Ísafjörður, Iceland - October 11th 2023

Isafjordur town, West-fjords, Iceland

Looking for a hidden gem in Iceland’s Westfjords? That’s where Isafjordur comes into play. Nestled amidst breathtaking fjords, this charming town offers a perfect blend of tranquility and adventure. Discover why travel to Isafjordur unlocks the door to a world of unparalleled beauty and exploration.

Why travel to Iceland without experiencing the charm of Isafjordur?

Enjoy your travel to Europe.

Great see some very relaxed Purple Sandpipers in Isafjordur. Breeding in the high Arctic they are very tame and often winter in and around docks. #purplesandpiper #isafjordur #Iceland #westfjords (at Ísafjörður) https://www.instagram.com/p/Chm6fAtjo3i/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Ísafjörður

Island August 2021

Day 13 - Isafjordur Iceland

Isafjordur Iceland was our first port in Iceland. A visit to the abandoned village of Hesteyri is worth it, especially if you see a whale!

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Isafjordur, Iceland [OC] [4002x6003]

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Boat in Isafjordur

Day 5 was a heavy driving day. The highways in the West Fjords are almost exclusively grave. There were only a few paved sections, so it was a very bumpy day. The roads were pretty vacant, I saw maybe 2 dozen vehicles all day. In addition to being bumpy, very little out in the West Fjords, however, it is bloody beautiful.

I did spend most of the day searching for a washroom as most gas stations are just a pump and a debit terminal.

I did finally find a washroom after 5 hours, at a beautiful water fall, so that worked out. I hiked up a took a bunch of pics on my nikon.

Finally arrived in Isafjordur for the evening. Unfortunately the West Fjord museum is also closed, so boo. I am starting to suspect everything out of Reykjavik might be closed this time of the year, which is too bad. But oh well, the scenery is beautiful. Tomorrow is another heavy driving day unfortunately. Well that is it for today, sitting down to a meal that is already amazing.

Fun Things to Do in Isafjordur | Travel Guide (2023) | Best Places to Visit

Driving to Ísafjörður - October 9th 2023

#Travel Girl #Iceland 2023 Cruise: A Nation Windswept and Beautiful from Mountain to Sea

Join us on our #travel through #Iceland’s natural and manmade marvels. From the capital #Reykjavik to the most popular sights like the #Bluelagoon, #TheGoldenCircle, #Gullfoss Waterfall, #Dynjandi Waterfall, #Isafjordur, #Thingvellir National Park, Great #Geysir and more. Iceland is a nation that will leave you breathless with its beauty. Watch our video to discover why.

Sunday and Monday

Sunday

Something of a strange day today. We had breakfast and checked out and drove out to Bolungarvik (through another long tunnel) at the ocean end of the fiord. Not much to see, but we found a road not marked on our very poor map that took us over the mountain and down to Skalavik Bay in the next fiord.  It was pretty scary, a very rough unsealed track, narrow and very steep in places with an impressive drop off the side of the mountain if you took a corner too fast.  It was also very foggy for a few kilometres, quite dense at the top of the mountain, but fortunately only 3 or 4 other cars (that we saw – there may have been others!).  There were a few campers at the end of the road, some with kids enjoying the water and the black sand beach – but it was too cold for us.

We drove back over the mountain with the fog lifting slightly and back to Isafjordur through the tunnel (we had to give way to oncoming traffic this time) and on towards Sudureyri through the tunnels we had traversed yesterday. Those tunnels are in a T-shape with Flateyri to the south, Sudureyri to the west and Isafjordur to the north.

Sudureyri was a fairly rundown fishing village but was interesting because they were unloading a lot of fish from a boat into big tubs on the dock. We have no idea what the fish were, but they were being sorted into boxes and some were more than a metre long - the smallest were close to half a metre. The boxes being landed were filled with ice among the fish and a lot of it had melted and mixed with the fish blood. Of course, when they tipped the boxes up to empty them, hundreds of litres of mostly blood flowed all over the dock. The Black-headed Gulls loved it and a big flock of them descended on the fish, feasting on their innards and the blood. Educational rather than edifying!

We continued south, past Flateyri to explore some minor roads into more fiords before heading for our digs for the night.  I deliberately mentioned Holt and Flateyri in yesterday’s drive because our hotel tonight was the Holt Hotel.  In other words, we drove past it yesterday and had to back-track about 50 kilometres to get to our hotel tonight.  We have no idea why our trip planners did that unless they couldn’t book the hotels in the other sequence.

Not to worry, the Hotel Holt was said to be in Flateyri so we bumped along the road until we got there.  It was a strange village, very dilapidated, the poorest we had seen, with few residents, empty houses – and a whole lot of tourists running back and forth across the road in front of us without looking.  There were two tourist busses there – why? if there was nothing to look at.  There was a little coffee shop and a smaller craft shop, both overflowing with careless tourists – but no Holt Hotel (thank goodness!)

