The Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland is a beautiful part of Iceland. Through the years, I have written detailed travel blogs in 5 parts of the peninsula in chronological order to make it easier for our foreign guests to visit this beautiful peninsula.
I want to show you a tour I have joined three times, and that you should not miss when visiting Stykkishólmur, the capital of the magical Snæfellsnes peninsula!
Unfortunately, this wonderful tour is no longer available, as the company changed ownership.
Top photo: the fruit of the ocean on the boat tour
Basalt columns in the Breiðafjarðareyjar islands
Note that this is my travel blog about the tour, and I don't sell the tours; I just joined it to write about it.
There are various boat tours available with Seatours, but I chose Ævintýrasigling (Adventure voyage) because I liked the name. A similar tour with Seatours is called the Viking Sushi Adventure.
The boat took us on a couple of hours' trip in Breiðafjörður bay with its innumerable islands. The islands are among the three innumerable things in Iceland.
There are so many islands that some of them even have the same name.
Dímonarklakkar islands
I have never been able to get a decent photo of Dímonarklakkar
Dímonarklakkar islands are the highest of all of the Breiðafjörður islands. Small Klakkur (Litli klakkur) is 54 m high, and Big Klakkur (Stóri klakkur) is 72 m high, and they belong to an archipelago called Klakkeyjar islands.
They are so majestic, towering over the other islands. There used to be woodland here on Klakkeyjar islands, as in so many places in Iceland, but it is all gone now.
Birdlife on the islands
Shags (toppskarfur) on the cliffs
On Klakkeyjar islands, a number of shags nest, which one will get very close to on the boat tour. It was so cool getting so close to them, and they didn't seem to mind us; they just ignored us.
They are used to boats coming so close to have a look at them, and they know that we are only looking and not there to hurt them.
The boat sailed between the islands for bird-watching, and we spotted a myriad of kittiwakes, shags, and puffins. I love puffins, and it was so lovely being so close to them.
Aren't they lovely?
You will be able to see the puffins in Iceland during their breeding season from mid-April until mid-August. We also have a puffin express tour from Reykjavík, where you can see the puffins nesting on the islands in Faxaflói bay.
I find that the best location to photograph puffins is by Látrabjarg in the Westfjords, about which I have written another travel blog: Látrabjarg in the Westfjords of Iceland - the largest Sea-Bird Cliff in Europe - Puffins in Abundance.
Beautiful basalt columns
Basalt columns in Breiðafjörður
We were shown some beautiful columnar basalt in various forms depending on which island we were visiting. The columnar basalt is riffled in one of the islands, and it is often referred to as the Bookshelves of God :)
These islands were populated in earlier times, and on Hrappsey Island, the first printing press in Iceland was located.
These islands are filled with fascinating history, and it was very educational to sail amongst the now-deserted islands, thinking about how full of life they were back then.
Basalt columns in Breiðafjörður
To begin with, the Vikings lived on these islands, and some of them were not the most peaceful of men.
We were shown a rock in Breiðafjörður bay where people were hanged and left to hang for months as a warning to others to behave right!
Just imagine what a dreadful sight that must have been! Especially if this was one of your relatives or loved ones :(
This hanging place is a gap in a very peculiar riffled columnar basalt island.
Hvítbjarnarey island
On Hvítbjarnarey island (Polar bear island), you will see a boulder in a rift in the rocks. It is of a different material than the other rocks on the island, and the origin of this particular boulder is explained in Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar - the Compilation of Folklore of Jón Árnason:
"Several stories exist of the giantess, who lived in the Helgafellssveit region or in the mountains around there, first at Helgafell, but as a church was erected at Helgafell, the giantess moved to Mt. Kerlingarfjall. Here are three stories about the giantess.
Sailing on Breiðafjörður bay
Hvítabjarnareyja island (Polar bear island) is one of the islands above Stykkishólmur in Breiðafjörður. It was named after a polar bear, which came ashore on the island and lay to rest on a stall on the southern part of the island, which is surrounded by tall cliffs.
A giantess was on the mainland. People say that she lived at Helgafell before Christianity was adopted in Iceland, and that a church was erected there, but trolls are no fans of Christianity or churches.
The giantess noticed that the polar bear was on the aforementioned stall on the island. Thus, she walked on top of Þingvallaborg, which is opposite the island from the mainland, and threw a giant boulder over to the island to kill the polar bear.
