Go here to find the most popular whale watching tour from Húsavík, or browse Iceland's biggest selection of whale watching tours.
Whale Watching in Husavik
Húsavík is often nicknamed the whale-watching capital of Europe because, in most summers, tour operators achieve 100% sighting rates.
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Humpback Whales are the most common species in Skjálfandi Bay. These gentle giants are renowned as possibly the most entertaining of the great whales to observe, because they always show their tail before diving and exhibit many other behaviours at the surface, such as breaching and fin slapping.
Other animals that reside within the bay include White-Beaked Dolphins and Harbour Porpoises. It is not at all unheard of, however, for Fin and Blue Whales to be seen, nor Orcas or Belugas.
Many whale watching tours also include a puffin-watching component.
Other Activities in Husavik
Húsavík is home to the Húsavíkurkirkja church, a beautiful wooden structure built in 1907, and the civic museum for culture and biology, which, amongst other things, features a stuffed polar bear and ancient boats, bearing witness to the history of seafaring in Iceland.
There is also an Exploration Museum on the spirit of discovery, from early explorations to space missions.
Near Húsavík is the Lake Mývatn area, a place of diverse, natural beauty, with a wealth of geological features. It is also close to the capital of the North, Akureyri.
In Húsavík, you'll also find cute cafés and restaurants offering tasty treats, and you'll have a gorgeous view over the Skjálfandi Bay. There is a wealth of accommodation options available, from nice hotels to cabins and hostels.
The Húsavík Whale Museum
For all its fame as a whale-watching base, Húsavík is also home to the Húsavík Whale Museum, a non-profit museum on the harbour whose whale skeletons, including a full blue whale, give real context to what you might glimpse on the water. It pairs naturally with a tour. For the wider picture, see our guide to the top things to do in Húsavík.
GeoSea Geothermal Sea Baths
Opened in 2018 on the Húsavíkurhöfði cliffs just north of the harbour, the GeoSea Geothermal Sea Baths draw mineral-rich, naturally heated seawater into infinity pools perched above Skjálfandi Bay. TIME named it one of the World’s Greatest Places in 2019, and on a clear day, you can soak while looking out over the same waters the whale boats work. It's best to book tickets to the GeoSea Baths in advance.
A Local Tip: Time Your Soak With the Late Boats
Most people treat GeoSea as a daytime stop, but the best version happens in the evening. Go after dinner in summer, when the long northern light turns the water copper and the day-trippers have left. From the infinity edge, you look straight out over Skjálfandi Bay, and if you time it right, you will watch the last whale-watching boats coming back into the harbour below while you are chest-deep in warm seawater. The pools are quietest then, it costs nothing extra, and it beats a queue at the gift shop as a last memory of town.
Húsavík and the Eurovision Movie
In 2020, Húsavík became unexpectedly famous worldwide as the hometown of the fictional band Fire Saga in the Netflix comedy Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga, starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams. The film’s closing ballad, “Húsavík (My Hometown)” — its soaring chorus sung by Swedish artist Molly Sandén — was nominated for Best Original Song at the 93rd Academy Awards.
The town leaned into the moment. Ahead of the 2021 ceremony, residents ran a cheerful “Húsavík for Oscar” campaign, and the film’s running gag, a bar crowd that only ever wants to hear the nonsense singalong “Ja Ja Ding Dong”, became a local in-joke visitors still ask about. If you have seen the film, the harbour, the brightly painted houses, and the mountains across the bay will all look familiar.
Getting to Húsavík and Nearby Stops
Húsavík sits in Iceland’s northeast, about an hour’s drive from Akureyri, the capital of the north, and it anchors the Diamond Circle sightseeing route. Within easy reach are the Lake Mývatn area, the thundering Dettifoss waterfall, and the horseshoe-shaped Ásbyrgi canyon.
From Reykjavík, you've got two practical options. Drive the Ring Road (Route 1) north, a roughly 480-kilometer trip that takes about six hours straight through, though most people break it up with stops in places like Borgarnes or Akureyri.
The faster route is to fly from Reykjavík to Akureyri in about 45 minutes, then pick up a rental car or catch a bus for the final hour east to Húsavík. If you're already touring the north or following the Ring Road clockwise, Húsavík slots in naturally after Akureyri, with the turnoff onto Route 85 taking you straight into town.
History of Husavik
Húsavík means ‘the Bay of Houses’, as according to legend, it was settled before the official ‘settlement date’ of 874 AD.
Garðar Svavarsson was a Swede who wintered in Iceland in 870 AD. According to legend and Sagas, he left a man called Náttfari and two slaves to tend a farm here. It is said that the town was named after its houses.
Húsavík rewards the long drive north. Whether you come for the whales, the warm seawater on the cliffs, or the spot that gave Fire Saga its hometown, the town gives you a reason to slow down and stay a while before continuing around the Diamond Circle.
