Small Group 10-Hour Hiking Tour in the Westfjords From Isafjordur

This guided hike with Borea Adventures was the favorite part of our trip to Iceland! Hornstrandir is just absolutely stunning, and it was surreal knowing that we, a group of 6 plus our guide Justin, were the only humans on the peninsula at that time. The terrain was extremely diverse, ranging from climbing up the side of a mountain approximately 1,500 feet, to hiking through a rocky field, through snow, and in meadows with plush moss, to crossing so many beautiful streams and walking along the river and waterfalls. The highlight of the hike was getting to pick and eat all the wild blueberries and crowberries whilst enjoying the gorgeous scenery all around us and hearing the sounds of the waterfall right next to us. We got lucky that we happened to be there during the short lived blueberry season. At the end, we got to enjoy Tjoruhusid's famous fish soup for dinner at one of the few houses still remaining in Hornstrandir. All in all, 10/10 would recommend exploring Hornstrandir with Borea Adventures (also 10/10 would recommend dining in at Tjoruhusid in Isafjordur- best seafood restaurant I've ever been to).

WE LOVED IT! We were all out of shape for this hike, but we got it done and it was EXHILERATING. We even had a 70-year-old woman on the hike. Put us middle-aged pups to shame. Apparently, she used to do these types of hikes so nothing unusual for her.

Our guide, I did not caught his name, even though I listened twice for it .. he was so modest, was FANTASTIC. He paced the hike well for the caliber of participates (total 7 guests on hike). Kept us moving forward up mountains, rocks and down steep slopes across the meadows to our pickup point.

Shared informational stories along the way. Ate wild blueberries. Lovely streams, large ice patches, pretty flower, and green landscape ... just WOW.

I would highly recommend if you can endure rocky terrain, heights, and steep slopes, this is the adventure of a lifetime.

Truly DO read their 'to bring' list and abide by it. It will make your hike SO much better to be properly equipped.

Our guide, Valahla, was great. She gave us the option of an easier hike or more difficult one and we near the chose easy. She lead us on a 4 hour bushwacking trek through the snowfield near town. We learned a bit about her life (she skied across Greenland) and about Iceland culture. Overall a great day. Would do it again.

My husband and I both had an incredible time on our tour yesterday. Amazing scenery in the preserve, great guides, and we also saw some fox cubs!

Loved our experience! We had such an amazing time!

The trip was really awesome - our guide was really cool - a lot of great info - the hike wasn’t too bad - our guide walked it at a really good pace which made it not too hard - The dinner was also really nice - really cool place and definitely feel like you’re in the wilderness - The only issue I had was with the how much money it was

This was a beautiful hike with an attentive guide. However, there are several things you need to know before booking.

1. This is not a 4-hour hike; we were still hiking at 6 hours.

2. This is not a moderate hike. There are 2+ hours of uphill climb with a scramble at the top followed by a rope-guided descent.

3. The pace and enjoyment of your hike can be impacted a great deal by the others on your hike. There was an elderly gentleman with a health condition that needed to rest frequently. I don't believe he would have gone if the hike had been described more clearly. I felt terrible for him, and our group needed to move on.

4. There is only one guide for this hike when 2 are needed. If there is an issue with pace, injury, etc., there is only one guide to attend to the issues. Given the roughness of the terrain and sudden changes in weather, emergencies are possible. One guide is not adequate to manage what could arise.

The Guide knew a lot about the animals and Flora and did a good Job cooking our meal. But I was disappointed ... I booked a fox watching Tour in the beginning of the year and I suppose they changed the programm. It was a very simple hike, no steep coasts and not a single fox. We even had no lunch, as in my confirmation was mentioned we would get a typical Islandic lunch and then they had to buy a sandwich for us that we had some food.

Nice guides. I agree with other reviews - this is just an 8 km fairly strenuous hike over a mountain with uneven rocky path. Not for any one with poor balance. One of our guides walked very fast and we finished the hike in 6 hours. We saw absolutely NO wild life on the hike. The hike ends at a cabin owned by the touring company where we spent the next 5 hours. The guides provided cookies and coffee when we arrived around 3 pm. The about 5 pm we had dinner which was cod soup and bread with water.

Our group was 13 people and 2 guides. About 1 hour before we departed 2 foxes showed up on the beach.

The on the boat ride - lasts about 1 hour - you are with other passengers who are not part of your group and you are transported by zodiacs from the boat to the beach.

I would probably not do the tour again knowing what I know now since it was essentially just a hike that I could have done on my own and it took significant time, effort and money to get to this remote part of Iceland.

THINGS THEY DON'T TELL YOU

So essentially, we were as prepared as the tour tells you to be on what to bring: day backpack, water bottle, warm/waterproof clothes, and hiking boots. I'm sure that this would be fine on the ideal, perfect day for this tour. Unfortunately, the day we went it was raining in the Westfjords. There were people in our group with better equipment and boots than us and even they were soaked by the end. The only person fully prepared was ONE of the guides, even the other one had his boots and socks wet.

They really should tell you to prepare for the worst and you really just need the highest quality gear. Because it was raining our tour was pretty much pointless, since the whole peninsula was covered in clouds.

This specific website doesn't specify which tour you are going on as well. When we got there we were asked if we're on the arctic fox tour or panorama tour, and I had no idea what the difference was. The description on this site doesn't mention multiple tours, but it didn't even matter since the other group didn't see any foxes either.

On the other hand, there were no problems with the tour guides themselves, they knew a lot and were extremely helpful. I'm just blaming this website for not letting us prepare enough.

I'm giving this only 2 stars since I still had a lot of fun, just was not what was advertised. This site needs to be a lot more specific with what can happen.