The Beautiful Londrangar Cliffs Hike

If you are looking for a beautiful hike in the Snaefellsnes peninsula, then you should consider the Londrangar Cliffs Hike. This short hike is perfect if you don’t want to go for a long exhausting hike but still want to enjoy the beautiful scenery along the coast that Snaefellsnes has to offer.

It is also possible to admire Londrangar without hiking (more about it later) but I really recommend this hike. It is not very demanding and you will be able to enjoy the views from different perspectives.

Londrangar Cliffs

Lóndrangar is a cliff area in the Shaefellsjökul National Park with two pinnacles made of basalt, which are respectively 75 and 61 meters tall.

According to Icelandic folklore, the Londrangar rock formations used to be two trolls, a man and his wife who liked to enjoy the sea and sat at the edge of the cliffs to admire the ocean at night. However, one day they were so consumed in their passion that they didn’t notice that the sun was coming out. Since these creatures turn into stone in the presence of the sun, they turned into these pinnacles.

Getting to Londrangar

Londrangar is located in the southwest part of the Snaefellsnes peninsula, within the Snaefellsjökull National Park.

The best way to reach it is by renting a car and driving there yourself. Especially if you want to hike in the area. Many day tours to the Snaefellsnes peninsula include Londrangar but the time allocated to this stop is not enough to hike it.

There are two ways to visit Londrangar Cliffs and depending on which one you choose, you will have to park your car in the different places:

You can just enjoy the cliffs from the Londrangar Viewpoint. If you’re going to do this, then park your car in the Londrangar Parking shown on the map below.
Hike along the Londrangar Cliffs. If you’re going to do the hike, then you will have to park your car near the Snaefellsjokull Visitors Center.

Driving times to reach Londrangar will depend on where you are driving from:

From Reykjavik, it will take you approximately 2 hours and 40 minutes.
From Grundafjordur, it takes approximately 40 minutes to drive.

Accommodation in the Snaefellsnes Peninsula

The Snaefellsnes Peninsula is not that big so no matter how many nights you’ve planned for, you can choose one location and make it your base. Here are some suggestions for different kinds of budgets.

Hellisandur Camping. If you are driving a camper van, this camping might be a good suggestion with beautiful views of the ocean.
Stod Guesthouse and Apartments. We stayed in this guesthouse in Grundafjordur and it was a good option. There was a shared kitchen available with everything necessary to save some money on meals.
Fosshotel Hellnar. If your budget is a bit higher, you can consider staying in this hotel with beautiful views over the Arnastapi cliffs.

Hiking next to the Londrangar Cliffs

Hike Summary

Trail Start/End: Snaefellsjökull Visitors Center (exact location on map)
Distance: 4,7 km
Elevation Gain: 63 m
Route type: Linear route
Time needed: 2 hours (this included stopping for multiple photos and lunch on a beach near the pinnacles)

Equipment needed

This hike is very easy and there is no need for specific equipment. However, it might become handy to have the following:

Hiking shoes: The trail is quite rocky and some areas can be muddy if there has been recent rain so having appropriate hiking shoes will be useful.
Wind-resistant clothes: Even on a sunny day, you will be walking next to the ocean with sea cold sea breeze blowing on you.

Feeling like kids again next to the Malarrif Lighthouse

We parked our car next to the Snaefellsjokull Visitors Center and started our hike. The first part of the hike takes you to the Malarrif Lighthouse but we decided to skip this part. We had seen plenty of lighthouses already during our road trip and we had quite a packed agenda for the day.

Next to the lighthouse, there was a small zip line. It was mostly meant for kids but it was fun to ride it a couple of times. It felt like we were little kids again. In addition, the Malarrif Lighthouse was just in front of us during these rides, so even though we skipped this part of the hike, we still got to admire it.

After having some fun at the zip line, we continued our hike through some mossy dunes. This part of the hike was a bit dull but fortunately, it was not so long. Soon enough the Londrangar pinnacles appeared in the distance and the best part of the hike began.

Once we passed the mossy dunes, we arrived at a small pebbled beach. It was already past noon so we decided to have a little picnic here and have lunch. The beach was empty so it felt like it was our private beach. It was the perfect place for our lunch enjoying the sun and the sea. I do recommend you plan your visit to eat lunch here like we did, particularly if you are lucky to get a sunny day as we did!

Walking next to the Londrangar Pinnacles

Once we had soaked in as much vitamin D as possible, we continued our hike and started approaching the two Londrangar main rock formations. As we got closer, they kept getting more and more impressive. I wanted to stop to admire them and take photos every few meters.

Next to the biggest pinnacle, you will see a small path that leads up to it. However, you should not attempt to climb them. The wind is quite hard and it is very dangerous.

No matter from which angle you admire these rocks, there are very beautiful!

Pufurbjard Bird Cliffs

Once we were done admiring the two rock towers from up close, we kept walking past them along the coast. We reached the Pufurbjar Cliffs which are home to many bird colonies. This is the only “difficult” part of the hike as you have to go up a steep hill to reach a viewpoint. However, the small effort is worth it to get these magnificent views.

We stayed some time here admiring the view and relaxing before going back the same way we had arrived to return to our car.

I hope you liked my blog about Londrangar. Let me know what you thought in the comments.

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