Tuesday, 16 June 2026

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00, 20:30
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 20:00

Today's Whale Watching tours from Reykjavík are on schedule. Remember to dress according to weather and feel free to borrow our thermal overalls if needed!

Report from Eldey: The weather could not get much better as we went out on this sunny, warm and calm day. Just a few minutes into the tour we spotted 2 fast traveling minke whales in the distance. We passed them as we were on our way further out where we expected much larger animals. A good decision as it turned out as we found a group of 4 humpback whales. The were very social and displayed a lot of surface behavior. Rolling, breaching and slapping their massive pectoral fins (the longest pectoral fins of all whales) onto the surface, creating loud splashes. Also a pod of around 6 white-beaked dolphins showed up and started playing and jumping around the humpback whales. It was amazing to see these species interact with each other. On our way back we also passed a little pod of 3 harbour porpoise allowing us to finish the tour with all four of our main species sighted. 

- Janiek Schrijer

Report from Hafsulan: Our boat ventured Northwest to search for whales, under the company of various flocks of birds, including puffins, guillemots and herring gulls. We stopped at one point to spend some time with two sleeping humpback whales, before continuing and letting them be. We then arrived to a new area, where three more humpbacks where in, slightly spread apart. One of them stood out from the group, by performing various social behaviours, such as tail slaps, pectoral fin slaps and peduncle slaps. A few minke whales were also randomly surfacing in the area, before quickly disappearing again. The sighting was amazing, but we were already far from home and needed to start heading back. We were quickly interrupted though, on the way back, by a sighting of four white-beaked dolphins, who where swimming fast and sporadically changing directions, as if they were hunting fish. Then, our attention suddendly changed to something even more incredible... A new humpback whale, close by, who kept breaching and slapping its pectoral fins, in an incredible show of power. By the time we finally left, we were already a bit late to arrive home, but totally happy with our incredible tour.

- Ricardo Mendes

Report from Hafsulan: This tour left everyone on board speechless. We headed out in a bit of wind but the sea was fairly calm regardless. After a little while rain joined the show and it looked like it might be difficult to spot anything on the tour, but I was really wrong. The boat headed towards a hotspot area where the whales have been hanging out during the last tours. Once there we quickly spotted two massive spouts in the distance, belonging to 2 humpback whales. Right over them was a big flock of birds circling, suggesting that feeding was going on. This hypothesis was proven correct and we ended up in a feeding frenzy. As we headed closer another humpback whale joined us alongside the boat and did a few fluke dives, but we aimed for the feeding event ahead of us. These two individuals offered the best possible show. They came right next to the boat so many times, blowing bubbles in circles, loud trumpeting, quick turns to maneuver the school of fish and frequent fluke dives. It was a very active event. You could follow the direction of the birds and predict where the whales would come up every time which made the spotting very interactive with the guests. From the distance, one more species aimed for the feeding frenzy. It was a pod of about 10 white-beaked dolphins. They were playing, leaping out of the water and feeding right with the humpback whales. It was a spectacular show unlike anything else. A bit further away in a distance another humpback whale did a big breach all of a sudden, just adding more craziness to this tour. It was hanging out with 2 more humpback whales and most likely feeding too since there was another big flock of birds there. Eventually we left these whales alone since the tour literally could not get any better than this. We headed home and the rain was pouring down on us, but it did not disappoint us at all after a tour like this, just wow!

- Frida Skarfors

Report from Eldey: We had a fantastic morning and we could not be more exited to go out again! The wind picked up a bit, together with some light rain, but this did not temper our spirits. On our way to the area where we spotted animals this morning, black dorsal fins suddenly came out the water. A pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins! They circled the boat and as we were looking at them, a blow appeared. We went to investigate, accompanied by the dolphins, and it turned our to be a feeding humpback whale! Very nice, very busy individual and we could all have a good look at them. Then two more blows appeared on the horizon! There were two humpback whales feeding together, surfacing close and showing their beautiful fluke. One of them suddenly came towards us, did a tail throw, passed under the boat and then breached!! Nobody expected this but fortunately most of us were looking in the right direction. Then we needed to be heading home, so we put on the music and enjoyed the mountains around us.

- Knut Albrecht

Report from Eldey: Sunny harbour does not equal sunny sea as we discovered today. 15 min after leaving the sun cast harbour, we experienced another Icelandic weather type: horizontal rain. Nonetheless, after some traveling we spotted our first humpback whale! It was the same as the one this morning and it was busy feeding, but suddenly came so close we saw the fluke and the pectoral fins through the surface. We continued on and spotted more blows in the distance. In the area, there were at least 6 humpback whales doing all kinds of things. Close to us, three of them were feeding. Two of them were both tail slapping, but very far away from each other so we were in between a humpback whale conversation! Then, one close to us joined the conversation and we got treated to some beautiful fluke throws. The rain stopped and it was sunny skies again on the way home.

- Janiek Schrijer

Report from Elding: The wind got significantly stronger by the time of our evening tour, and the sea was choppy, but nothing that was too much for our ship, Elding. As we faced the waves into Faxa bay, we started seeing some large splashes in the distance. Those splashes were clearly not whales, and as we approached, we could see they were being caused by a breaching humpback whale. The whale breached more than 10 times, and performed various social behaviours, such as slapping of its pectoral fins, and peduncle slaps. It seems as if the whale was trying to communicate with another fellow whale. A few minutes after leaving the whale, we could confirm this. We found two more humpbacks, only a few minutes after, one of which was also breaching and doing the same social behaviours. We spent some time with these whales, and could also see various other humpback and minke whales surfacing nearby, in what was likely a large whale feasting going on. We then ended the tour by sailing back to Reykjavík under a gorgeous sunset.

- Ricardo Mendes

Artic tern, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, herring gull, common gull, eider duck, common guillemot, Atlantic puffin