ICENAVI ACTIVITY FIT · RED LAVA HILLS
Choose who handles the journey before deciding whether to ride
Scores are based on published meeting times, total activity duration, pickup coverage, weather and safety decisions, and the options available after cancellation. They are not ratings of the riding centre. Recheck the date, product version, and terms before payment.
Travellers without a car only need to wait at the designated location shown on their voucher, but the roughly 30-minute advance pickup and the return window still count towards the half-day.
Surtlugata 19 provides a clear meeting address and parking information. You can continue beyond the city afterwards, but punctuality, fatigue, and changing road conditions remain your concern.
The full activity lasts about 2.5–3.5 hours, including roughly 1.5–2 hours in the saddle. Changing, check-in, transfers, and the return journey require additional time.
Wind, rain, ground conditions, and safety decisions may change departure arrangements. No month should be presented as reliably suitable without supporting evidence.
Cancellation and rescheduling depend on the specific product you choose. If the ride cannot operate, free city attractions, cafés, or other indoor activities remain possible only if the rest of the day has some flexibility.
The activity is distinctive, but it works only when the half-day commitment, possible weather changes, and meeting arrangements all fit the itinerary.
Decide whether distance or punctuality is the greater concern
Red Lava Hills is often described as being “about 15 minutes from the city centre”, but that figure is not enough to choose between transfer options. It excludes collecting a rental car, finding the correct exit, waiting for companions, parking, and putting on riding gear. It also ignores the minutes lost when the pickup vehicle arrives early while you are still upstairs at the hotel. Compare which parts of the journey you are comfortable handling yourself.
According to the Sólhestar FAQ, Reykjavík city pickups begin about 30 minutes before the activity and collection itself can take 15–20 minutes. Self-drive participants should arrive 15 minutes before the ride. The specified Klook and GetYourGuide products also identify free parking for self-drivers, transfer options, and no refund for late arrivals as conditions to check before payment. These are two distinct timelines, rather than the same activity with a minor transport add-on.
| Option | What it saves you | Best suited to | Easy-to-miss cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| City transfer | The operator handles the final city-to-centre journey. Be ready from 30 minutes before departure; collection may take another 15–20 minutes. | Travellers without a rental car, guests staying within Reykjavík City, and first-time visitors who would rather avoid studying the roads before check-in. | Your hotel entrance is not necessarily the pickup point. You must be at the location on your voucher on time, and you do not fully control the return time. |
| Self-drive meeting | Make your own way to Surtlugata 19, where the product page lists free parking, and arrive 15 minutes before the activity. | Travellers who already have a car, are staying outside the pickup area, or intend to continue directly towards the South Coast or airport afterwards. | Fuel, the walk from parking, finding the entrance, winter road conditions, and late-arrival risk fall to your group. Free parking does not make the journey cost-free in time. |
| Not sure | Wait before paying. Put your hotel address, activity time, and next fixed booking on one timeline. | Arrival or departure days, stays split between areas, and groups caring for children or older travellers. | “Close to the city” can hide a complete lack of buffer between a flight, car collection, changing, and the return journey. |
The riding centre’s exact location matters more than “near Reykjavík”
Break down the 2.5-hour product duration before choosing a version
The duration on a product page is a useful starting point, but it is not the total hotel-to-hotel time. The schedule below uses the suppliers’ published conditions and separates out timings that cannot be fixed in advance. It is designed to keep the ride away from the next appointment you cannot afford to miss, rather than imply a precise journey time.
