Picture yourself 400 feet inside a volcano that went quiet 4,000 years ago, standing on the floor of a magma chamber big enough to swallow a cathedral. That’s just Tuesday on this trip.
For eight nights, you travel Iceland with me, my wife and co-founder Renee, and a team of Icelandic scientists and guides who know this island the way you know your own backyard. We start in Reykjavik and work our way along the south coast, chasing waterfalls, glaciers, black-sand beaches, and the kind of geology you can walk up and put your hand on. This isn’t a tour where a guide meets you at each stop and waves goodbye. Our Icelandic experts travel with us, eat with us, and answer every last question, from the science of a geothermal vent to where to find the best lamb soup in a town of 300 people.
You don’t have to be a teacher to belong here. Our groups fill up with educators, their spouses, lifelong learners, and people who’ve simply had Iceland on the list for years. What they share is curiosity and a willingness to walk. “Come experience Iceland with Steve, Renee, and this remarkable group of Icelanders.” That’s how Jen Gant, a teacher who traveled with us, puts it. She’s right.
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June 9 — Arrive in Reykjavik. Land, settle in, and join us that evening at 7:00 for our kick-off celebration. The trip starts the moment you walk in.
June 10 — Reykjavik on foot. A food tour through the world’s northernmost capital, time to wander and shop on your own, and an evening float at the Sky Lagoon, a geothermal pool built right into the coastline.
June 11 — Inside the volcano. The day people never forget. A hike across a lava field, then an open lift 400 feet down into a dormant volcano’s magma chamber, plus a look at how Iceland turns underground heat into clean power.
June 12 — The Golden Circle. Gullfoss thundering into its gorge, Geysir firing on cue, and a stop at a geothermal greenhouse growing tomatoes in the Arctic, with an Icelandic horse show thrown in.
June 13 — Out to Vestmannaeyjar. A ferry to the Westman Islands, born of underwater eruptions and home to one of the largest puffin colonies on earth.
June 14 — Islands, then ice. More of Vestmannaeyjar in the morning, the ferry back, and an afternoon walking on the Sólheimajökull glacier itself.
June 15 — Glaciers and icebergs. Skaftafell, more waterfalls, a boat among the free-floating icebergs of the Jökulsárlón lagoon, and the glittering ice of Diamond Beach.
June 16 — Waterfalls and the rift. A run of Iceland’s great waterfalls, the tectonic rift at Þingvellir where two continents pull apart, then back to Reykjavik for our farewell celebration dinner.
June 17 — Head home, or don’t. Depart Reykjavik, or decide Iceland isn’t finished with you yet and stay a while longer.
The at-a-glance number above is about $7,950 per person, and here’s what sits behind it.
That price is based on double occupancy, which means you share a hotel room with your travel partner: a spouse, partner, family member, or friend. Because of how Icelandic hotels and our coach are configured, we can’t offer single rooms, so everyone travels with a roommate.
A few costs sit outside that number and you’ll want to budget for them: your airfare to and from Reykjavik, the round-trip airport transfer between the airport and the hotel, and a few lunches. Everything else the trip includes is spelled out in the “What’s Included?” section.
Let’s be honest about the price. This is a significant investment, and many teachers pay for part or all of it themselves. But a lot of educators fund these experiences every year through grants, school PD budgets, parent-teacher organizations, and community sponsors, and most of them use the same handful of techniques to do it.
I’ve spent years coaching teachers through exactly this, so we put the best of it into one place. The Science of Iceland Funding Toolkit walks you through how to make the case to a grant reviewer or an administrator, how to build a budget that asks for a fundable gap instead of the whole trip, where to find money most teachers overlook, and it includes a customizable request letter you can adapt in an afternoon. It’s free, and it’s yours whether you travel with us or not.
This is an active trip, and you’ll get more out of it if you come in good shape. On a typical day you’ll hike a couple of miles without long breaks, climb stairs, and walk up and down trails that get steep. Some of the ground is uneven, rocky, or slick, so good balance and knees that can handle downhill matter.
