HARDWIN VACATIONS · ICELAND · JULY 2027
THE LAUGAVEGUR
Landmannalaugar to the Sea
Icelandic Highlands / 6 days / 10–12 travelers / $3,995
HardWin Vacations is dedicated to the adventurer, to the ones who haven’t left home yet, and to the ones who can never come home again.
CHOOSE ONE DEPARTURE
We run this trip twice in 2027, back to back. They are two separate trips. Same route, same price, same guides. You pick the week that works and you travel with that group. You are not signing up for both.
DEPARTURE 1 OF 2
Saturday July 24 → Thursday July 29, 2027
6 days · 5 nights · 10 to 12 travelers · $3,995
DEPARTURE 2 OF 2
Saturday July 31 → Thursday August 5, 2027
6 days · 5 nights · 10 to 12 travelers · $3,995
Tell us which departure you want on your application. If your first choice is full, we will ask before moving you to the other.
51.5
MILES
10,358
FEET UP
5
NIGHTS
12
MAX GROUP
The Laugavegur is the best known trail in Iceland. It runs from the rhyolite hills of Landmannalaugar down through the Highlands to the birch woods of Þórsmörk, and that is where it officially ends.
We keep going. One more day, over Fimmvörðuháls and down to the sea at Skógar. It is the hardest day of the week, and it is one of many reasons to come.
Six days. Five nights in mountain huts, a tent camp at Emstrur, and a private rooms at the finish. Your bags move ahead of you every day, so you walk with a daypack. Twelve people, two guides, and one table in Skógar on the last night with dinner on us.
Everything below is the plan. Iceland decides the rest. Weather moves this itinerary, sometimes with a few hours’ notice, and when it does the guides call it and we go where the mountain allows. That is not a disclaimer. It is the deal you are making with the Highlands.
Landmannalaugar. The colour is rhyolite, and photographs undersell it.
This is where most trips end. We have one more day.
The Route
GENERAL LAYOUT, SUBJECT TO THE HIGHLANDS
DAY 1 LANDMANNALAUGAR HUT
Meet in Reykjavík in the morning, gear check, then the 12:30 bus into the Highlands. Afternoon at Landmannalaugar. There is a natural hot spring here, wide enough for the whole group, and after a travel day it is exactly where you want to be. Bring a bathing suit and a beer. First night in the hut.
DAY 2 ÁLFTAVATN HUT 12.8 MI · 3,955 FT
The big climbing day. Up through the steam vents and snowfields of Hrafntinnusker, then down to the lake at Álftavatn. Dinner at the hut restaurant.
DAY 3 EMSTRUR · TENTS 10.0 MI · 1,162 FT
Across the black sand and the river crossings to Emstrur. Tents are rented here and pitched with pads before you arrive . One night under canvas, nothing to carry or set up.
DAY 4 VOLCANO HUTS 10.1 MI · 2,123 FT
Down through the canyon into Þórsmörk, or Thor’s Forest, the only place on the route with trees. Dorm at Volcano Huts, hot buffet, and an early night.
DAY 5 SKÓGAR · PRIVATE ROOMS 18–19 MI · 3,118 FT
Fimmvörðuháls. Between the glaciers, past Magni and Móði, then the long descent beside the waterfalls to Skógar and the sea. Cozy two bed rooms that night, and the group dinner is on us.
DAY 6
Our driver collects us at Skógar and takes us straight back to Reykjavík. Trip ends in the city.
Your duffel moves hut to hut every day. You hike with a daypack.
DAY FIVE
Fimmvörðuháls
The map calls it 16.7 miles. Every watch in our group read closer to 20. Call it 18 to 19 miles and 3,118 feet and plan accordingly. It is the longest day of the week by a wide margin.
Some tours advertise this pass and then walk partway up it and turn around. We cross it. It runs between Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull. Two glaciers, close enough that on a clear day you see both at once.
Halfway across you walk between Magni and Móði, two craters that did not exist before 2010. The ground there is still warm in places. They are named for Thor’s sons, which is the kind of thing Iceland does without irony.
Then the descent. A staircase of waterfalls down the Skógá river, more than twenty of them, ending at Skógafoss and the black sand coast. You finish at the ocean.
The descent to Skógar. More than twenty waterfalls on the way down.
Where You Sleep
Huts, one tent night, and cozy two bed rooms at the end. Each one earns its place. The mix is deliberate, because there are real advantages to both huts and tents, and this route lets you have the best of each.
MOUNTAIN HUTS · NIGHTS 1, 2 AND 4
Landmannalaugar, Álftavatn and Volcano Huts. What the huts give you is everything the weather takes away. A warm room, a dry place to hang wet gear overnight, and a kitchen, which is where the group actually comes together. Cooking and eating side by side in a hut after a long day is half of why people remember these trips. And when it is blowing sideways outside, you are inside.
