Northwest Iceland Explorer into de Pack Ice

In the late afternoon, you will board the ship in the port of Keflavik, a short distance from the International Airport. With the port behind you, you sail north into the bay of Faxaflói and proceed to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula while looking for whales in this large bay.

Ice caps and volcanoes

You land in Breidavik at Arnarstapi, with Snaefellsjökull, a glacier-capped volcano in the background. You will walk southward, along cliffs with seabirds, to Hellnar, where you embark the ship again. You may also proceed to Snaefellsjökull, where Jule Vernes: Journey to the center of the Earth began. In the evening, you will again look for whales northwest of the peninsula.

A land of islands, skerries and Norse legends

You sail in the broad and shallow bay of Breidafjordur, peppered with hundreds of islands and skerries, and may glimpse some white-tailed eagles. You will then land on Flatey and explore its traditional fishing village and the church with paintings by the Spanish-Icelandic artist Baltasar. Black guillemots and vast colonies of puffins breed along the shores, and red-necked phalaropes are common in ponds just inland.

You will pay a visit to Klofningur, a diminutive island featuring a lighthouse and extensive breeding colonies of shags, fulmars, and great black-backed gulls. In the evening, you will sail by the impressive Látrabjarg, featuring Iceland’s biggest seabird colonies.

On the lookout for whales and eider ducks

Sailing into impressive Skutulsfjörður, home to the town of Isafjordur, the expedition team plans a visit to Aedey, where an Icelandic family keeps an eider duck farm where the many hundreds of birds can breed protected entirely and where, at the end of the breeding season, all eiderdown is collected for trade. At the shores of the island you also meet breeding puffins. In the afternoon, you may sail into Jökulfirdir or directly out of the fjord, looking again for whales, while you sail northwest and pass the Arctic Circle.

At the fringes of the sea ice

North of Iceland, in the fringes of the southward-moving sea ice, you sail northeast with the ice-rated vessel. You look two days for harp and hooded seals, which sometimes frequent the area in great numbers. The presence of a lonely polar bear can not be discounted, as they sometimes reach Iceland’s shores. Near and along the sea ice, you will see whales and seabirds as they migrate and forage along the productive edge of the sea ice. You will be in an impressive sea-scape with, to the west, sea ice as far as you see. This is a wild Arctic environment, constantly in motion and always changing.

Crossing the Arctic Circle once more

You find yourselves sailing southward. In the early morning, you will pass Kolbeinsey, a tiny uninhabited islet rapidly being eroded by the fearsome surrounding ocean. Later, you will land on Grimsey, a small island that straddles the Arctic Circle. Grimsey features a small but friendly fishing village and is home to colonies of kittiwakes, razorbills, puffins, fulmars, and Arctic terns. In the evening, at the mouth of Eyafjordur, you may again see some whales.

With your journey ending, you disembark in Akureyri, where, on request, you can transfer by chartered bus (a six-hour drive that you must book in advance) to the bus stop Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre at Austurbakki, Reykjavík. While your time in the Arctic may be over, your memories and experiences will stay with you forever!