Silfra: Diving Between Tectonic Plates with Pick Up from Reykjavik
Overview
Experience Silfra's pristine, crystal clear water while you dive between two continents.
Silfra is a crack in the Earth ripped open by the movement of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The crystal clear glacial water filling the Silfra fissure has been filtered for decades through underground lava rock, providing over 100 meters of underwater visibility. The underwater scenery that you experience in Silfra is found nowhere else on Earth, a true bucket list dive.
The diving tour of Silfra is done in a dry suit, helping you to stay warm and dry inside the suit.
You will explore the four main parts of Silfra, the big crack, Silfra hall, Silfra Cathedral and the Silfra Lagoon. You will be able to touch the 2 continents at one point, don't forget to take a photo!
Silfra is located in Thingvellir National Park which is a Unesco heritage site. The beautiful park is one of the wonders on the famous Golden circle route.
Silfra is a crack in the Earth ripped open by the movement of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.
The crystal clear glacial water filling the Silfra fissure has been filtered for decades through underground lava rock, providing over 100 meters of underwater visibility. The underwater scenery that you experience in Silfra is found nowhere else on Earth, a true bucket list dive.
The diving tour of Silfra is done in a dry suit, helping you to stay warm and dry inside the suit.
You will explore the four main parts of Silfra, the big crack, Silfra hall, Silfra Cathedral and the Silfra Lagoon. You will be able to touch the 2 continents at one point, don't forget to take a photo!
Silfra is located in Thingvellir National Park which is a Unesco heritage site. The beautiful park is one of the wonders on the famous Golden circle route.
Inclusions
- Hotel pickup and drop-off
- Guided diving trip
- Hot chocolate and cookies
- All necessary diving equipment, drysuit and warm undersuit
- Silfra entrance fee of 1.500 ISK per person
- Live guide that is a PADI instructor
- Heated changing van
What to expect
Itinerary
You will be picked up in Reykjavik and drive for about 45 minutes to Thingvellir National Park.
Once your group of max 3 divers has been formed, your guide will give you your drysuit and diving equipment. Your guide will explain how to use this equipment and how to ensure that you will be warm and comfortable during your tour. You can change in our heated Changing Van and the guide will help you with putting all the gear on. We recommend wearing long underwear and thick socks.
Your guide will brief you on Silfra and safety as well as the unique geological and cultural history of Thingvellir national park, and the continental tectonic plates. The briefing and gearing up takes approx 1 hour.
You will walk 5 minutes to Silfra and start your 30 - 45 minute scuba diving tour of the four main parts of Silfra: the Big Crack, Silfra Hall, Silfra Cathedral, and Silfra Lagoon. Make sure you remember to take a photo of you touching the continents, a bucket list moment.
After the dive, we warm you up with hot cocoa and cookies. This is your chance to chat with your guide, ask any questions you might have and take a look at the pics taken during the tour before the drive back to Reykjavik.
Stop At:
• Silfra, Thingvellir Iceland
• Thingvellir National Park, Thingvellir Iceland
• Thingvellir, Thingvellir, South Region
You will be picked up in Reykjavik and drive for about 45 minutes to Thingvellir National Park.
Once your group of max 3 divers has been formed, your guide will give you your drysuit and diving equipment. Your guide will explain how to use this equipment and how to ensure that you will be warm and comfortable during your tour. You can change in our heated Changing Van and the guide will help you with putting all the gear on. We recommend wearing long underwear and thick socks.
Your guide will brief you on Silfra and safety as well as the unique geological and cultural history of Thingvellir national park, and the continental tectonic plates. The briefing and gearing up takes approx 1 hour.
You will walk 5 minutes to Silfra and start your 30 - 45 minute scuba diving tour of the four main parts of Silfra: the Big Crack, Silfra Hall, Silfra Cathedral, and Silfra Lagoon. Make sure you remember to take a photo of you touching the continents, a bucket list moment.
After the dive, we warm you up with hot cocoa and cookies. This is your chance to chat with your guide, ask any questions you might have and take a look at the pics taken during the tour before the drive back to Reykjavik.
Stop At:
• Silfra, Thingvellir Iceland
• Thingvellir National Park, Thingvellir Iceland
• Thingvellir, Thingvellir, South Region
Additional information
- Not wheelchair accessible
- Not recommended for travelers with back problems
- Not recommended for pregnant travelers
- No heart problems or other serious medical conditions
- Travelers should have a strong physical fitness level
- All participants will need to fill out a medical form before participating in the tour. Please contact local operator in order to request the form via email.
