The Volcano Huts is a mountain hut and a large campsite in the Húsadalur Valley in the Thorsmork (Þórsmörk) region. The unique character of the area makes it an interesting place for every traveler.
Hut and campsite on the edge of Iceland’s most beautiful valley
Husadalur is located on the border of the Thorsmork region, considered by many to be the most beautiful place in Iceland.
Volcano Huts is one of the huts on the north side of the Krossa River. This means that only the best-prepared (or bravest) travelers can get here in their own or a rental car. In practice, most people arrive on foot or on one of the buses that run regularly to the hut.
Volcano Huts offers a noticeably higher standard than any other campsite in Thorsmork, though at a higher price, too.
The things that distinguish Volcano Huts include:
- charging your electronic devices at no extra cost and without limits;
- free Wi-Fi in the main building (though not very fast);
- showers included in the camping fee and available without limits (24 hours a day, for as long as you like);
- free hot water, also in the washrooms;
- a small geothermal pool – more of a warm spring than a hot one, at about 25–29 °C (77–84°F) – and a sauna, both free and without limits;
- a fairly large restaurant with a wide choice of dishes;
- large and fairly comfortable glamping tents.
Besides that, as at many other campsites, you can leave all your trash here, there are tables and benches around the campsite, you get a fairly basic dining tent, you can come here by bus, and there is a small shop in the restaurant building. Unfortunately, the shop sells neither camping gas nor freeze-dried meals, but it does have a large selection of alcohol and souvenir T-shirts…
Restaurant
The LavaGrill restaurant and bar at Volcano Huts serves several meals, most of them as a buffet:
- Breakfast
served from 8 to 10 a.m.; homemade bread, eggs, ham, cheese, fruit, vegetables, jams, oatmeal, cereal, milk, juice, coffee and tea; price: 3,200 ISK (about $27); - Packed lunch
handy to take on a hike, handed out at breakfast; sandwiches, snacks, a chocolate bar and juice; price: 3,200 ISK (about $27); be sure to order it the day before! - Lunch
served from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.; a soup buffet with homemade bread, pesto and hummus; price: 3,250 ISK (about $27); - Burgers
from noon to 5 p.m.; the LavaBurger (also in a vegetarian version) with fries; price: 3,700 ISK (about $30); - Dinner
served from 6 to 9 p.m.; a two-course buffet: soup and a main course (lamb, pork, fish or chicken), salad, grilled potatoes and homemade bread; price: 5,500 ISK ($42).
Prices and hours according to the restaurant’s website (September 2026). Children aged 6–11 pay half price, and kids up to 5 eat free.
Volcano Huts also offers super jeep tours and various other activities, but the resort’s greatest asset is the stunning views of the volcanic hills and glacial valleys around it and the hiking in the area. The view from nearby Valahnukur hill is truly breathtaking.
Although many places are a bit farther from here than from the other huts and campsites, the higher standard and extra comforts make Volcano Huts quite popular with hikers and other travelers.
The Volcano Huts – tips and practical information
- The resort is open daily from April 1 to October 31 (reception and bar from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.); from November to March it only takes pre-booked groups (Volcano Huts, 2026). You can read how to get there below.
- Volcano Huts offers 14 small rooms in the Engjasel building (with shared bathrooms in the hallway), cottages for 4–5 people with a kitchenette, two Katla mountain huts with dorm rooms (up to 16 people each) and a campsite.
- In summer, large, furnished and heated glamping tents are also available.
- The campsite only requires reservations for groups of 10 or more; all other accommodation must always be booked.
- The resort also has a restaurant, a bar and a shop selling clothing, postcards, camping gear, snacks, sweets and so on (the selection and prices match the remote location…).
- Campers can use a dining tent, but you cook for yourself and bring your own pots and pans, plates, cutlery and cups.
Map: driving route from Reykjavik to the Volcano Huts in Thorsmork — click to open the interactive map
| Volcano Huts (Thorsmork) – practical information | |
|---|---|
| address | Þórsmerkurvegur Thorsmörk, road F249, 861 Hvolsvöllur, Iceland |
| GPS coordinates | 63.705923973913904, -19.547942795465833 |
| bus | Highland Bus (Reykjavik Excursions), Trex, Þórsmörk River Bus |
| contact and booking | Volcano Huts bookings, phone +354 419 4000 |
How to get to Volcano Huts in Husadalur
Volcano Huts sits in one of Iceland’s more inaccessible valleys. Even so, you can get here by car, by bus and, of course, on foot.
footbridge over Krossa
In summer (roughly from June to the second half of September), four-wheel-drive buses on regular tourist routes also come to Volcano Huts. Crossing the Krossa in one of them is an experience in itself…
Getting to Husadalur by car means crossing the Krossa, and I strongly urge extreme caution here.