We don’t move at a race pace, but we do keep the group moving. If two miles on foot, a few flights of stairs, or a hill up and down sounds rough, be honest with yourself now. This is the trip where a stunning glacier walk is also a real glacier walk.
None of this is meant to scare you off. It’s meant to make sure everyone who comes can do everything we do, instead of watching from the coach. Read it honestly, and if it sounds like your kind of day, you’ll love it here.
Reykjavik is the world’s northernmost capital, and the name means “smoky bay,” after the steam the first settlers saw rising off the hot springs. We explore it on foot with a food tour that puts real Icelandic cooking in front of you, the lamb, the seafood, the skyr, and a dish or two you’ll want to know the name of before you take a bite. Then we soak. The Sky Lagoon is a geothermal pool built into the coastline where you float in hot water at the edge of the North Atlantic and watch the horizon. After eight days on the move, it’s the right way to end.
Let me tell you about the single thing people remember most.
There are only a handful of places on the entire planet where you can stand inside a volcano’s magma chamber, and Þríhnúkagígur is the one you can actually walk into. Its name means “three peaks crater.” It last erupted more than 4,000 years ago, then did something almost no volcano does: instead of collapsing or filling back in, its magma chamber simply drained and left a cathedral-sized void in the earth. For thousands of years nobody knew it was there. It exists as an experience at all partly because of Óli, one of our Icelandic guides, who helped found the tour that opened it to the world.
Getting there is a 45-minute hike across an open lava field, the kind of stark, moss-and-rock landscape that already feels like another planet. Then you reach a small opening in the ground, barely wider than a manhole, and you understand what you’re about to do.
You step onto an open lift, the same kind that carries window washers up the side of a skyscraper, except this one goes down. It lowers you 120 meters, about 400 feet, straight into the dark. The walls slide past close enough to touch, then fall away entirely as the shaft opens into a chamber so vast it could hold the Statue of Liberty with room over her head. The rock around you glows in reds and golds and greens, mineral colors no photograph ever quite captures. You stand on the floor of a volcano, crane your neck up toward a tiny circle of daylight, and it goes quiet, because nobody in the group can think of anything to say.
I’ll tell you how much that moment gets to people. I once presided over a wedding vow renewal down there, 400 feet inside the earth. “Before the trip, we discovered through Steve’s social media posts that he was an ordained minister,” said Kelli Buck Higgins. “So we got up the nerve to ask if he would renew our wedding vows in the most special place on the planet… and he gave us the certificate to prove it.” When a couple decides the floor of a dormant volcano is the right place to promise it all over again, you know you’re not on an ordinary trip.
You don’t need climbing experience. You need to be able to make the hike and the nerve to step onto the lift. Everything after that, Iceland handles.
This is the day the landscape stops looking like anywhere else. We walk on Sólheimajökull, an outlet of a larger ice cap, where the ice is streaked with black ash and melting fast enough that you can see climate change with your own eyes. We pass Svartifoss, a waterfall framed by hanging black basalt columns like pipes on an organ. And then the day’s payoff: Jökulsárlón, a lagoon where icebergs the size of houses calve off the glacier and drift slowly out to sea. We board a boat and float among them. Some of that ice washes up on the black sand nearby and sits there glittering, which is why they call it Diamond Beach.
The Golden Circle is Iceland’s most famous route, and we take our time with it. At Þingvellir you walk straight into the rift where the North American and Eurasian plates are pulling apart, the ground literally splitting between two continents. It’s also where Icelanders founded the world’s oldest parliament in 930, and it’s the only UNESCO World Heritage site on the Icelandic mainland.
Gullfoss is a waterfall that doesn’t so much fall as vanish, dropping in two stages into a gorge until the far side disappears into spray. At Geysir, the hot spring that gave every geyser on earth its name, we wait for Strokkur to fire a column of boiling water into the sky, which it does every few minutes and which earns a gasp every single time.
Then we do something most Golden Circle tours skip: we stop at Friðheimar, a family greenhouse growing tomatoes through the Icelandic winter on nothing but geothermal heat and light. Lunch is served among the vines, and there’s an Icelandic horse show, five gaits and all, because why not.