| Stage | City transfer | Self-drive meeting | Editorial assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before departure | Pickup begins about 30 minutes before the activity; check your voucher for the waiting window at your hotel or designated point. | Work back from the riding time and arrive at Surtlugata 19 at least 15 minutes early. | Both require an early start: transfer passengers wait for the vehicle, while self-drivers need time for directions and parking. |
| Arrival and preparation | Disembark, check in, meet your horse, change, and attend the safety briefing. | Park, find the entrance, check in, meet your horse, change, and attend the safety briefing. | Travelling with large luggage or coming straight from a hotel usually makes the self-drive option more cumbersome. |
| Ride | Product information gives about 1.5–2 hours of riding over roughly 5–7 kilometres; the group and weather determine the actual pace. | The riding session cannot be delayed as casually as a city attraction. | |
| After the activity | Wait for the return transfer, then continue to your city accommodation or next meeting point. | Leave independently. You can continue to accommodation outside the city, but fatigue, fuel, and road conditions still need attention. | If your next plan is the Blue Lagoon, the airport, or a performance, either version needs an additional buffer. |
Look beyond the ticket price: the four practical costs of this ride
| Cost | City transfer | Self-drive meeting | Confirm before departure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meeting arrangements | Be ready from about 30 minutes before the activity. Your confirmation determines the pickup point and whether your hotel is covered. | Arrive at Surtlugata 19 at least 15 minutes before the activity; do not assume a late arrival will be accommodated. | Save screenshots of the meeting time, address, and late-arrival policy shown on your voucher. A vague reference to the city centre is insufficient. |
| Transport and luggage | You avoid driving and parking, but the transfer determines your return time. Large luggage should still not accompany you on the ride. | You handle fuel, the walk from parking, wet clothing, and post-ride fatigue. Free parking does not remove these costs. | If you are continuing to the airport, Blue Lagoon, or South Coast accommodation, leave a separate buffer before the next time-sensitive commitment. |
| Weather and safety | A transfer does not guarantee that the ride will depart. The supplier still decides whether wind, rain, ground conditions, and the horses’ safety allow it. | In addition to the riding decision, you must manage changing road conditions, visibility, and parking conditions on both journeys. | Recheck supplier messages and road or weather warnings on the day. Sunny promotional photos do not predict the conditions you will encounter. |
| Cancellation and alternatives | The cancellation deadline, rescheduling, and weather arrangements depend on the specific product. The transfer version is not necessarily more flexible. | The same product terms apply; travelling there independently does not automatically entitle you to a refund or replacement ride. | If the ride is cancelled, can you still reach free city attractions, a café, a spa, or another indoor activity? |
Allow at least half a day for the complete product. It should not be planned as “a morning ride with room for any timed ticket in the afternoon”. With the transfer, your first commitment is the pickup waiting window. When driving, it is your required arrival time. That difference usually matters more than a price gap of a few hundred ISK between platforms.
Four common itinerary clashes that should rule out a tight connection
| Before or after the ride | Transfer version | Self-drive version | ICENAVI assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arrival day at KEF | Baggage, the airport bus, and hotel check-in all have to happen before the activity. | Car collection, refuelling, navigation, and parking add another layer of uncertainty. | Not recommended. Move the ride to a full city day so that a delay on arrival does not derail the booking. |
| Blue Lagoon or Sky Lagoon on the same day | Leave a clear gap between the return transfer and your lagoon booking; straight-line distance on a map is not enough. | Parking, changing, and the direction of the return journey reduce the available margin. | Combine them only when the bookings are far enough apart. Otherwise, keep one of the two. |
| South Coast immediately after the ride | The city return transfer may not suit a journey beyond Reykjavík. | You can continue directly towards the South Coast, but check driver fatigue, your accommodation’s latest check-in, and road conditions. | Self-drive is more likely to work. Feasible does not mean reliably smooth. |
| Early flight the following morning | After returning to the city, you still need to organise your luggage and final-night transport. | Driving back towards KEF after the activity adds fatigue and the rental-car return process. | Avoid the day before departure. The activity does not provide a buffer for an early flight. |
ICENAVI · RED LAVA TRANSFER VERDICT
A transfer saves driving; self-drive gives you more control, but neither option is automatically cheaper
The city transfer hands the unfamiliar final journey to the operator, reducing the need for navigation and parking. Driving lets you fit the activity into your own itinerary, with greater control over timing and more transport work. The riding centre has one entrance, but the two versions create different half-days. Choose according to the immovable commitments before and after the ride, then compare the terms of the specific product on each platform.
How well does the ride fit the rest of your day?