But as fate has it, the boulder landed higher up than she intended and landed on the cliff tops, which are above and to both sides of the stall. The boulder still lies above the stall, but the polar bear didn't get hurt.
Another account from this region in the west is that the giantess who lived in Mt. Kerlingarfjall noticed that a man had gone fishing on a boat on Hrappseyjarsund strait, between Hrappsey island and Stykkishólmur.
Sailing on Breiðafjörður bay
The Giantess had a grudge against this man; the reason is not mentioned in the account. She threw a massive rock at the man sitting in his boat, but it landed on Hvítabjarnarey island and can still be seen there. However, the giantess failed to kill the man.
Close to Nesvogur by Stykkishólmur, one can find three little hummocks, which are believed to have been thrown there by the giantess in Kerlingarskarð cleft, but she meant to destroy the church at Helgafell with these hummocks".
(Translated into English from Þjóðsögur Jóns Árnasonar - the Compilation of Folklore of Jón Árnason).
The story we were told on the boat is that the boulder is said to have been thrown there by the giantess, who used to live at Mt. Helgafell, as she wanted to destroy the church at Mt. Helgafell by throwing the boulder at it, but she missed, and the boulder landed here on this island.
So you can see that there are several accounts on why this boulder is where it is :)
The hiding place of Eirik the Red
We were shown the hiding place of Eiríkur rauði or Eirik the Red, the father of Leif the Lucky.
Eiríkur had been chased out of Norway for killings and was later also chased out of his home at Eiríksstaðir for more killings.
He tried living on Öxney (Yxney) island and on more islands, but the same happened there.
Sailing on Breiðafjörður bay
I have written another travel blog about Eirík the Red, which includes a replica of the Viking longhouse where he lived.
See also my travel blog about Eiríksstaðir: Viking Areas in Iceland - Eiríksstaðir Long House in West Iceland.
The replica of the turf longhouse at Eiríksstaðir
We were told many stories about life in the olden days on the islands by an excellent guide on board the boat. It is so lovely for a history buff like myself to be guided around like this :)
Beautiful nature, lovely weather, history lessons, and the fruit of the ocean - what more can one ask for?
The Fruit of the Ocean
Fruit of the Ocean
Now it was time for what some call the highlight of the tour of the Breiðafjarðareyjar islands - the throwing out of the trawl, called the dredge.
This was quite exciting: two crew members lowered the dredge into the sea and towed it along the seafloor.
And we waited eagerly for the catch of the day!
The catch of the day on my 3rd trip
Everybody on the boat watched as the dredge was drawn in to see what they had caught.
The catch was quite impressive: beautiful purple sea-urchins, red and orange starfish, scallops, sea cucumbers, crabs, and all kinds of shells and conches - to sum it up: the Fruit of the Ocean.
Fruit of the Ocean
The crew opened up the sea urchins and scallops and offered them to the group - fresh and raw and on the house. Sea-urchin roe is considered to be a delicacy and an aphrodisiac.
We were also offered a knife in case we wanted to try to open them up by ourselves.
The scallops were served in their shells. I was amazed at the crew's savvy; they conjured up a luxurious meal straight from the ocean! One has got to love these fishermen :)
Fruit of the Ocean
What I loved was seeing the shellfish in its natural state, as it were, as I only ever see conches and shells empty on the shore, so watching them like this (see the photo below) was just amazing.
Although I must say that I felt a little sorry for them for being pulled out of the sea like this, they must have been quite startled; all of a sudden, being in a different atmosphere, as it were.
Fruit of the Ocean
For sale on the tour was white wine in small bottles.
I opted out but ended up being given a bottle by a tour guide who had paid for the wine and had miscalculated the number of people in his group :)
I have been on this tour three times: in 2010, 2016, and 2024. I love going sailing like this!
Having a sip of white wine on the first tour back in 2010 ;)
This is such a fun tour, and we were lucky that the sun was shining all day long.
It was quite a memorable day, and when we got back ashore, the first thing I said was: "I want to go again" :)
It was very windy but sunny on my 3rd trip in 202. Dress in warm clothes on the trip.
If you want to join this tour, the Viking Sushi Adventure operates year-round. The tour lasts approximately 2.3 hours. It is a round-trip departing from and returning to Stykkishólmur town. As I mentioned earlier in this travel blog, the tour is, sadly, no longer operating.
Here is the location of Breiðarfjörður on Google Maps.