- All participant's height, weight and age information must be provided to local operator to ensure they bring the best fitting drysuit. The tour operator will contact you after booking to ask for this information.
- Participants must be at minimum 17 years of age (signature of legal guardian required for under 18 year old participants)
- Participants must be minimum PADI Open Water and Drysuit certified or equivalent
- Participants must have dry suit diving certification and a logged dry suit dive within two years of the tour date OR have at least 10 logged dry suit dives within two years of the tour date and be able to provide written proof from a diving instructor of these dry suit dives.
- Minimum height is 4ft 11in (150cm). Minimum weight is 100lbs (45kg).
- Maximum height and weight is 6ft7in (200cm) and 264lbs (120kg).
- Participants must be comfortable in water and able to swim, physically fit and healthy
- Please note that that dry suits can sometimes feel quite tight and constricting
- All participants must be able to communicate in English.
- Not suitable for pregnant women
- Recommended to bring a change of clothes and warm undergarments
- IMPORTANT: If you wish to be picked up from your central Reykjavik hotel or hostel, please provide details of the hotel/hostel in the relevant field at checkout. If you prefer to meet at the tour at the BSI Bus Terminal, please note this in the hotel field at checkout
- Dry suits are worn over your own clothing. We recommend wearing long thermal underwear and thick wool socks as a base layer under the dry suit
- IMPORTANT - Participants over 60 years of age must have their doctor sign the approval form in order to participate
- This tour/activity will have a maximum of 3 travelers
- Confirmation will be received at time of booking
Ticket delivery
You can present either a paper or an electronic voucher for this activity.
Cancellation
For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours in advance of the start time of the experience.
caliesel2018
February 2023
It was just an incredible experience all around. Dive.is was incredibly accommodating and easy to get ahold of! The pick up was lovely and the driver JC was super nice! Mainly just wanted to give a shout out to Henry! He leads the dives and the snorkels and was just truly a gentleman. The brief ...
It was just an incredible experience all around. Dive.is was incredibly accommodating and easy to get ahold of! The pick up was lovely and the driver JC was super nice! Mainly just wanted to give a shout out to Henry! He leads the dives and the snorkels and was just truly a gentleman. The brief before the dive is thorough and the safety checks are easy to understand. He’s very diligent about making sure the dry suit is a proper fit! In the water is even better! He gives you time to explore and takes lots of photos! He makes sure you’re safe in the water at all times without hovering! I has a great time getting to know Henry and diving with him! 110% recommendscottbmario
April 2022
I did the 2-day PADI dry suit certification course and Silfra dive combo. The dry suit course takes place on the first day (after you complete the classroom portion and knowledge review online) and the Silfra dive is on the second day. Jake and Eeva were the instructors and both were fantastic --...
I did the 2-day PADI dry suit certification course and Silfra dive combo. The dry suit course takes place on the first day (after you complete the classroom portion and knowledge review online) and the Silfra dive is on the second day. Jake and Eeva were the instructors and both were fantastic -- very patient, thorough, and super fun to hang out with. The course was limited to just 3 of us (me and 2 other students), so we each got plenty of one-on-one attention. I'm a pretty experienced diver and I have my AOW certification, but this was my first time diving in a dry suit and it definitely takes some getting used to. It can be a little challenging to control your buoyancy with the dry suit at first, and I struggled a bit with having to remove and replace my LPI hose while wearing thick cold water mitten-style gloves (they actually look like oven mitts). While I got the hang of it fairly quickly, I would caution novice divers to get some more dives under your belt before jumping into a dry suit in Iceland. One of the students in my dry suit class was a relatively new diver and she didn't pass the skills test (she ended up snorkeling the next day instead of diving). I would say that if you're not completely comfortable with your skills as a diver, do the snorkeling tour instead -- you'll still have an incredible experience. That said, the Silfra tour was hands-down one of the coolest (literally!) dives I've ever done. Our dive guide, Andreas, was excellent. Before getting into the water, he helped us put on our gear and run through a safety check to make sure everything was working properly. It was so chilly that an inflator valve on one of the dry suits was starting to freeze up -- luckily, Andreas was able to get it working again by pouring hot water over it. He gave us a thorough dive site briefing and walked us through the dive plan using an aerial map of the Silfra fissure. Once we got in the water, he stayed close to me and my dive buddy and captured some great shots of us with his camera, which he uploaded to a dropbox a few hours later. On that note, I highly recommend getting the photo package offered by DIVE.IS, as you'll definitely want pics to remember your experience. While I'm an avid underwater photographer, I didn't want to be distracted with a camera while trying to manage a dry suit for the first time. Also, it would be all but impossible to operate an underwater camera using the cold water mitts they have you wear for the dive (unlike us, Andreas wore dry gloves that have actual fingers.) The dive itself is relatively short -- about 35 minutes -- but spectacular. I wanted to stay down even longer but even through the dry suit my toes were beginning to freeze by the end of the dive. Thankfully, DIVE.IS had plenty of hot chocolate and cookies on hand to help us warm up after getting out of the water. In sum, if you're a diver and you visit Iceland, you absolutely HAVE to do this dive!Sputnikboy
April 2022
Diving in the Silfra fissure is in every scuba diver's bucket list and also in every "experiences to do at least once in life" so when I decided to go to Iceland, Silfra was among the top things to do. I chose Dive.is because they were a 5 Star Padi resort and also the most reputable diving outf...
