Wednesday, 12 August 2026

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 19:30
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 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 Hafsulan: On this special day of the solar eclipse, this morning´s whale-watching tour was also very unusual. We had barely left the harbour before we spotted our first whale: a minke whale feeding just to the south of Engey. The minke whale surfaced frequently, albeit unpredictably, and we got some good looks at this individual before we headed to our next sighting. One minute after we left the minke whale, we saw two blows about a mile away. Two humpback whales were resting right next to each other, and came up very close to the boat. After some very calm moments with them, we headed back towards Reykjavík because we had spotted another blow even closer to shore! This humpback was feeding, and lifted his tail out of the water frequently. After all this, we still had time because all the whales were so close to the city, so we decided to go back to the pair. They had separated but were both traveling northwards, so after a few flukedives we let them continue their course as we started heading back to harbour. That was still not the end of it, as on our way back another humpback whale made an appearance! We sailed back into port, slightly confused for having seen the whales so close to shore but also very happy to have experienced these beautiful moments with the minke and humpback whales. 

-Eline van Aalderink

Report from Eldey: This solar eclipse day started with glassy seas and overcast skies. Before the main event of today we set out for a whale watching trip and it did not disappoint! Very early in the tour blows started appearing close to shore. Two humpback whales were feeding a couple hundred meters from each other! We followed one individual for a while, watching beautiful fluke dives. This whale had a lot of entanglement scars, which is an important reminder of how these gentle giants are impacted by our ever-growing presence out on their oceans. All around blows kept coming up and we hopped from whale to whale. We got to see some amazing behaviors, like a bubble net feed and even two breaches! After a wonderful time we waved our whales goodbye but the ocean was not quite done with us. Moments before we entered the harbour, a minke whale surfaced! We caught a few glimpses of this elusive animal before heading to port. A wonderful ending to this already memorable day. 

- Sigrún Helgudóttir

Report from Hafsulan: The sea was really flat today which was wonderful. We did not have to go far until we had the first sighting of the tour - a curious minke whale by Engey. It was surfacing very close to us and we got beautiful looks of its whole body. With sea conditions like this it was easy to even see the pointy snout coming out of the water. We spent a little time with it and then we carried on the journey. A big blow was spotted in the distance, belonging to a humpback whale. Even this whale was very close to shore compared to normal days. This individual gave us very beautiful fluke dives. We encountered another humpback whale that came extremely close to us, right in front of the boat and we got to admire the whole body and the big white pectorial fins. As if this was not enough, another humpback whale appeared after this and truly stunned us. It did bubble net feeding, blowing bubbles in a perfect spiral and coming up vertically to feed. We even finished off the tour with yet another humpback sighting with amazing fluke dives. Before arriving to the harbour we encountered the same minke whale that we had in the beginning. What an incredible tour we had today!

- Frida "Roger" Skarfors

Report from Eldey: Our evening tour departed right after the solar eclipse tour, and we were all still in good mood. The clouds had started to dissipate, the bay was beautiful and the whales were still very close to Reykjavík. So it took less than half an hour to find our first sighting, a minke whale. Soon after, in the same area, two humpback whales showed up. We observed these giants, as they fed on the bay's fish, with the humpbacks lunging through the sea's surface with their mouths wide open, before closing them and diving again, with a mouthload of fish, as the tour went on, we observed various minkes and humpback whales surfacing a few dozens to thousands of meters from us. In total, we likely saw around 10 humpback and minke whales, throughout the tour. On the way back, we enjoyed the gorgeous landscape, covered in a weirdly beautiful blue to purple skyline.

- Ricardo Mendes

Atlantic puffin, Northern fulmar, Northern gannet, Arctic tern, Arctic skua, black guillemot, black-legged kittiwake, greater and lesser black-backed gull, herring gull