Volcano Huts on foot
The hike to Volcano Huts is beautiful and not difficult.
It’s best to drive from Basar to a spot across from the Skagfjordsskali hut (in Langidalur) and leave your car on the south bank of the river, without crossing it. There are very handy footbridges over the Krossa, so you can walk across with dry feet. The footbridges are moved depending on the water level and may be taken down when the river floods – if in doubt, call the warden (+354 419 4018).
From Skagfjordsskali to Husadalur you can take an ordinary dirt road or a mountain trail over Valahnukur. The trail over Valahnukur is about 2.5 km (1.6 miles) one way with about 200 m (660 ft) of climbing on a clear path, which means about an hour of walking. Add time for the views from the top, though – it’s probably the best viewpoint in all of Thorsmork.
The view from Valahnukur
Returning by the western trail takes about 1.5 hours and covers about 7 km (4 miles). If you like, though, you can usually catch a bus or hitch a ride on this route, so it may go faster. Ask at Volcano Huts what’s best to do in the current weather.
Volcano Huts by car
You can walk here from several directions, but the only road for vehicles comes from the south. It branches off the F249 and crosses the Krossa River at a ford – there is no bridge.
Crossing the Krossa
Even in good weather, crossing this ford in an ordinary 4×4 is difficult, and in bad conditions it will be very dangerous or even impossible. What’s more, because the Krossa is so unpredictable, the whole F249 is sometimes closed to traffic for several days, even in midsummer.
The F249 starts out as paved Road 249 and branches off Iceland’s main Ring Road (Road 1) just past the bridge over the Markarfljót River, where you turn toward Seljalandsfoss waterfall. The road to Volcano Huts (Husadalur) branches off the F249 to the north after about 25 km (16 miles), but the exact course of the ford across the Krossa changes all the time, even within a single day, so if you want to drive it yourself, be extremely careful.
Getting to Volcano Huts in Husadalur by bus
In summer (usually from June to September), four-wheel-drive highland buses run from Reykjavik straight to Volcano Huts / Husadalur (and to other stops in Thorsmork). Watching a bus ford the wide, rushing Krossa is truly spectacular, both for the passengers and for anyone watching from the bank.
A bus crossing the Krossa
Schedules, prices and routes change every year, but the three main companies are always worth checking: Reykjavik Excursions (now under the Icelandia brand), Trex and Volcano Huts itself (links below). Buses usually run from June to September (the River Bus also in May and October), but depending on the weather and the number of travelers, they may start earlier and/or end later.
Reykjavik Excursions / Highland Bus
Reykjavik Excursions runs the Highland Bus. These high-clearance four-wheel-drive buses get to all the main places in the Highlands without much trouble: Skogar, Landmannalaugar and, of course, Thorsmork. Only the Krossa River in Thorsmork sometimes disrupts the service (but even then you can still reach Volcano Huts – you just have to cross the river on the special footbridges).
There are two departures a day, in the morning and in the afternoon (the afternoon one only from June 20 to August 30). Current times are in the 2026 Highland Bus timetable.
The morning bus leaves the Reykjavik campsite at 6:30 a.m., stops at the BSI terminal at 7:00 a.m. (the same one most airport buses go to, so it’s a convenient transfer) and then heads out with a few stops on the way (the N1 gas station in Selfoss, the supermarket in Hella and the N1 in Hvolsvöllur). It reaches Volcano Huts at 10:30 a.m., then continues to Langidalur (11:00 a.m.) and Basar Hut (11:15 a.m.). If your flight lands in Iceland around midnight and you don’t mind spending a few hours at the airport or the bus terminal, this is a good option, because you arrive early enough (if short on sleep) to hit the trail right away.
The afternoon bus leaves Reykjavik at 2:30 p.m. (BSI at 3:00 p.m.) and arrives at Volcano Huts at 6:30 p.m. It’s a good choice if you’d rather get at least a little sleep after your flight and start hiking the next day.
Whichever bus you take, a one-way ticket in 2026 costs 12,999 ISK (about $110) for adults (16+) and 6,499 ISK (about $55) for youth (6–15); children under 135 cm (4 ft 5 in) can’t ride this bus. You can buy tickets here: Highland Bus to Thorsmork.