Diving in the Silfra fissure is in every scuba diver's bucket list and also in every "experiences to do at least once in life" so when I decided to go to Iceland, Silfra was among the top things to do. I chose Dive.is because they were a 5 Star Padi resort and also the most reputable diving outfit reading the reviews; I have to say that I was not disappointed. I exchanged quite a few emails with them, with questions regarding weather, COVID and cancellations: all of them were answered timely and clearly; after those I was reassured signing up with them. I checked their diving center a couple of times, they have so many dry suits available that everybody will find the right size, which is extremely important when diving dry. They provide pick-up, which is useful as driving to Silfra isn't always easy in winter. Before the actual dive, I also did the dry suit course (online theory) and then the explanation and preparation at a swimming pool, before heading to the actual dive site (Bjarnagja) where we would do the two required dives for the license. As the weather was turning for the worse, with strong, cold winds, we had to postpone the dives. Regarding this, as Iceland experienced some of the toughest weather they had in years (lots of snow and windy days), I appreciated the flexibility and the prompt emails they would send when plans had to change repeatedly, in fact, the actual dive in Silfra was done only on my second to last day Iceland. My Instructor was Alex (Alejandro): I cannot reccomend him enough! He was nice, patient, capable and went the extra mile to accomodate our needs despite experiencing so many problems due to the winds and snow. Though i must add that all this added to the experience! He also explained clearly all the exercises and all the dive sites we would visit, adding some tips; he also explained a lot of Iceland in general and suggested some lesser known sites to visit, something I appreciated a lot. Bjarnagja was the cold-water diving I was expecting: low visibility (about a metre!), mixed salt and fresh water, around 4 degrees water temp. As we were there for the exercises, I didn't mind about the visibility, it was also quite a challenge adapting to get the dry suit on in below zero temperature. I don't need to add much description about Silfra: the underwater landscape is stunning and the clarity of the water is unmatched in the world. Dive.is is pretty strict on how they conduct dives and as far as I know they take only three divers per Instructor, something I really liked so you're really looked after all the time. Even better, this way Alex could take some AMAZING pictures of us while doing this dream dive: he has a Sony A7 (as a Sony Alpha camera owner, I'm a BIG fan of these cameras) and I can assure that his pics were so good that I'm going to frame a couple and hang them in my home. After the dives, cookies and hot chololate is provided, indeed I badly needed something HOT after those. Since diving in the Silfra fissure is an incredible experience, I highly reccomend going with the best company in the business and dive.is is exactly that. Sooner or later I'll visit Iceland in summer too and I will go back to them for sure to try also diving in the Ocean.bonniehT7440ZV
May 2022
AY our guide was great . He was on time and in formative as well as super helpful getting us all organized before and after our snorkel.
AY our guide was great . He was on time and in formative as well as super helpful getting us all organized before and after our snorkel.Maxrybn
April 2022
I had a fantastic time with the DIVE.IS team in April 2022. I first did a dry suit course as I only had an Open Water certification at the time and had no experience of diving with dry suit. There were 2 others doing the training that day (one of them Bernd, who also left a review below 😊) and ou...
