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Vík, Iceland
Iceland

Things to do in Vík

Why you should go

Ninety seconds on Vík

The southernmost village in Iceland, about 180 kilometres southeast of Reykjavík on the Ring Road, with roughly 300 residents in the village and 750 in the wider Mýrdalshreppur municipality. It sits directly below Mýrdalsjökull and the Katla volcano, and its 1934 church stands high enough on the slope to serve as the assembly point in a glacial flood. Annual rainfall of about 2,250 millimetres makes it one of the wettest inhabited places in the country. Reynisfjara, Dyrhólaey and the Reynisdrangar stacks all lie within twenty minutes of the village.

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Things to do

7
  1. Dyrhólaey

    Dyrhólaey

    Landmark · 30 min

    The high plateau looks straight down the black coast to Reynisdrangar and out over the arch itself.

  2. Reynisdrangar

    Reynisdrangar

    Landmark

    Visible on foot from the village, so it is the one south coast landmark that needs no drive at all.

  3. Reynisfjara Beach

    Reynisfjara Beach

    Beach

    Columns, sea cave and black sand in one short walk, the most concentrated stretch of Iceland's volcanic coast.

  4. Skógafoss

    Skógafoss

    Waterfall · 30 min

    One of the few big Icelandic falls a visitor can stand directly beneath and then look down on from above.

  5. Sólheimasandur Plane Wreck

    Sólheimasandur Plane Wreck

    Landmark · 30 min

    A wreck on an empty black desert with nothing else in the frame for four kilometres in any direction.

  6. Víkurkirkja

    Víkurkirkja

    Church

    A small white church that doubles as the village's civil defence high ground, and the best view over Vík.

  7. Sólheimajökull

    Natural Wonder · 30 min

    The most accessible glacier snout on the south coast, and a plain record of how far the ice has withdrawn.

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