TENTS AT EMSTRUR · NIGHT 3
Emstrur is the only place on the route that rents tents, and they come pitched with pads already inside. Nothing to carry, pitch, or strike.
Ask anyone who has done both and they will tell you the tent night is the best sleep of the week. No bunk room, no headlamps at 4am, no stranger snoring three feet away. Just your own quiet space, the sound of the wind on the fly, and a whole night of actual sleep.
The honest trade: a tent is colder in the morning and there is no kitchen to stand around in. That is exactly why we do it once, in the right place, on the night the route allows for it.
Why not camp the whole way? Because campers are not allowed inside the huts in Iceland, and that rule is enforced even in a storm. On a route this exposed, with a group this size, we are not building a trip that depends on the weather cooperating.
Bring your own sleeping bag. Everything else is handled.
Álftavatn. People swim. It is not warm.
INCLUDED
Bus into the Highlands · private driver back to Reykjavík · three nights in mountain huts · one night in pitched tents with pads at Emstrur · cozy two bed rooms at Skógar · daily duffel transfer between huts · two experienced guides who have run this route · all meals on trail, breakfasts, packed lunches and dinners · Álftavatn restaurant dinner · Volcano Huts buffet and packed lunches · celebration dinner at Skógar · trail breakfasts and snacks · campsite and hut fees · custom trip clothing and bag tags · GPS files and maps · full logistics · detailed packing list
NOT INCLUDED
Airfare · travel insurance (required) · your sleeping bag · lodging in Reykjavík before or after the trip · airport transfers · alcohol · gratuities · costs arising from early exit, missed flights, or weather changes outside our control
Your Guides
TWO OF US, ON THE TRAIL, ALL WEEK
John Hardin
FOUNDER, HARDWIN ADVENTURES · LEAD GUIDE
I founded HardWin Adventures out of Nashville and I own HardWin Vacations. Twenty years in event production, most of it putting people outdoors in places that ask something of them. Trail races, ultras, endurance events, community outings. I am also Director of RUNNTENN, a nonprofit running free and accessible running and walking events across Tennessee, because the point of all of this is to remove barriers rather than build them, and to put a community together on the other side.
Outside the events, I chase Fastest Known Times. I hold records on the Ozark Highlands Trail, the Sheltowee Trace, and the Natchez Trace.
The one people ask about is the Appalachian Trail. I went after the speed record and held record pace for 779 miles before a quad tear ended it. Twelve states short. That attempt taught me more than any of the finishes did. About what a body does on day eighteen, about making decisions when you are too tired to make them well, and about the difference between wanting something and being able to keep moving toward it. Most of what I know about how a hard week actually goes came from days like those.
What I actually believe in is giving people huge life experiences. Through goals in my races, through community with RUNNTENN, and now through HardWin Vacations, where the experience comes with people you will know for the rest of your life.
I am on the trail with you the entire week. Not coordinating from town, not meeting the group for dinner. Cooking in the hut, making the weather call on the pass, walking the whole thing alongside you.
I live in Nashville with my wife Stephanie, our son Zaidyn, our dogs, and a cat who appears to be reviewing my long term status.
Lauren Beihoffer, M.S.
SECOND GUIDE · ENDURANCE COACH
Lauren is a former research scientist and teacher turned endurance coach, guide, and lifelong adventurer. She brings years of experience across ultrarunning, backpacking, adventure racing, mountaineering, and wilderness travel to her work.
Her mission is to create meaningful experiences that foster reflection, growth, and connection through time spent in the wild. She believes everyone, from the aspiring adventurer to the most seasoned endurance athlete, deserves the opportunity to explore, learn, challenge themselves, and build community in wild places.
When she is not coaching or guiding, Lauren can usually be found running ultras, carrying a pack, chasing big mountains, or planning her next adventure. You can also catch her on Discovery Channel’s Season 16 of Naked and Afraid.
She guided the first HardWin Iceland trip and is back for 2027. She knows this route, this weather, and what a group needs on day four when everyone is tired and the wind has picked up.
UESCA Certified Running Coach
Precision Nutrition Certified Nutritionist
GGS Certified Women’s Health Specialist
Certified Metabolic Efficiency Specialist
Misfit Mountain Athletics
Two guides for twelve travelers. Both of us walk every mile of it with you.
We Do Iceland the Right Way
EVERY REASON, NOT JUST THE OBVIOUS ONE
The extra day is the part nobody else offers. It is not the only reason this week works.
THE BIG ONE
We Haul Your Gear
Every day, your duffel moves ahead of you by vehicle to the next hut. You hike with a daypack.