We take a ferry out to Vestmannaeyjar, a cluster of islands built by underwater eruptions, home to about 4,300 people and one of the largest Atlantic puffin colonies on the planet. Ten million puffins nest in Iceland, and more of them come here than anywhere else. But the story that stops people is 1973, when the Eldfell volcano erupted in the middle of the night and the whole town evacuated by fishing boat while lava buried a fifth of their homes. They saved the harbor by spraying the advancing lava with billions of liters of seawater until it froze in place. At the Eldheimar museum you walk through a house dug back out of the ash, exactly where it stood.
In addition to the information provided above, we’ve tried to anticipate a few of your questions below. You’re welcome to call Renee Spangler at (303) 885-1911 or email your questions to [email protected].
Our Science of Iceland Funding Toolkit walks you through how to make the case to a grant reviewer or an administrator, how to build a budget that asks for a fundable gap instead of the whole trip, where to find money most teachers overlook, and it includes a customizable request letter you can adapt in an afternoon. It’s free, and it’s yours whether you travel with us or not.
We are collecting a deposit of $2,500 per person to hold your spot on the trip.
This deposit (less a $200 processing fee) is fully refundable up until November 1, 2026. With only 50 spaces available, this deposit means that you are indeed serious about attending this experience. If we (Team Spangler) cancel the trip before November 1, 2026, no processing fee will be withheld and you will receive a refund of your full deposit.
The remaining balance of your registration fees will be automatically charged to the credit card used at registration on February 1, 2027.
Due to advance planning of this trip, here is how the cancellation policy will work:
If you cancel between November 1, 2026 and January 31, 2027, you will be eligible for a 50% refund of your $2,500 deposit.
If you cancel between Feb 1 and March 1, 2027, you will be eligible for a 50% refund of the full payment collected.
No refunds will be issued after midnight (Mountain Time) on March 1, 2027. To ensure the highest quality experience, we commit to bookings, reservations and service providers well in advance. As a result, registrations are non-refundable after this deadline.
We are aware that many unforeseen factors can result in the cancellation of a trip. We are working closely with the hotels, bus company and travel experts in Iceland to help ensure full refunds in the event of another outbreak similar to what we experience with COVID.
Registration is first-come, first-served. We hold 50 spots, and they fill in the order deposits come in. When you’re ready to commit, a $2,500 deposit holds your place. If we happen to fill all 50 and more people still want in, we’ll start a waitlist and let you know the moment a spot opens. That’s it. No lottery, no priority tiers, no waiting to hear if you made a list.
No, you don’t have to, but most folks recommend doing so, especially when traveling overseas. First, your regular medical coverage/insurance may not cover you outside the US. Traveling without this insurance means you will have to pay for emergency medical treatment expenses upfront if you become ill, injured, or require minor or major medical attention, including the remote possibility of an emergency evacuation. If you are covered by Medicare, be sure to check your international coverage carefully. Original Medicare generally provides very limited coverage outside the U.S., so travel medical insurance may be especially important.
Plan on booking your flight to arrive in Reykjavik on or before June 9, 2027 at 4:00 pm. Please note that many US flights fly overnight to Iceland and therefore arrive the following day with the time difference, which means you need a departure date of June 8, 2027.
We have witnessed some issues when airlines cancel or delay a flight leaving the passenger(s) unable to arrive on time.
Our kick-off party is at 7 pm on Wednesday, June 9. Our final group event is late into the evening on June 16th. There are no planned events on June 17th, so your first departure flight opportunity is the morning of June 17th.
Keflavik International Airport (KEF) is the name of the international airport near Reykjavik. Visit www.isavia.is/en/keflavik-airport to find flights or learn more about the airport. The drive time from Keflavik Airport to Reykjavik is approximately 45 minutes.
It will vary tremendously depending upon a lot of factors (gas, oil and the airline industry are only the beginning). If you get your seats early (more than 250 days out) you will likely get your best deals as airlines typically sell their least expensive seats first…and they only have a couple at that “least expensive” rate.
