Mývatn · Iceland
Krafla
Krafla is a 10 km caldera sitting directly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, north of Lake Mývatn. The Krafla Fires of the 1970s and 80s left behind steaming fissures and lava fields that are still warm in places. Two stops carry the visit: Víti, an explosion crater holding an opaque blue-green lake, and Leirhnjúkur, the lava field beside it.
Víti was the one for me. You come over the rim and the lake below sits there as a flat, opaque blue that does not look the way water should. It is twenty minutes from Mývatn, parking is free, and if I only had time for one thing at Krafla this is the one I would keep.
My rating
Scale 1–5. On Cost, 1 means free and 5 means pricey. On Crowd level, 1 means near-solitude and 5 means tour-bus central.
Víti is the reason the score is not lower. The rest of Krafla is interesting more than it is beautiful — steam, gravel, pipework from the power station in your sightline.
Krafla is a short 20-minute drive from Lake Mývatn and about 1.5 hours from Akureyri, easily reached by well-maintained roads off the Ring Road. Free parking is available at the main sites, including Leirhnjúkur and Víti crater. Marked trails lead through lava fields and up to crater rims; sturdy footwear and warm clothing are highly advisable due to rough terrain and unpredictable weather.
Krafla is free — no entry fee for Víti or Leirhnjúkur, and parking at both is free too. Checked August 2026. Guided tours of the power station are the only paid option here.
While Krafla is a major attraction in North Iceland, its remote location and broad open spaces mean it’s rarely crowded, even in summer. Most visitors come during daylight hours—to avoid crowds, consider a morning or evening visit, especially for sunrises, sunsets, or geothermal mist photography.
Before you go
Planning your own Ring Road trip?
Iceland Ring Road Campervan Guide
My full 14-day route — roughly 2,500 km, every campsite I used, what I actually spent, and the stops worth the detour. The plan I drove, in one PDF.
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How I booked my campervan
I compared three rentals before I chose mine. These are the ones worth checking — Lava gives 5% off with code CREATOR.