This changes the entire week. You move fast and light over 51 miles of Highland terrain, and then you walk into camp and every creature comfort you own is already sitting there. Dry clothes. A real sleeping bag. Whatever you decided you could not do without. Most people on this trail are carrying forty pounds and rationing what they brought. You are not.
MEALS
We Cover the Food
You do not shop for this trip, carry a week of freeze dried, or work out what everyone is eating on night three. We handle it.
Breakfasts are light and early. Oatmeal, bars, fruit, and real coffee before we move. Enough to get you going without sitting in a hut for an hour.
Lunches are packed and eaten on the trail wherever the view is best.
Dinners are the good part. We cook together in the hut kitchens most nights, sit down at the restaurant at Álftavatn, take the hot buffet at Volcano Huts before the big day, and finish with a proper dinner in Skógar that is on us.
Tell us about allergies and dietary needs on your application and we plan around them.
TRANSPORT
Our Own Driver Home
We take the bus into the Highlands on day one. Getting out is where it matters. Coming back from Skógar on scheduled lines means connections and waiting, and it can eat ten hours of your day after the hardest hike of the week. We hire our own driver instead. He meets us at the finish and takes us straight to Reykjavík, and we leave when the group is ready rather than when a timetable says so.
COMFORT
A Real Night Indoors Before the Big Day
Volcano Huts at Þórsmörk, the night before Fimmvörðuháls. Proper roof, hot buffet dinner, packed lunches for the crossing, and a warm room to sit in as a group. You do not attempt a sixteen mile day on a bad night’s sleep.
THE FINISH
A Serious Party Dinner in Skógar
The night we come off the pass, still filthy, we all sit down to a proper dinner and it is on us. Not a granola bar and a handshake. The last night of a trip like this is the whole point, and we treat it that way.
YOURS TO KEEP
Custom Trip Clothing and Bag Tags
Every traveler gets custom HardWin gear made for this trip, plus custom bag tags on your duffel. The tags are not decoration. When fourteen identical bags come off a truck at a hut in the rain, yours is obvious.
THE GROUP
Twelve People. Two Guides. That Is It.
Not a tour bus with a flag. Twelve travelers and two guides who are on the trail with you the entire week, cooking with you, eating with you, and making the calls when the weather turns.
That is the trip. The route is extraordinary and the extra day is what nobody else offers, but it is the whole package that makes the week work.
Now we are looking for the right group to do it with.
The Group We’re Looking For
Twelve people, five nights, shared kitchens and a lot of weather. We are not looking for the fastest, and we do not care about your race resume. We are looking for people who can be cold and tired and still be good company. People who follow a guide’s call, notice when someone else is struggling, and do hard things without making it everyone else’s problem.
That is what the application is for. It is as much your chance to work out whether you want this as it is ours.
Some people come alone and leave with friends. Some bring the person they most want to see it with.
Who This Is For
Our biggest fear is that this type of trip simply isn’t for you. We aren’t looking for the strongest or the fastest. We screen for an endurance mindset. People who have struggled, kept moving, and found success on the other side. When the chips are down, can you accept the situation, keep moving forward, and help the person beside you who may be struggling?
We screen because your mindset affects not only your safety and happiness, but the safety, happiness and experience of the entire group. Know that this is nature. We don’t conquer it, but we do our best to survive it.
BEFORE YOU APPLY, IMAGINE THIS
You’re two days into the trip when 70 mph winds pin us down on a mountain. The temperature is dropping, everything is wet, and the route ahead is no longer an option. You haven’t slept, you’re running out of dry clothes, and the trip you spent months preparing for is over. Now we have to turn around and fight our way back out. You’re cold, exhausted, pissed off and miserable, and the person next to you is having an even worse day.
Do you still want to come?
How Registration Works
APPLICATION FIRST. PAYMENT SECOND. NO EXCEPTIONS EITHER WAY.
STEP 1 Apply
Ten questions, about ten minutes, no payment due. Tell us which week you want.
STEP 2 We read it
Usually within a few days. If anything gives either of us reason to talk, we’ll set up a call first.
STEP 3 Pre-register
You enter your card details, but nothing is charged. Pre-registration is the line at the door, not a maybe.
STEP 4 Deposit
Once you’re admitted, your card is charged half the trip price, or the full amount if you chose pay in full.
STEP 5 Balance
The remaining half auto charges on a date set at booking. If it declines you get an invoice and 7 days to sort it.
STEP 6 Onboarding
Packing list, travel notes, group calls at 60 and 30 days out, and proof of travel insurance before departure.
Not admitted? You were never charged. Nothing to refund.
Good to Know
What airport, and where does the trip start?
Fly into Keflavík (KEF). The trip starts when we meet in Reykjavík on the morning of Day 1 and ends when our driver drops us back in the city on Day 6. You book your own nights either side.