Also, your cost will vary depending upon where you live and even what time of day you choose to leave. I have seen tickets range from $600-$1000 per person (luggage fees may or may not be included). You may also have frequent-flyer tickets you can use…but book those quickly.
You also might check into using different airlines to come and go as that may save you some cash (using IcelandAir to get there and United Airlines to return, for example).
Keflavik Airport sits about 45 minutes outside Reykjavik, so you’ll arrange your own ride to the hotel when you land. A taxi or airport shuttle is easy to grab right outside the terminal. As we get closer to the trip, Renee will send current options and recommendations so you know exactly what to expect.
At the request of our travel guides and coordinators in Iceland, we only accept children ages 16 and up.
Everyone will travel together in a luxury motor coach (okay, that’s a nice way of saying big bus). This is the best way to see the country. We have planned plenty of stops during each day’s journey. We will rotate the seating each day to ensure each person is guaranteed a great view while traveling along the beautiful scenic landscape of Iceland. We even have a system to ensure everyone gets a chance to sit in different seats on the bus each day. Trust us… it works.
No, but a lot of your time will be scheduled. This will not be like Science at Sea, where there were blocks of time for you to roam the ship on an “at sea” day. We leave each hotel right after breakfast, pack a lot of activities, and drive each day. You will have limited shopping time as we maximize our exploration time.
You are HIGHLY encouraged to pack light. According to the tour bus guidelines, you are allowed to bring one suitcase per person with the dimensions of 30.5 x 22 x 12.5 inches (77.5 x 56 x 32 cm) and weight not exceeding 66 pounds (30kg). You are allowed one personal-sized carry-on bag which must be small enough to store in overhead bins or under the seat in front of you on our motor coaches. Carry-on bags should not exceed the dimensions of 12 x 11 x 6 inches.
The tour bus company will not be able to make accommodations for a second suitcase or any luggage exceeding these limits. For safety reasons, wheeled carry-on bags are not suitable as hand luggage on motor coaches.
Also regarding luggage, you need to be able to carry your own luggage up at least two flights of stairs. European hotels, in general, have small elevators that run quite slowly.
Daily life is casual and relaxed, so dress for comfort and pack layers like you did for Alaska. It will likely rain during our trip. Bring your swimsuit as we have an excursion on the first day to one of the amazing thermal spas in Reykjavik. You will also want to bring good hiking shoes. I’ll provide a more specific packing list later.
Yes, as we are at several hotels for 2 nights. You should be able to hand wash your items in the sink upon arriving, and hopefully, they will have time to dry before we leave. Make sure to pack your own laundry soap. Because Iceland’s hotels are small and operate with a small staff, they will do laundry for you, but it is not cheap!
Electrical plugs differ, so you will need a universal travel adaptor suitable for Iceland. Iceland uses the standard “Europlug” socket with two round prongs. For these plugs, you can use adapter types “C” or “F.” Electricity in Iceland is 230 volts with alternating electric currents of 50 cycles per second. Be sure to check each device you wish to bring as each will list its voltage range. You may need a voltage converter as well as the plug adaptor. It is best to bring a dual-voltage curling iron and shaver. All of our hotels have hair dryers provided.
YES. You must have a valid passport. Your passport should be valid for at least six (6) months beyond your planned date of departure from Iceland. However, you do not need a Visa.
The average high temperature in June is 48°F (9° C) but can go as high as 59°F (15°C) or more. The average low temperature is 42°F (5.5°C). Always be prepared for rain in Iceland, however June generally has the lowest rainfall of the year. Just so you know… sunrise is approximately 3:30 AM and sunset is approximately 11:30 PM.
No problem. By all means, make whatever plans you wish before June 9th and/or after June 16th. Remember that our final event is the evening of June 16th. We will drive you back to a hotel in Reykjavik for the evening of June 16th as part of our experience. We have no plans for the group at all on June 17th because flights back to your home can leave at any time that day and it is difficult to plan for varying itineraries.
