Friday, 14 August 2026

• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 09:00, 11:00, 13:00, 17:00, 19:30
• CLASSIC WHALE TOUR | 15:00
• PREMIUM WHALE TOUR | 10:00, 12:00, 14:00, 16:00, 20:00

Today's Classic Whale Watching tours from Reykjavík are on schedule except the 15:00 tour. Remember to dress according to weather and feel free to borrow our thermal overalls if needed!

Report from Eldey: On our first tour of the day, as we know it was quite windy, we started sailing out next to Esja mountain to keep the boat safe, steady and comfortable! We followed to Akranes town and headed to the middle of the bay from there, following the course of the waves. We passed by many and many seabirds, with Northern fulmar very close to our boat and puffins passing by. After a while, we finally saw it: a blow in the distance! We got closer and this was a humpback whale, coming up for a breath. We also saw a big splash, that indicated a breach when no one was paying attention, as they're super unpredictable with their surfaces. The whale started to throw its tail and even tail slap many times. It was amazing to see such behaviours in nature. We started to keep our distance more when more boats started to arrive. We then started to sail back to Reykjavik, since we were running out of time. Still, the sun was shining and the whale was incredible!

- Knut Albrecht

Report from Hafsulan: When we left the harbour, the sea conditions were rough, with strong winds and waves. Our captain decided to sail our ship into eastern, more coastal part of the bay, where we would be better protected from the weather. We passed by Lundey, a small island where a population of 10,000 puffin breeding pairs live. Although we are already at the end of the puffin season and a big part of the population has left, thousands of them were still present in the island and nearby. After some nice time with puffins and other seabirds (like fulmars and kittiwakes), we sailed out and, when the sea conditions allowed, we went deeper into the bay to try and find whales there. Throughout the search, we were accompanied by northern gannets, Europe's largest seabirds, which we saw doing various dives around us, dropping dozens of meters from the sky into the ocean, to catch fish. Eventually, we saw a group of 2 or 3 harbour porpoises, but since these small and shy cetaceans were still our only sighting by the tour, we handed out complimentary tickets to our guests. for them to return for another free tour, whenever they preferred.

- Ricardo Mendes

Report from Eldey: This afternoon the sea conditions continued to be the same, and we followed the same path so everyone could be comfortable and good during the tour. We passed by so many puffins when getting close to Akranes! It's still a very good time to see these little fellas. We then started to head into the middle of Faxaflói bay and, while the other boats haven't seen anything, we spotted a blow not far from us! We stopped our boat and went to investigate. A humpback whale was swimming calmly and nicely on the surface. We never got to see the tail of this one because it was also close to the surface! Sometimes it would disappear due to the sea conditions but it would come right back up. It was very sunny and, although choppy, this individual decided to stay very close to us. We got to see it so close that we needed to look down to check it out. The whale passed underneath our boat to pop up on our right hand side, still very close. At the same time, another blow came on other side, a minke whale that we saw quickly twice before it disappeared. The humpback started swimming away from us and we decided to leave it. Since we took a while to find it, we needed to start heading back home slowly, but still totally worth the wait which such a nice individual!

- Milla Brandao 

Report from Hafsúlan: The wind was blowing strong from the north as we went out onto the bay. At least the wind was our only concern as it was otherwise a wonderful day with clear sky and sunshine. We plowed through the waves and kept our eyes open for the whales amongst the waves. A huge splash in the distance gave us a good clue where to go and as we got closer we spotted the blow of a humpback whale between the waves. It was traveling on the surface and spend quite some time under water but we were able to stay with him for a while. Soon we spotted more blows in the area and after a while we not just had another humpback closer to us but also the one we were with started to throw his peduncle high out of the water. A wonderful spectacle to end the tour with.

- Knut Albrecht

Report from Elding: This evening we were all excited for the sunset since we had finally completely clear skies. Even though the wind was quite strong and the ocean was a bit wavy, we were all excited for whatever was out there waiting for us. As we were enjoying the fun sail out onto the bay, we spotted a blow in the distance. However, when we got closer the whale completely disappeared and we couldn't find it again. Luckily, there was another whale not very far away, so we decided to take a closer look. It turned out to be a humpback whale. This whale treated us with some beautiful fluke dives which were an amazing addition to the sunset. After spending some time with it, we wanted to look at another humpback which was on the way back to the port. This whale didn't show the fluke when it went for a deeper dive but it surfaced a couple of times right next to the boat. Finally we moved on and enjoyed the sunset while we sailed back to  Reykjavik. The sky was so clear today, that we could even see the green flash.

- Guillermo

Atlantic puffin, herring gull, Northern gannet, Northern fulmar, black guillemot, greylag goose, great skua, great cormorant