I had seen a sign for Holt on the other side of the fiord so we bumped back along the track to the main road, across the fiord and up the road signposted to Holt.  The only two buildings in sight were a couple of kilometres in so we wound our way in and turned left to the more promising of the two.  Wrong one!  We arrived at the other one, dilapidated and distinctly uninviting from the outside, and initially unwelcoming inside.  ‘We don’t open until 4pm’ despite our travel itinerary saying check-in is at 2pm.  We sat in the car for a while, then moved into a more comfortable sitting room near Reception and soon our room was ready and we got settled in.  The owner offered us fish for dinner at $50-odd a head, but we ended up eating in our room - some of the food we have carried or purchased along the way.  The hotel was nowhere near as bad inside as outward appearances predicted so we were quite happy and had a comfortable night’s sleep.

Monday

We topped up with fuel at a roadside pump near Flateyri – 41 litres at a tad over $AU3.50 a litre – not too bad for 701 kilometres, particularly given the roads here.  Then it was back through the dreaded tunnels (we had right of way this time) to Isafjordur (again) then progressively south-east back and forth along the shores of several fiords until we exited the Westfjords and back toward the Ring Road (Road 1). On the way, we stopped at Sudavik to look at some seals – a few greyish lumps on some rocks almost too far away to see. I doubt if I would have found them if there weren’t some other tourists pointing them out to each other.

We called in at the Arctic Fox Centre where there was a real fox sleeping outside – hard to see but with a beautiful multicoloured coat. There are snow-white foxes that are mainly in the snow country and brown and black ones in the warmer areas. Foxhunting was and still is a thriving sport, but despite this they are still listed as ‘of least concern’.  The display was a bit ratty, but there were lots of historical photos with interesting stories attached.

We didn’t stay long but I had seen a birding pond advertised for visitors a couple of kilometres further on and we went there. We could see lots of birds there, but they were too far away to identify.  We saw a track to where you could get a photo and see some of the birds so we drove out a little way, took some pics and headed back – into the fury of a woman running down the track saying you are not allowed to even walk out there, much less drive.  Absolutely no signage to that effect, no barriers of any sort and an inviting set of wheel-tracks but she did her rant, insisting that we should have known the unadvertised proscription and we went on our way, chastened but indignant.  Why advertise a bird pond to visitors and then keep birders so far away that they couldn’t even identify the species out there?

We saw many ducks along that road and many beautiful white Whooper Swans but were only once able to stop to look at them.

The traffic is interesting here.  There are relatively few small sedans, but lots of big 4WDs, mainly Landcruisers like ours.  Almost half of them are towing a caravan or a camper-trailer – they are everywhere.  I am not sure where they camp because we have seen very few places in the wilds where it would be possible, and only a few crowded (sometimes not so crowded) campgrounds – far, far fewer than needed to accommodate the number of vans and motorhomes on the road.  There must be some large campgrounds well away from the main roads.

It was a pleasant drive with spectacular mountain views but we were almost always close to the sea in fiord after fiord with little of anything of consequence that I haven’t mentioned elsewhere – narrow roads, wonderful scenery, lots of birds, wildflowers everywhere, quaint farms and churches, wide open spaces. Idyllic and tranquil.  On a couple of occasions we stopped and got out of the car to absolute silence – no wind, no waves, no bird-calls, no cars – utter silence.  (Unheard of?)  Clean, clear and cleansing to the soul.

Our hotel was in Holmavik.  It was a pleasant little town on the edge of the fiord and we drove around and visited the supermarket for a few more commodities. The supermarket was also a diner and we purchased far more French/Icelandic fries than we could eat.  We ate in our room rather than go out again. Heather was not feeling brilliant but more of that tomorrow.

Isafjordur, Westfords, Iceland #isafjordur #westfjords #iceland (at Ísafjörður) https://www.instagram.com/p/CgfASWMD0gS/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Disney Magic's 2022 Iceland, Norway, and Scotland Cruise Itinerary Modified Again - Overnight Stay in Reykjavik Returns

Disney Magic’s 2022 Iceland, Norway, and Scotland Cruise Itinerary Modified Again – Overnight Stay in Reykjavik Returns

Disney Cruise Line is once again altering the Disney Magic’s August 17, 2022 11-Night Norway, Iceland, and Scotland Cruise from Copenhagen to Dover. The Disney Magic’s scheduled stop in Isafjordur, Iceland on August 22nd has been changed to Reykjavik brining back the overnight stay which was originally part of this sailing when it was first announced. According to Disney Cruise Line, port…

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