Around Icelandic Fjords

If you ever thought about seeing Iceland from the more secluded side, without a lot of tourists admiring one waterfall, plan your trip around Icelandic Fjords. Just rememebr that it’s more than a one day drive if you want to go around the whole part of the fjords.

Around Icelandic West Fjords you can find quite a lot of beautiful places - Hornstrandir reserve, Latrabjarg Park (famous for the best place to watch puffins - Icelandic most adorable penguin looking birds), Dynjandi waterfall, the „city” called Isafjordur, Patreksfjordur or Flateyri. Due to lack of time (my parents came to visit me and apart from driving around the fjords they also wanted to see some of the more touristic places) we basically drove through the fjords, stopping only for a couple of nights in some cities and admiring in the meantime the unbelieavable landscapes.

First stop - Isafjordur. Now there is not much to say about the place, typical small village in Iceland in the middle of the fjords. Beautifuly situated, with tons of colourful and adorable houses. Whenever you decide to see the west fjords, don’t hope for big „aglomarations”, just go for the views and nature. Whenever you manage to pop to some small town you’ll start wondering how people manage to live, literally, in the middle of nowhere. That’s where I can give you first piece of advice, fuel up your car to the maximum before letting yourself into secluded areas of Iceland. We were always mesmerized by the fact that the first petrol station was actually in one of those so called towns. So if you run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere…let’s just say „God be with you” ;)

Night in Flateyri. We decided to take a rest in a house to rent in the village called Flateyri. Village with around 200 inhabitants. The hostess managed to tell us a lot of engaging stories about their life in this small town. We learnt that in the past whales used to come to the bay, but because of hunters (yes, in Iceland they hunt whales and eat them) it’s very rare to see them come nowadays. When you look at the map Isajordur and Flateyri are villigaes near eachother (it takes you around 20 min car drive to get from one to another). Apparently before they built a tunnel in the fjords to get from one village to the other one, during snow storm seasons, villigers used to take a helicopter in order to get from one side to another. MADNESS.

Last stop - Dynjandi waterfall or Fjallfoss (both names are in use). That’s the biggest waterfall in the west fjords, 4th highest in the country. The drive to the waterfall may be quite dangerous because the roads are mainly graveled and steep. That's why you should remember to buy insurence with renting the car, you really don't want to end up paying for all the damages made by small stones. Unfortunatelly when we arrived to the waterfall it was pouring with rain so the drive back wasn’t very pleasant (nearly dug our car into the ground), but for the views it’s even worth getting stuck in the mud.

At first you might be dissapointed with the trip around the fjords, you might be saying „no people, no waterfalls every 5 seconds, just the fjords and nothing else’. But once you finish the trip around you won’t be able to forget those magnificents landscapes. Perfect scenery for criminal writers, scaringly beautiful views with lonely houses every 100 km that top the scenerie of Icelandic Fjords.

Any questions about the west fjords? Feel free to text me and I’ll be more than happy to anwser you back!