Our previous groups highly recommended extending your stay rather than traveling in earlier, if given the choice between the two. They liked knowing what they saw and making plans to explore more after they knew what our trip was.
You obtain Icelandic Krona (ISK), the local currency, at exchange bureaus, banks, airports, and major hotels in Reykjavik, or you can use your ATM/Credit/Debit card to obtain local currency. Most of the areas we will travel to accept major credit cards. I recommend knowing the PIN for TWO credit cards you bring. Also, be sure you are not charged foreign exchange fees from your credit card companies. Iceland also accepts Apple Pay in many areas. If you want some foreign currency before you go, call your local American Express office, larger bank chains, or an international bank and take cash for the exchange.
Two things you should know before you come hungry: the lamb and the fish.
Icelandic lamb might be the best you’ll ever eat, and that’s not marketing. The sheep roam free all summer across wild pastures, grazing on herbs, grasses, and Arctic berries, and it shows in the flavor. Even people who swear they don’t like lamb tend to change their mind here. The fish is the same story. It comes out of the North Atlantic and onto your plate about as fast as fish can travel, and it’s so fresh that people who don’t consider themselves fish eaters often end up ordering it again. I’ll let you in on something: I eat fish at nearly every meal in Iceland, and I’m picky about it at home. It’s that good.
Now the part we need to be direct about, because it affects the whole group.
When you register, you’ll tell Renee your dietary needs, and we build the meals around what you tell us. Here’s the catch: whatever you tell us is what we plan for, all trip long. If you register as a vegetarian, we arrange vegetarian meals for you at every stop, and we can’t switch you to the fish mid-trip because it looks incredible that night (it will). The reverse is true too. If you tell us you eat everything, we can’t turn you vegetarian on day four. These meals are planned and confirmed well in advance with our Icelandic hosts, so your choices need to hold for the whole trip.
Allergies and gluten-free needs are a different category entirely, and we treat them as a requirement, not a preference. If you have a food allergy or need gluten-free meals, you must tell us as early as possible so we can make sure every kitchen along the route is ready for you. This is about your safety, and we take it seriously. Tell us early, tell us clearly, and we’ll take care of you.
A remarkable experience from beginning to end. Everywhere I looked something new captured my attention – breathtaking landscapes, waterfalls, volcanoes – you name it. What an amazing experience!
Beyond amazing! The Spangler team did so much background research that every adventure was exceptional. Each day’s itinerary highlighted aspects of Iceland that made me truly appreciate the culture, the geography and the food.
Best Days Ever! Beautiful landscapes, knowledgeable guides, and wonderful people. The geothermal features of Iceland and the majestic glaciers made the fire and ice of this island hard to resist. Trolls, volcanoes, and icebergs – what else could you want?
Nothing could have prepared us for the awe we felt while descending into a volcano or the satisfaction at accomplishing a climb up a glacier to drink rushing cold, clear water. Every day we were guided by the best natives around and our group became a family, traveling together to one amazing activity or place to another. It is unbelievable how much we accomplished in just a few days. Thanks to the Spangler team for the extensive work it took to design this unforgettable learning experience.
It’s amazing to me that a random group of teachers and their +1s could start this experience together as virtual strangers and end this experience together feeling almost like family. I’m especially grateful that you selected such a knowledgeable, professional, experienced team to guide us. Experiences like this help me to continue to grow and learn while connecting me to friends and colleagues all over the world with whom I can share my passion for teaching and learning! They restore my enthusiasm for returning to the classroom to tackle the challenges that await in the coming school year.
The beauty of the landscape and the warmth of the people of Iceland was everything we had dreamed of and more! We loved everything about our experiences during our magical visit. As a science teacher, I found the geology of the region and how for centuries Icelandic people have utilized the land & environmental processes to survive & thrive quite intriguing. Renee, Steve, and the entire Spangler team planned every detail in order to make this a learning adventure that we will never forget. If you seek moderate to challenging hikes, indescribable geological formations, and genuine Icelandic experiences, well as developing friendships that will last a lifetime, then this is definitely the trip for you.
