Tuesday, 23 June 2026

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 15:00, 17:00
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 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 until 17:00! Remember to dress according to weather and feel free to borrow our thermal overalls if needed!

Report from Eldey: This morning offered us a full on minke madness! As we left the harbor, on calm seas and overcast skies, it did not last long until we spotted the first two minke whales of the tour. We were able to watch them surface multiple times, clearly seeing the minke whales stretch their pointy snouts out of the surface when coming up for a breath. As we continued on, more and more minke whales started to appear around us, all throughout the tour we saw at least 15 in total - how lucky are we! One of them came surprisingly close to us, surfacing several times just by our bow! As it seemed like quite a small individual, our guess was that it was a juvenile. We stopped here to admire the minke whale for quite some time, then a larger blow caught our eye in the distance. As we arrived, we noticed that it was a humpback whale! We could watch this individual deep dive several times, lifting its grand fluke above the surface, and giving us a chance to clearly see its fluke print. However, as this individual only spent short sequences at the surface, we decided to leave it be and continue our adventure. Several more minke whales popped up around us every now and then, and then suddenly - another blow ahead! When we arrived, we discovered that it was not just one blow, but two! We stopped to watch this duo do some calm surface sequences very close to us, ending with a double fluke. Just when we thought it was time to head back towards the city, some jumps in the distance caught our eye. We decided to go and check it out, and discovered it was a pod of 8 white beaked dolphins! We could calmly watch them surface by our side, giving us a very beautiful moment before it was time to head back home full of new memories. 

- Eline Van Aalderink 

Report from Hafsúlan: While talking about harbour porpoises, their small pods and their elusive behavior around the boats, a big pod of 10 to 12 harbour porpoises showed up to our left! These ones were speeding thru waves, creating big splashes and we got a good look at these cute animals. We continued our adventure and stopped a few times for elusive minke whales. As we were playing this hide and seek with the minke whales, something else caught our eye. 10 to 15 white-beaked dolphins! This pod was feeding, swimming very close to us and changing direction quite much. One of them even did a jump! We left the dolphins to their lunch, because we spotted a blow in the distance. As we made our way over, it was a humpback whale going for a beautiful fluke dive. In the distance there was another humpback whale but we were waiting for this one to come up again. When it came up, it joined the other whale! We observed this feeding pair for a bit, seeing fluke dives and marveling over their size. On our way back, we spotted another minke whale close to us and another pod of white-beaked dolphins! The bay was full of life today and we returned home with smiles and happy memories.

- Janiek Schrijer

Report from Eldey: It seemed like Faxaflói was trying to break some records for most whales per square kilometer today. Everywhere we looked, a blow appeared or a dorsal fin broke the surface. Our first encounter was with a pod of 7 white-beaked dolphins. They seemed a bit curious about the boat, but swam off after a while and so we went to the next sighting. We lost count of the number of minke whales we saw - probably around 8 spread out over the whole tour. Next up was the mighty humpback whale. The first one had barely fluked, before our eye was caught by some big splashes created by another individual. This whale was throwing its peduncle in the air, slapping its pectoral fin, and we even saw it creating a bubble net! When we thought things couldn´t get any better, we encountered 6 more dolphins, a few more minke whales, and saw another humpback whale from very close as the cherry on top. 

- Maja Andersson

Report from Eldey: Tonight the whales were everywhere, doing everything, all at once. When we had sailed for a little while, we spotted two separate humpback whales and a pair, and also around four minke whales in the same area. They were all busy feeding, but one of them was extra busy: throwing his peduncle in the air and making a bubblenet. When we were about to leave, he clearly had saved the best for last to impress us as he jumped all the way out of the water - with a gorgeous backdrop of Snæfellsjökull and pale orange sky. Next up were a pod of 10 white-beaked dolphins. Clearly, there was something in the water tonight because the dolphins were also jumping, sometimes coming to ride our bow, and being very active. But we wanted to end the day with some more humpback whales, so we set sail towards another pair. These two immediately became curious about the boat, showing up very close, one of them spyhopping and the other waving their pectoral fin at us. Then they started simultaneously waving their pectoral fins in the air, in a manner that would impress any professional synchronised swimmer. We tried to leave, but it was physically impossible because the whales were so close to that (and also because they were way too fun to say goodbye to). If you thought that was it - the best was yet to come. One of the whales started breaching. It probably breached around 6 times, each time closer to the boat. Then, the other one started! We couldn´t believe our eyes as we saw multiple tons of whale completely airborne, let alone two of them, let alone mere meters away from the bow! This was a sighting we will not soon (or ever) forget.

-Eline van Aalderink

Northern gannet, northern fulmar, eider duck, Atlantic puffin, common guillemot, herring gull, lesser black-backed gull, black-headed gull, Arctic skua