Laugarvatn and Flúðir

5 min read Updated October 2026 Compare all tours

Laugarvatn is a village on the lake of the same name, on the road between Þingvellir and Geysir. Our route calculation gives about 32 km and 35 minutes from Þingvellir and 29 km and 27 minutes on to Geysir. Flúðir lies further south: about 25 km from Geysir, and about 41 km from Kerið. Neither place is a sight in itself in the way Gullfoss is, but both make a good break in a long day, and both have hot water to sit in.

Fontana on the lake shore

Laugarvatn Fontana stands at Hverabraut 1 and calls itself “steam by the lake”. In its steam bath you sit directly in steam from a natural hot spring, and there are infinity pools, a sauna and a pier on Lake Laugarvatn. The building reopened after a complete renovation on 1 August 2026. Fontana’s own pages give slightly different opening times, so check them before you go; every version has the baths open until 21:00. The classic entry ticket is listed for a visit of about two hours, which covers the pools, the steam bath and the sauna.

Fontana is best known for its rye bread. The dough goes into the warm ground and cooks slowly for 24 hours, and in a demonstration of about 30 minutes you taste a loaf that went into the ground the day before, with a slice of smoked trout. The bread baking is not suitable for vegans. Reviews make one point clearly: you watch rather than bake yourself, and groups can be large. Fontana says the slots are often sold out, so booking ahead makes sense.

The Laugarvatn caves

The Caves of Laugarvatn are shown on a guided visit of about 25 minutes. The guide tells, with old photographs, how Icelandic families once lived in the caves.

Flúðir and the Secret Lagoon

The Secret Lagoon, in Icelandic Gamla laugin, lies at Hverahólmi near Flúðir. Its operator describes it as the oldest swimming pool in Iceland: it was built in 1891, Iceland’s first swimming lessons were held here in 1909, and after 1947 it fell largely out of use until it reopened on 7 June 2014. The address is Hvammsvegur, 845 Flúðir. The water is kept at 38–39 °C, and next to the pool a small hot spring called Litli Geysir spouts every few minutes.

The lagoon opens daily from 10:00, until 20:00 between June and September and until 19:00 from October to May, with earlier closing on 24 and 31 December. Changing rooms, lockers and showers are there; towels and swimsuits can be rented. Children may only come with an adult. One tour that includes the lagoon says it closes for facility upgrades in mid-May, when the group goes to Fontana instead. Cards are accepted almost everywhere in Iceland, and foreign cash rarely is.

Tours with a soak

Without a car, the usual way to reach the Secret Lagoon is a day tour that combines it with the Golden Circle. The BusTravel Iceland tour runs about ten hours, includes Kerið with a walk down to the lake, and gives you about an hour and a half in the water; towels are extra. A second tour with a driver-guide and hotel pickup takes about eight hours and asks you to bring your own towel and swimwear and cash for lunch. Mountaineers of Iceland combines the lagoon with an hour of snowmobiling on Langjökull in a long day from Reykjavík, from age 6, with a towel provided at the lagoon.

The Laugarás Lagoon is another geothermally heated lagoon on the Golden Circle, sold with three types of admission as a spa and dining visit. It can be booked on its own or as part of a ten-hour minibus tour that also stops at Friðheimar, the tomato greenhouse at Reykholt, where lunch is not included. Friðheimar opens all year; its kitchen serves from 11:30 to 16:00, the shop and bar from 9:00 to 17:00, and the Vínstofa bar and restaurant stays open until 22:00. It also runs a horse show presented in fourteen languages, while visits to the greenhouse itself are for groups that book ahead.

For a full comparison of lagoon tours, including those with the Blue Lagoon and Sky Lagoon, see our page on Golden Circle and lagoon tours.