I experienced earth’s processes, plate tectonics, continental drift, ecological succession, and climate change all in one “Best Day Ever” experience. Truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for amazing professional development. By the way, Steve Spangler renewed our wedding vows deep inside a volcano just outside of Reykjavik. Memories for a lifetime? Indeed!
Science of Iceland is truly a trip of a lifetime with other educators who value the importance of experiential learning. As a past Science at Sea participant, I didn’t think the Spangler team could raise the bar of excellence… but they did. We woke up every day to a new adventure- volcanoes, glaciers, waterfalls, canyons, and geysers… and that was just the first three days!
You’re not booking a tour where a stranger reads facts off a clipboard. You’re traveling with a small team that has run this trip before, knows every road and hot springs pool and abandoned farm on the route, and sticks with us the whole way. Renee, my co-founder and the person you’ll work with from the day you register, put this group together: Icelandic scientists and guides who travel with us, eat with us, and answer every question you can throw at them. Here’s who you’ll be spending eight days with.
Leifur has been a guide since he was a teenager and is one of Iceland’s most experienced mountain professionals. He’s guided in Iceland, Greenland, and across the globe, but here’s the line that stops people: he’s one of the few humans alive to complete the Explorer’s Grand Slam, climbing the highest peak on all seven continents and reaching both the North and South Poles. He’s the only person in the world who’s done it twice. Ask him why he guides and he’ll tell you it’s for the days outdoors “with the wind in my hair, where nothing else clouds my mind.”
Erla is a biologist, born and raised on her family farm just outside Reykjavik, where she now runs the luxury villa Kleif Farm and meets travelers from all over the world. She’s an outdoor enthusiast in the full Icelandic sense, hiking, rock climbing, mountain biking, ski touring, and horseback riding since she was a girl. Her rule for life is simple: stay fit, and be ready for whatever adventure the day throws at you. On this trip, she’s the one who makes the science of the land feel personal, because it’s literally her backyard.
Sigrún has worked in tourism for more than 15 years, guiding groups through Greenland, Peru, Nepal, and Jordan alongside her husband Leifur. Her background is in teaching and anthropology, and it shows in how she builds a day, balancing the big mountain moments with the small cultural ones. She has a rare talent for making a perfectly run trip feel easy and unplanned, which is the highest compliment you can pay a guide. She’ll always know where the nearest café is, where the next hot pool is, and the story behind every abandoned farm we pass.
Óli, as everyone calls him, is a co-founder of Inside the Volcano, which means the single most jaw-dropping thing you’ll do on this trip exists partly because of him. He grew up on Iceland’s Rescue Squad, which gave him both the skills and the calm to work in wild places, and he’s a certified mountain and ski-touring guide who spends his free time rock climbing around the world. He and Erla are married, and between them they’ve raised three daughters. Ask him about a perfect day and he’ll describe fast technical mountain-bike tracks through the colorful Icelandic hills, or a climbing holiday somewhere warm.
Renee is the co-founder of Science of Iceland and the person who actually makes it happen. She’s my wife of 36 years, and the day I floated the idea of teaching a class in Iceland, she started building the trip before I’d finished the sentence. She runs the logistics, works hand in hand with our Icelandic team all year, and designs the days so that everything you’ll experience feels effortless, which is the hardest thing in the world to pull off. Long before you land in Reykjavik, you’ll know Renee. She’s the one you’ll email and call with your questions, and she’ll have answered most of them before you thought to ask.
Steve is the reason everyone’s here, and the one most likely to hand you something that’s about to fizz, pop, or mildly explode. He’s a science teacher who somehow ended up on television a couple thousand times, but on this trip he’s just the guy at the front of the bus who can’t stop pointing out geology. Steve dreamed up Science of Iceland at a dinner table, said “we should do a class in Iceland,” and then had the good sense to let Renee and this Icelandic team actually run it. His job on the ground is to make sure you don’t just see Iceland but understand it, and to make sure that somewhere in eight days, you have your own Best Day Ever.