These scores come from ICENAVI’s editorial model, not ratings supplied by Sólhestar, Klook, KKday, or GetYourGuide. The model separates transport, timing, weather, and onward travel so that enthusiasm for the ride does not obscure whether it fits this particular day.
| Criterion | City transfer | Self-drive meeting | What the score means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Transport clarity | 8.5/10 | 7.0/10 | The transfer removes one driving decision. The self-drive address is clear, but you handle the journey. |
| Control over timing | 6.5/10 | 8.0/10 | Transfers have a waiting window. Driving lets you arrange accommodation and onward plans more freely, although you must still arrive on time. |
| Car-free city-day fit | 9.0/10 | 4.5/10 | The transfer is clearly more practical for a half-day activity when you are staying in the city without a rental car. |
| Onward-route fit | 5.5/10 | 8.0/10 | Self-drive is easier to connect with a direct journey to the South Coast or accommodation outside the city. |
| Recovery after weather changes | 7.0/10 | 6.0/10 | Both depend on riding conditions. Self-drivers must also manage roads and the return journey, while transfer passengers depend on the supplier’s timetable. |
Age, clothing, and weight matter as much as transport
Published conditions for Red Lava Riding include a minimum age of 10. Product pages give an approximate maximum weight of 110 kilograms and advise against participation during pregnancy or for people with back or mobility problems. Sólhestar matches riding pace to ability and can provide outdoor over-layers, although its FAQ notes that rainwear or winter overalls may not be available for children. A transfer does not turn this into an indoor activity: every rider still needs to prepare for wind, rain, footwear, and balance.
If someone in your group only wants to meet Icelandic horses at close range and would rather not spend half a day riding, start with our first-time Icelandic horse riding guide covering age, weight, and beginner suitability. Decide whether the activity itself suits them before choosing transport. If the difficulty is planning an entire day without a rental car, our three-day car-free Reykjavík itinerary arranges city activities, transfers, and the gaps around dinner. A product page cannot settle the whole trip for you.
Six checks before payment
- Have you selected the specific Red Lava Hills product, rather than another riding centre or a generic horse-riding listing in the search results?
- Are you booking the city transfer or the self-drive meeting option, and do their departure times, prices, and cancellation terms match?
- Is your hotel within the Reykjavík City pickup area, and can you wait at the location stated on your voucher from 30 minutes before departure?
- Does the self-drive option still list Surtlugata 19 as its meeting address, and have you reconfirmed the free parking, entrance, and check-in time on the payment page?
- Does everyone in your group meet the minimum age, weight, health, and riding conditions? Ask the supplier directly if you are unsure.
- If the activity is cancelled, delayed, or rescheduled because of weather, do you still have a workable city or South Coast alternative for the day?
CONFIRMED YOUR TRANSPORT OPTION?
Compare the same specific Red Lava Hills product
The three buttons below lead to the same activity reviewed in this article. Select your date and either the transfer or self-drive version before comparing the final price, cancellation deadline, minimum age, weight limit, clothing, and meeting arrangements. Availability and terms on the payment page apply.
If you are still undecided, there is usually another non-negotiable commitment nearby: a flight, lagoon booking, check-in outside the city, or a companion who needs rest. Add that commitment to the top of the day’s schedule before choosing transport. It will often settle the choice more quickly than a platform rating.
More reading
Q&A | What to confirm before departure
Should I choose the city transfer or drive to the meeting point?
The city transfer avoids the need to navigate to an unfamiliar riding centre if you have no car or prefer not to drive. If you already have a car and need to continue towards the airport or accommodation outside the city, driving to Surtlugata 19 may be simpler.
Does two hours of riding mean I only need to allow two hours?
No. The product lasts about 2.5–3.5 hours, plus time for changing, check-in, transport, and the return journey. Add the full activity window to your itinerary so that it does not clash with a flight or dinner reservation.
What should self-drivers confirm first?
Check the required arrival time, parking, clothing, and the direction of travel after the activity. Driving changes how you reach the centre, but it does not reduce the duration of the ride itself.
References
- Sólhestar FAQ (pickup window, Reykjavík City coverage, minimum age, clothing, and riding conditions; recheck before departure).
- Klook: specific Red Lava Hills Horse Riding product (Surtlugata 19, free parking, riding and transfer versions, 15-minute early arrival, and activity terms).
- KKday: Red Rock Volcano Horseback Riding Tour (self-drive or Reykjavík city transfer versions, approximately 2.5 hours, and activity conditions).
- GetYourGuide: Reykjavik Red Lava Horse Riding Tour (transfer, self-drive, approximately 5–7 kilometres, cancellation, and participant conditions).
- OpenStreetMap (base map and location layer; the positions shown indicate relative locations only and do not provide navigation or live road conditions).
- Article photo: Tupungato/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0. The photo was taken in Skaftafell and illustrates horse riding in Iceland’s natural landscape; it does not depict the riding centre, horses, route, or weather for the specific product reviewed here.