I had a fantastic time with the DIVE.IS team in April 2022. I first did a dry suit course as I only had an Open Water certification at the time and had no experience of diving with dry suit. There were 2 others doing the training that day (one of them Bernd, who also left a review below 😊) and out guide was Andreas. I found the whole experience very rewarding and enjoyable, Andreas was very professional, patient and really made the effort to make the day enjoyable for us while making sure we learn our dry suit stuff. We went over the theoretical aspects first, then did the first dive in a swimming pool followed by two dives in an open water fissure around 45 mins drive from central Reykjavik. Later this evening Andreas sent through the dry suit certification which for me directly appeared in the PADI app – very straightforward! Next day the dive at Silfra was equally enjoyable. Crystal clear waters, incredible views + we were very lucky with the weather and managed to get a bit of sun. Our guide this time was Natalia, who was also very professional, attentive and put in a lot of effort to make it a great experience. We went over our dive route in detail and then put on all the gear which Natalia & the rest of the team helped us to do. She also took very good photos during the dive and even treated us to cookies and hot chocolate after we were back! Don’t underestimate how pleasant this is after a dive in cold water)). Special thanks also to Anna who picked us up in Reykjavik to drive to Silfra this time and then also helped with all gear on site. Now a couple of words on Silfra itself and dry suit diving experience. 1. Dry suit experience. I am an Open Water Diver who hasn’t logged that many dives (less than 10 in total) and had no previous experience of dry suit diving. It is tricky at first – getting in and out of the suit, controlling buoyancy etc, but you really get used to this pretty quickly. The first time I was diving in the swimming pool on the first day it felt a challenge but I actually felt pretty confident by the time we got to Silfra after the previous training dives. The suit does restrict your movements, especially compared with wet suit, but you do get used to this quickly. 2. Walking at Silfra. You gear up and then have to walk a couple hundred metres in full gear to the diving spot before and after the dive. Was not a big deal for me at all but the equipment is heavy so may be an issue for some people. It is not a very long walk though. 3. Cold water at Silfra. Surprisingly, although I expected this to be the most challenging part, I would say this turned out to be a non-issue. The dry suit worked very well for me and I was completely dry out of the water. Except of course for palms and head which are essentially in wet suit gear (as is supposed to be the case). I didn’t have any issues with getting cold during the dive – you would think you get some sort of initial shock when you first get into the 2 degrees Celsius water but its actually not the case at all. For me it felt like you walk out properly dressed on a chilly winter day – yeah, sure, you will feel its winter outside, but you wont really get cold in 30 minutes. But this is of course not what I am going to tell my friends, to whom I will paint how I bravely handled 2 degrees water for 40 minutes!BerndT497
April 2022
I did in April 2022 the Dry Suit Specialty course and Silfra diving trip with Dive.Is. Starting from the organisation of the course to the final dive at Silfra, Dive.Is did a great job! We did the course together with Andreas who did a fantastic job and we, a group of 3 divers (maximum per grou...
I did in April 2022 the Dry Suit Specialty course and Silfra diving trip with Dive.Is. Starting from the organisation of the course to the final dive at Silfra, Dive.Is did a great job! We did the course together with Andreas who did a fantastic job and we, a group of 3 divers (maximum per group, what I highly appreciated), had such a fun day where we were prepared to use our dry suit skills in 2-6 degree Celsius Icelandic cold water; of course the certificate is valid for all dry suit dives. It started with the training in the pool near Reykjavik, followed with an afternoon dive near Grindavik. Overall a great day spent. The next day we were picked up by Anna to go over to Pingvellir national park in which Silfra is located and where we met Natalia, our guide for the dive. As well here, the group of divers is limited to only 3 per guide (at least this is the Dive.Is policy, for my understanding) so you have all the attention you’re looking for on a dive trip and it doesn’t feel crowded. Natalia, as well as the team around, did all a fantastic job! To sum it up, from the organisation, equipment, course, transfer, briefing (safety first!) to the final dive at Silfra everything went smoothly and all expectations were met. Am looking forward to the pictures taken during the dive. Remark: if you decide to go diving or snorkelling at Silfra, be aware that you’ll not be the only one, so you might have to queue up at the entrance. But as soon as you’re in the water it’s worth the (possible) waiting. Next time I come back to Iceland, Silfra will be again on the to-do list and I’ll do it for sure again with Dive.Is!