COME IN A DAY EARLY
The bus leaves at 12:30 on Saturday and it does not wait. You can technically fly in that morning and make it to the stop in time, and some people do. It is also a real risk: one delayed flight, one slow bag, one line at customs, and you have missed the trip you paid for.
Fly in Friday. Sleep, eat something, walk around Reykjavík, and show up Saturday morning without your heart rate up. It is one extra night and it removes the only piece of this week you genuinely cannot recover from.
What is the weather like in late July?
Highland summer. Roughly 45 to 60F, wind most days, rain some days, and snowfields still on the ground at the high points. It changes fast and it changes plans.
How heavy is my pack?
A daypack. Your duffel moves between huts every day by vehicle, so you are carrying a day’s worth of gear rather than a week’s. There is required gear for the crossings, including layers, a shell, water, food, and a few safety items. We send the full list once you are in. But it is never a heavy pack. You can run in it. That is what makes 51 miles accessible without making the hiking easy.
Do I need a visa?
US, Canada, UK and EU citizens do not. Passport valid at least six months past travel.
Do we tip?
Tipping is customary on guided trips and it is genuinely appreciated.
$100 to $150 per person for the guide team is the usual range.
We work hard for it. We are cooking, carrying the decisions, watching the weather, and on the trail with you every mile of the week. That said, it is never required, and if you do not feel we earned it then that is completely okay. Nobody will know and nobody will ask.
Do I need to be an experienced hiker?
It helps, but it is not a requirement. This is five consecutive days on foot, four of them substantial, with one very big day at the end. Plenty of people have done it without a deep trail background, on preparation and attitude.
What matters more is that you are honest with us about where you are. Tell us on the application and we will review your capabilities together and give you a straight answer about whether this year is the right one. That is the whole point of the process.
Cancellation and Refunds
READ THIS BEFORE YOU PRE-REGISTER
This is the section people skip and then get surprised by, so we have written it out properly. None of it is unusual for guided international travel. All of it is worth understanding before you commit.
STEP 0
Before you are admitted, you are not charged
Pre-registration stores your card. Nothing moves. If we do not admit you, there is nothing to refund because nothing was ever taken. You are not out a dollar and you are not waiting on a bank.
GRACE WINDOW
A short window of full refundability after you are charged
Once we admit you and your deposit is charged, a short cooling-off window applies and you can cancel for a full refund. The exact window is stated at checkout. This is standard consumer protection on a purchase like this, not a favor we are doing you.
AFTER THAT
Your payment becomes non refundable
This is the part that matters. Once the window closes, we start spending your money on your trip. Hut beds get booked and paid. Guides are contracted. The luggage transfer, the bus, the driver, the tents at Emstrur, the rooms in Skógar. Iceland vendors take payment months ahead and most of it does not come back.
We are not holding your deposit. We have committed it on your behalf.
90+ DAYS OUT
We try to recover what we can
Cancel more than 90 days before departure and we will go back to every vendor and try to recover what has been committed. Anything we get back, you get back. This is a good faith effort, not a guarantee. Some vendors refund, some do not, and we cannot promise an outcome we do not control.
INSIDE 90 DAYS
Recovery is unlikely
Within 90 days of departure almost everything is spent and unrecoverable. We will still make the effort, but plan on the answer being no.
This is exactly why we require travel insurance with emergency medical and evacuation coverage. Insurance is what protects your money against the things nobody can plan for. Illness, injury, a family emergency, a job that changes. We cannot be your insurance. That is not us being harsh, it is the honest limit of what a small operator can absorb.
IF WE CANCEL
Minimum group size is 10 per departure. If a week does not reach it, we cancel that week and refund you in full, and we will tell you
no later than 90 days before departure.
That 90 day promise is deliberate. We are opening this early specifically so that if a week does not fill, you find out with three months to spare, before you have booked flights on a maybe, and while you still have a real shot at reasonable airfare somewhere else.
If we cancel for any other reason within our control, you get a full refund. If something genuinely outside anyone’s control forces a cancellation, we refund whatever has not already been spent on your behalf.
NATURE DOES NOT READ ITINERARIES
Weather, river levels and trail conditions can change the route, shorten a day, or alter the trip. Guide decisions made for group safety are final and are not grounds for a refund. If we cannot cross Fimmvörðuháls, we take the alternate and the trip still happens. You are buying a week in the Icelandic Highlands, not a guarantee about which ground you cover.
Transfers. If you cannot come, ask us. Moving you to the other departure, or passing your spot to someone else who clears the application, is sometimes possible depending on timing and vendor terms. We would much rather solve it than keep your money.
Other terms. Participants must be 18 or older. A signed participant agreement and proof of travel insurance are required before departure. Costs from personal early exit, missed flights, or evacuation are your responsibility.
GRAVITY REMAINS OPERATIONAL.
