Laugavegur Trail Food Guide (Iceland)

This Laugavegur Trail food guide will help you plan meals while backpacking a multi-day route in Iceland's southern highlands!

Before our backpacking trip to Iceland this summer, I put a lot of thought into the food situation.

There are a lot of questions that come up when planning to hike and camp internationally. How do I pack for backpacking if I'm flying to my destination? How expensive is it to just shop for food once I arrive? What am I allowed to bring into the country?

This food guide is specifically for the Laugavegur Trail, though some of the tips can be useful for other parts of Iceland as well.

For more suggestions on prepping for this trip, including clothing and gear needs, see my post about self-guided camping on Laugavegur.

Bringing Backpacking Meals From Home Vs Buying in Iceland

Our Laugavegur Trail food plans included bringing some backpacking meals from home. Yes, Iceland also sells freeze-dried meals, and we could’ve bought some upon arrival. Here are a few reasons we packed some food from home.

Cost

All cost estimates are as of 2024.

I’d heard that backpacking meals in Iceland could be around $20-$25 (US dollars) per package, after conversion. While it’s possible that there are more affordable backpacking meals available in Iceland, the ones I found when shopping in person were indeed in that price range.

The BSI bus station (where the buses to Landmannalauger leave) carried the Real Turmat brand. Some were 2195 ISK and some were 2995 ISK (~$16 to $22 for what seemed to be single-serving meals). 

We also found freeze-dried meals at Fjallakofinn, an outdoor store in Reykjavik. Prices for the Adventure Menu meals were high — 3495 ISK, or about $25 for a single-serving meal. Some of the meals there cost more and some less, but that seemed average.

None of that is to say that those meals aren’t worth the price, or that they're exorbitantly expensive for the area, but I admit that it felt pricey to me since it’s about 3 to 4 times more than what I typically pay for a freeze-dried meal at home. I’d rather spend that money elsewhere during the trip.

I also looked at Bónus (Iceland’s budget grocery store chain) but didn’t find any there.

(If anyone has recommendations for where to find other backpacking meals that are more moderately priced, please let us know in the comments.)

Time

It takes a lot of time to drive around (or take the bus, or take a Hopp scooter) trying to find meals to purchase. I’d prefer to do those errands before leaving home.

Dietary Restrictions and Flavor Preferences

I didn’t find a large selection anywhere that I looked in Iceland. Bringing my own seemed the easiest way to make sure we had food that I would enjoy.

Bringing Backpacking Meals into Iceland

If you’re traveling from the USA, it’s illegal to bring meat or dairy products into the country. (See more details on this here. If you’re coming from the EU, the rules are different.)

We packed all dairy-free, meat-free foods for our trip, and then planned on supplementing our meals with items we could pick up in Iceland easily.

Here’s what we packed (coming from the USA).

Breakfast

• Peak Refuel Mountain Berry Granola
• Backpacker’s Pantry Peanut Butter Oatmeal, with an additional pack of Justin’s Peanut Butter added in.

Other options that would’ve worked:

• Oatmeal packets with extra peanut butter
• Nomad Nutrition vegan Cali Breakfast Scramble

Lunch and Dinner

There are lots of dairy-free, meat-free, vegan freeze-dried meal options out there, but we struggled to find ones that were high-protein. Or at least, as high in protein as we’re used to eating.

These are the meals we brought along and enjoyed, with varying protein levels. Check the nutrition info for yourself to see if it meets your needs, and see my freeze-dried meal review post for more options that might work for you.

Keep in mind that water is typically easy to find when backpacking in Iceland, especially if you’re doing an established hut-to-hut backpacking route like Laugavegur, so concerns we’ve had in the past about some meals using a lot of water didn’t really apply here.

• Vite Ramen vegan ramen meals. These were a little pricey for ramen (about $8 per single-serving package), but were absolutely perfect for the bitter cold we experienced on night 1 of the Laugavegur Trail.
  
  These contain lots of protein, and instead of draining off some of the water (like the package directions indicate), we added extra water and drank broth as a much-needed hot drink.

• Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai
• Backpacker’s Pantry Louisiana Red Beans and Rice
• Farm to Summit Mushroom Pot Pie
• Farm to Summit Red Thai Curry
• Peak Refuel Butternut Dal Bhat

Other options that would've worked:

• Firepot vegan meals
• Good to Go vegan soups and stews

Snacks

• Gummy Bears
• Sour jelly beans from Trader Joe’s
• We purchased a few additional snacks at the huts (more on that later)

Drinks

• Hot tea. I wish I’d brought more tea bags on this trip, because a cup of hot tea felt amazing in the cold.
• Long Run Coffee. This coffee is infused with electrolytes and is supposed to help give you energy without being rough on your stomach. I’m not sure I’d buy it again (it was a little pricey, and I prefer the flavor of other brands more, such as Illy dark roast), but it was nice to have electrolytes in a warm drink to start my day.
• Farm to Summit Chile Mocha and Golden Latte. Both were delicious: the chile mocha was my favorite drink that we brought. (Again, these were a bit pricey and we probably could’ve just picked up some hot cocoa at a grocery store in Iceland, but I wanted to try these out and am glad I did!)
• Treehouse Originals Drinking Chocolate. These were tasty and a nice way to warm up, but I did have trouble getting them blended well enough (mixing in a cup with a spork). Also I think they would’ve been better if made with milk instead of water. But they were good, and large enough packets to share.

Buying Backpacking Food In Iceland

If you're prepared to spend the money and time, here are some options for picking up food in Iceland.

The Grocery Store or Gas Station

Bónus is Iceland’s budget grocery store, and we went there before our hike to pick up pre-trail breakfasts (skyr yogurt and bananas) and post-trail treats (more yogurt and bananas, plus chips).

N1 Gas stations also have a fairly nice selection of pre-made food items, such as sandwiches, yogurt parfaits and hot dogs.

Laugavegur Pre-Trail Food Options

If you take the Reykjavik Excursions bus from the BSI Bus terminal to the Landmannalaugar trailhead, the bus stops at a coffee shop and bathroom area for 30 minutes on the way.

(If you need to use the bathroom, hurry, and bring cash to get in. There are only two stalls and multiple buses stopping.)

We got a coffee and pastry at this stop, and it was one of the better coffees I had in Iceland.

Purchasing Food on the Laugavegur Trail

The Laugavegur is a European-style trail, meaning there are huts along the route. Some hikers opt to stay in the hut; the rest of us camp outside. Within the hut you can typically find some general provisions like candy bars and jerky.

Here are the stops where you can get food on the Laugavegur Trail. (Check out my trail guide for more details on the route.)

Mountain Mall

This is a bus turned into a food truck and shop at the Landmannalagar campground (the start of the Laugavegur Trail.)

You can buy hot dogs, sandwiches, snacks and basic provisions. If you shop here, expect high prices and don’t rely on them having any certain specific thing.

The Huts

The huts have snacks such as Snickers bars, jerky and Pilsner ale.

Two huts have restaurants run by Volcano Huts: Álftavatn and Thórsmörk. The meals at the restaurant are pricey but absolutely delicious, and I recommend taking advantage of them if it’s in your budget. They also have other beer and alcohol options besides Pilsner.

You can pre-order your food or just show up and pay. We did both at different times.

If you’re continuing on past Thórsmörk onto the Fimmvörðuhals Trail, a nice option is to pre-book a bagged lunch to take with you the next day. This one you do actually have to pre-book, because they only make the quantity ordered.

We got the bagged lunch and it was lovely, especially since that trail was harder and it took us longer to reach the next campground than we’d hoped.

The lunch included a Snickers bar (not pictured, but highly appreciated).

Hotel Skógafoss

If you hike to the end of the Fimmvörðuhals Trail, Hotel Skógafoss has a really nice coffee shop and restaurant (with waterfall view) that’s worth a stop if you have the time.

Where to Cook Your Own Food on the Laugavegur Trail

Some of the huts have a camper shelter. When they did, we cooked our meals in the shelter.

Hrafntinnusker, Emstrur and Thórsmörk Húsadalur (Volcano Huts) had camper shelters. I didn’t see one at Álftavatn. I didn’t stay at Hvanngil or Thórsmörk Langidalur and am unsure if they had shelters.

On the Fimmvörðuhals Trail, I didn’t stay at the Basar campground and am unsure if they have a camper shelter. Baldvinsskáli did not have a shelter, so we cooked inside our tent vestibule. I did not hike off-trail to the Fimmvörðuskáli hut, so I don’t know if it has a camper shelter.

Locating Camp Fuel in Reykjavik

Be aware that some of the camp fuel you can purchase in Iceland may not fit the types of backpacking stoves that are common in the USA (such as the MSR PocketRocket or Jetboil).

We found the type of fuel we needed at the BSI bus station. Other hikers said they found camp fuel at an N1 gas station, and another bought some at the Mountain Mall (but paid what amounted to $60 for a tiny can, so I don’t recommend that option!)

I hope this guide has given you some ideas for food on the Laugavegur Trail! Let me know if you have unanswered questions.