How to Get to Lake Mývatn From Akureyri and Reykjavík

Compared

Distances are to Reykjahlíð, the village on the northeast shore where the fuel, food and beds are.

Driving from Akureyri

Leave town on Route 1 heading east. The road climbs out of the fjord, crosses open heath and passes Goðafoss at the 45 km mark, where the car park sits right beside the road and costs nothing. From there it is another 50 km to Reykjahlíð.

The whole route is paved and stays plowed through winter, though wind closes sections at short notice between November and March. Check road.is on the morning you travel. Once you arrive, road 848 loops the lake and links most of the sights, all within 20 minutes of the village.

Driving from Reykjavík

Six to seven hours on Route 1, either clockwise through Borgarnes and Akureyri or anticlockwise along the south and east coasts. Nobody sensible does it as a day trip. It works as a leg of a ring road itinerary with a night in Akureyri or at the lake itself.

If the point is Mývatn rather than the drive, fly. Domestic flights from Reykjavík city airport reach Akureyri in about 45 minutes, and a rental collected at the airport there puts you at the lake an hour and a quarter later.

What each way in costs

Prices are per person for a day at the lake from Akureyri, since that is where nearly everyone starts. The fuel figure assumes a small car over the 200 km round trip, and a rental day sits on top of it whichever way the arithmetic falls.

What Strætó route 56 does

The 56 runs between Akureyri and Egilsstaðir and stops at Reykjahlíð. The journey takes about 80 minutes from Akureyri, and departures are limited to a couple a day, fewer in winter. It is a real service used by people who live here, not a tourist shuttle.

What it gives you is a seat to the village. What it does not give you is any way to reach Dimmuborgir, Hverfjall, Hverir or Grjótagjá, which sit 5 to 17 km away along road 848 with no local transport, no shuttle and no taxi rank.

Making the bus work

It works if you are staying two nights at Reykjahlíð and willing to walk or cycle. Bicycle hire in the village covers the lake loop, and the ride to Dimmuborgir takes about 40 minutes on quiet paved road.

It does not work for a day trip. Arrive at 17:57 on the afternoon service and everything is 10 km away with the light going. Anyone without a car and on a schedule should take a guided day trip from Akureyri instead, which costs less than most people expect and includes the last mile.

Arriving by cruise ship

Akureyri takes ships at two piers, Tangarbryggja and Oddeyrarbryggja, and both sit within a ten minute walk of the square where the tour buses wait. Meeting points cluster on Laufásgata and at the Gránufélagsgata car park, all in the same few blocks behind the terminal.

The one recurring problem on port days is people walking the wrong way at the start, which several reviewers have written about after the fact. Screenshot the meeting point before you lose signal on the gangway. Ships call between May and September, and on days with two in port the morning departures fill first. Four operators run shore excursions timed against sailing, two of them with a written return guarantee, which is the one thing a taxi cannot offer you on a road this long.

Possible, and rarely the answer

Taxis operate out of Akureyri and will run the 100 km east. What they will not do is wait at four car parks spread over 30 km while you walk the loops, and there is no rank at Reykjahlíð to hail one back from.

That return leg is the problem the whole idea founders on. A one-way fare for 100 km in Iceland lands well above the price of a guided seat, and you would need it twice plus the waiting. If a taxi is on your list because you want a private day, the honest version of that is a rental car or a private tour, not a meter.

What moves between November and March

Route 1 stays open and plowed, so the drive itself survives the winter. Everything around it thins.

Bus 56 keeps running on a reduced winter timetable, published each season by the regional operator. Guided departures drop from nine to a handful. Road 863 to Krafla closes under snow into late spring, and the Lofthellir cave trips stop between October and May. Cruise ships stop calling at Akureyri in September and resume in May, which removes four of the nine departures at a stroke.

All of it is weather-dependent rather than calendar-dependent. Check road.is on the morning you travel.

What to know before booking

Two of the nine departures state that they cannot carry wheelchair users or passengers with mobility impairments, and the ground at Hverfjall and Hverir is loose in a way no operator can fix. Goðafoss, the Dimmuborgir café and the lagoon are the three places that work for limited mobility.

One minibus sets a minimum age of six. The rest carry children. Nobody on this route provides child seats as standard, so a rental car with one booked in advance is the safer plan for toddlers.

Luggage is the quiet problem for anyone moving on the same day. Coaches have hold space; minibuses do not, and a suitcase in the aisle is a refusal at the door. Most Reykjahlíð and Akureyri accommodation will hold bags after checkout, which is the standard workaround.

The Diamond Circle

The northern route links Goðafoss, Lake Mývatn, Dettifoss, the Ásbyrgi canyon and the whale watching harbour at Húsavík. Húsavík is 50 km north of the lake and Dettifoss about 50 km northeast on road 862.

Driven as one day it gives you twenty minutes at each stop and a lot of windscreen. Split over two days with a night at Reykjahlíð, it is one of the better routes in Iceland. The guided Lake Mývatn day trips take the western half deliberately: Goðafoss and the lake, with the north coast left for another day.

Fuel, food and the last services

Reykjahlíð has the fuel station, a supermarket and cafés. Between Akureyri and the lake there is Goðafoss and very little else, so fill the tank in town if you are under half. Cards work everywhere, including at unattended pumps, where you will want a card with a PIN rather than a signature.

Arriving by air

Akureyri airport sits three kilometres south of the town centre, on the fjord, and takes several flights a day from Reykjavík city airport. The hop takes about 45 minutes and lands you 100 km from the lake with the car rental desks in the terminal.

International arrivals land at Keflavík, 50 km from Reykjavík and 480 km from the lake, so anyone flying in from abroad either drives the ring road over several days or connects to a domestic flight. Akureyri also takes a handful of direct seasonal international services, which changes the maths for anyone planning around the north.

Driving in winter

Route 1 is a priority plowing route and stays open through the cold months, but open is not the same as easy. The pass east of the lake ices over, wind picks up loose snow and drops visibility inside a minute, and daylight runs from 3.2 hours in mid December to 8.1 by mid February.

The habit worth copying from people who live here is checking road.is in the morning rather than the night before, since conditions change overnight and the site colours each section by what the plows have actually done. Rental agreements in Iceland exclude damage from wind-caught doors and blowing sand, both of which are real. If the forecast is ugly and your dates are fixed, the winter departures run the same road with someone who has driven it in the dark since 2014.

🎯 Fly to Akureyri, decide about the car there

The mistake is driving 480 km from Reykjavík for a lake you will spend six hours at. Fly north in 45 minutes and you gain most of a day.

Once in Akureyri the choice is simple: two or more people in summer should rent and drive, since the self-drive route reaches Krafla and lets you stay past the coaches. Solo travellers and anyone visiting between November and March should take a guided seat, which costs less than a rental day and comes with somebody who has driven that pass in the dark before.