Midnight Sun on the Hvítá: What to Do at 11pm in June

The aurora gets all the winter attention, but Iceland’s summer has its own reason to stay up late: the sun that barely sets. Around the solstice (about June 21), West Iceland gets roughly 21 hours of usable daylight, and even in the small hours the sky only dims to a long golden dusk. If you are sleeping in a converted expedition truck on the bank of the Hvítá at Hvítárbakki, that means the best part of the day starts after dinner — when the tour buses have gone home and the light turns soft.

When the midnight sun actually happens

The midnight-sun stretch runs roughly from late May to mid-July, peaking around the June 21 solstice. In West Iceland the sun dips just below the horizon rather than vanishing, so full darkness never arrives — you get hours of low, warm light instead of a hard sunset. The practical upside: an 11pm walk in June is lit almost like early evening. The catch is sleep. Constant daylight genuinely surprises first-time visitors, so pack an eye mask — the trucks have blinds, but bright nights beat most curtains.

Right outside the truck: the riverbank after dinner

You do not need to drive anywhere to use the late light. The Hvítá is a wide glacial river, milky-grey with sediment, and the flat farmland of Borgarfjörður around Hvítárbakki gives you open sky in every direction. A slow walk along the bank between about 10pm and midnight is the simplest plan: the river catches the low sun, and this is prime time for birdwatching, when waders and waterfowl feed along the shallows. Bring a camera — the “golden hour” here lasts for hours, and the soft, angled light is far kinder for photos than harsh midday sun.

Late hikes and drives that beat the crowds

The other trick of the midnight sun is timing. Popular sights in the region are busiest from mid-morning to late afternoon; go late and you often have them to yourself. Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, the spring-fed waterfalls upriver, are about a 40-minute drive and stay fully lit late into the evening. The Deildartunguhver hot spring and the Reykholt area are closer, roughly 25–30 minutes. Because you are not racing daylight, a post-dinner drive that would feel reckless anywhere else is simply a bright evening out.

• Getting there: Hvítárbakki sits in Borgarfjörður, about an hour to 90 minutes’ drive north of Reykjavík on Route 1 then local roads.
• Best window: roughly 10pm–1am in June for the softest light and the fewest people.
• Duration: a riverbank walk needs 30–60 minutes; a late drive to Hraunfossar and back, about 2 hours.
• What to bring: an eye mask for sleeping, a light windproof layer (evenings cool off even in June), sturdy shoes for uneven riverbank ground, and a camera with a spare battery.
• Safety: stay well back from the Hvítá’s edge — glacial rivers are cold and fast-moving.

Where to Stay

The converted expedition trucks at Hvítá Trucks sit right on the riverbank at Hvítárbakki, which is the whole point for a midnight-sun trip: you can step out for a late walk or a 2am photo session and be back in bed in minutes, no drive required. Book direct on Ourhotels.is for the best rate.

Photo: Thomas Heins via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.