shell; horizontal rain is standard at Dynjandi and at sea.
2. Layer for shore days: a base layer, fleece and waterproof shell handle most conditions, with gloves and a hat useful even in July.
3. Bring a refillable water bottle; Icelandic tap water is among the cleanest in the world and bottled water ashore is expensive.
4. Book Blue Lagoon and Husavik whale watching through the ship if your sailing is in July or August; both regularly sell out independently.
5. Cash is essentially unused; contactless cards work everywhere including small island farmhouses.
6. Blackout curtains in the cabin matter in June and July, when the sun barely sets; an eye mask is worth packing as backup.
7. Tender operations at Isafjordur and Grundarfjordur can be cancelled in moderate swell; build flexibility into any pre-booked private tours.
8. Check the date of the in-port summer solstice festival in Reykjavik if your sailing falls in late June; it changes the city’s atmosphere significantly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Plan?

A round-Iceland cruise is the most efficient way to see the country’s three distinct regions without committing to a week of driving the Ring Road. The standard ten to fourteen-night itinerary calls at Reykjavik, Akureyri and Isafjordur, covering the Golden Circle, Lake Myvatn and the Westfjords respectively, with the ship handling the long transfers between them and the excursion programme handling the booking caps at Blue Lagoon and Husavik. The trade-off is North Atlantic sea days, weather that can shorten or cancel calls, and high prices ashore for anything beyond the port walk. Within those limits, and for the May to September window in which the route operates, it remains one of the most scenically distinctive cruises available from the UK.

Reykjavik Port Guide  ·  Akureyri Port Guide  ·  Isafjordur Port Guide