Trex
Trex also runs 2 buses a day from Reykjavik (in 2026 from June 21 to September 6; the second bus only from June 26 to August 23), with somewhat different times and pick-up points. Trex buses do NOT cross the Krossa, so you have to walk the last 2 km (1.2 miles) to Volcano Huts. It’s a beautiful walk, but still some effort. You also cross the river on foot, but that’s made very easy by special footbridges on wheels that are moved to wherever you can cross with dry feet.
The morning bus leaves a bit later than Reykjavik Excursions and right from downtown – by City Hall and the Tjörnin pond (City Hall stop, Vonarstræti 4) at 7:30 a.m. It then stops at the Laugardalur campsite (7:45 a.m.) and heads out from there. That means you can’t board this bus at BSI. There are stops in Hella (9:10 a.m.) and Hvolsvöllur (9:30 a.m.), and the bus is scheduled to reach the Basar Hut campsite at 11:00 a.m., then drives back a bit and stops across from the Langidalur hut and campsite at 11:15 a.m. To get to the Langidalur hut, cross the river on the footbridge; to reach Volcano Huts, you have about 2 km (1.2 miles) more, or about 30 minutes, of (beautiful) road. You can also take a beautiful trail over the mountain and the Valahnjúkur viewpoint – that takes about an hour.
Trex is also more expensive: a one-way ride from Reykjavik costs 14,900 ISK (about $125) per person, and from Hella or Hvolsvöllur 8,000 ISK (about $65; 2026 prices). Children aged 6–15 only get a 20% discount (and only on the Reykjavik route), so for them the ride costs almost twice as much as with Reykjavik Excursions.
The company also offers a Hikers Bus Pass, so you don’t have to return from the same place. You can ride to Thorsmork, Landmannalaugar or Skogar and return from any of the others. That’s handy if you want to hike one of the famous trails – Laugavegur or Fimmvörðuháls. The Hikers Bus Pass costs 27,900 ISK (about $230), though, so compare it with two separate one-way Reykjavik Excursions tickets (12,999 ISK, about $110, to Thorsmork).
You can bring a bike on Trex buses. Unfortunately, it costs an extra 6,000 ISK (about $50; 2026), and worse, the company doesn’t guarantee there will be room for it…
Booking page: Trex (Thorsmork)
Þórsmörk River Bus
The Thorsmork River Bus takes you straight to Volcano Huts (Husadalur) from the N1 gas station in Hvolsvöllur and from near Seljalandsfoss waterfall – from a place called Brú Base (Brú Basecamp).
Seljalandsfoss itself is right by Road 1 and is a hugely popular stop, so there are many ways to get there, but Brú Base is about 5 km (3 miles) farther inland along Road 249. If you don’t have your own car, you’ll almost certainly have to walk those last 5 km (or hitch a ride).
In practice, then, this is an option for people who want to see Thorsmork and have a rental car that isn’t allowed on mountain F-roads, or specifically on this road, the F249. Because the Krossa is so dangerous, the F249 (also called Þórsmerkurvegur) is often excluded from insurance even for 4×4 vehicles, so even if you don’t plan to cross the Krossa, you may not formally be allowed to drive into Thorsmork, even in a 4×4.
That’s exactly where the River Bus comes in handy. You drive to Brú Base, leave your car there for 2 or 3 days and ride from Brú to Volcano Huts in a spectacular super jeep. You can also start in Hvolsvöllur, which you can reach by Straeto public bus (route 51). If your 4×4 is approved for F-roads, you can also drive to the parking lot by the Krossa and switch to the River Bus there.
In season (in 2026 from June 1 to September 15), the River Bus runs three times a day – from Hvolsvöllur at 9:00 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m., and from Brú Base half an hour later. The morning and evening buses stop at Volcano Huts (arriving at 10:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m.); the midday bus only goes to Langidalur and Básar. In May and from September 16 to November 1, only the morning bus runs. Some buses also stop at Skógar, by Skogafoss waterfall. Current times: River Bus timetable.
The ride takes about an hour; in 2023 it cost 7,299 ISK (about $60). Back then, the booking page barely worked – or, to put it plainly, it didn’t work at all, and you had to book by phone (+354 419 4000).
The Volcano Huts website also lists a direct option to/from Reykjavik, but that option is really just the Reykjavik Excursions (Highland Bus) buses described above.
