Twenty-five years at sea · Reykjavík & Akureyri
Meet the wild ones
Whales, puffins, seals and the Arctic fox — introduced by someone who has spent a lifetime among them. This close. This real. Bookable today.
Whales, puffins, seals and the Arctic fox — introduced by someone who has spent a lifetime among them. This close. This real. Bookable today.
I started taking people out to the whales of Faxaflói twenty-five years ago, when few visitors knew Iceland had whales at all. Since then I have seen humpbacks return to our bay in numbers, watched puffin colonies rise and fall, and learned one thing above all: the wild does not perform on cue — but it rewards those who know where and when to look.
Everything on this page is an encounter I would send my own friends to. The boats are ours or run by people we trust, and every booking supports the research that keeps these animals thriving.
RannveigFounder — Elding Whale Watching & Akureyri Whale Watching
Fox territory: officially the Westfjords and the east — unofficially, the whole island. Hand-drawn; the animals did not approve the borders.
Twenty-three species of whale and dolphin move through Icelandic waters. On a good summer day in Faxaflói or Eyjafjörður, humpbacks lunge-feed a boat-length away — thirty tonnes of animal, unbothered by your presence, entirely in charge of the moment.
After twenty-five years, the second a humpback breaks the surface still stops my heart.
More than half of the world's Atlantic puffins nest in Iceland — millions of pairs on grassy cliffs and islands. They arrive in late April, raise a single chick, and vanish back to the open sea by late August. With puffins, timing is everything; we run the boats that get it right.
A short sail to the puffin islands aboard a smaller boat built for close, quiet viewing.
Whale watching on Faxaflói with a pass along the puffin colonies on the way home. Our most loved summer ticket.
On the Vatnsnes peninsula in the northwest, harbour and grey seals haul out on the skerries in their dozens — and watch you watch them. The town of Hvammstangi is Iceland's seal capital, home to the Icelandic Seal Center and its ongoing research on these curious, unhurried animals.
Sail to the Vatnsnes haul-out sites with local guides who know every skerry — proceeds support seal research.
Entry to the Icelandic Seal Center with a map of the best viewing points along the peninsula.
The Arctic fox crossed frozen seas to reach Iceland at the end of the last Ice Age — ten thousand years before the first ship. In the Hornstrandir reserve, protected since 1994, foxes trot past quiet hikers as if inspecting the visitors. The Arctic Fox Centre in Súðavík anchors the research on this remarkable survivor.
Boat into the reserve and a guided hike through fox territory with an experienced local naturalist.
The exhibition and an introduction to the centre's den-monitoring work in the Westfjords.
Wildlife watching in Iceland works because the boats and the scientists work together. These are the research efforts our companies run or support — and that your visit helps fund.
Elding and Akureyri Whale Watching log sightings on every departure and contribute fluke photo-identification to long-term studies of humpback and minke populations.
Population counts and behavioural research on harbour and grey seals along Vatnsnes — paired with guidelines that keep viewing respectful.
Den monitoring and long-term study of Iceland's only native land mammal, in the Westfjords where the fox thrives under protection.
Departures all year. Free retry if the wildlife doesn't show — that is our promise after twenty-five years.
See today's departures