One of the most interesting places to visit on an Iceland road trip is a small dot just off the south coast, which goes by many names: the Westman Islands, Vestmannaeyjar or Heimaey (“home island” because it’s the largest and only full-time inhabited island in the Westman archipelago).
The Westman Islands are famous primarily for two things, and on a day trip to the Westman Islands you can see them both. It’s home to the world’s largest Atlantic puffin colony, with over a million of the delightful little birds nesting there each summer.
But the peaceful (if scrappy) fishing and puffin egg gathering lifestyle of Heimaey was shattered by the devastating six month long eruption of Eldfell volcano in 1973. The eruption forced evacuation of the entire island and many residents only returned several years later. Ultimately the eruption reshaped the island in many ways – it destroyed 1/3 of the island’s buildings, but added to the island’s overall size, improved the safety of the harbor for fishermen and provided an long-lasting source for geothermal heat.
I really recommend taking a day trip to the Westman Islands from Iceland’s mainland. While most of us visit Iceland for its natural wonders, on Heimaey you’ll find a deeper connection to the human story. It’s also incredibly beautiful and has great wildlife viewing, so there’s something for everyone!
Be sure to read these Westman Island day trip tips before you make plans – you’ll learn important logistics and also understand how to make the most of your time!
1. Plan your time in Vestmannaeyjar first, then buy your ferry tickets
There are two main questions you’ll need to answer when planning your day trip to the Westman Islands. First, do you plan to bring your car and second, what schedule do you prefer.
Whether or not to bring a car to Heimaey is a personal preference. The island’s main town is totally walkable, but the harbor is also obviously the lowest point on the side of a volcano. For a sense of scale, the walk from the port to the Eldheimar Volcano Museum takes about 25 minutes and is slightly uphill. From there it’s about another 30 minutes uphill to the top of the Eldfell volcano.
If you want to visit the famous puffin colony on the Westman Islands, you can actually walk there if you’re up for a bit of a trek. It’s on the opposite side of the island from the museum and volcano so it would take you about an hour to go on foot. Getting there directly from the port takes about 45 minutes on foot.
As you can tell, you’ll be able to see many of the best things to do in the Westman Islands in one day on foot! You can also book a minibus tour that will take you to all of the major locations, plus you’ll have a knowledgable local guide to share what it’s really like living on the island. Since the island is small, you can likely ask to be dropped off wherever you’d like at the end – on our tour, one pair opted to end at the Eldfell trailhead so that they could walk to the summit and then visit the museum on their way back down.
We chose to bring our car on the ferry, which cost roughly another $30 USD. There are a few reasons we made that choice. First, we had planned on a boat tour rather than a land tour. The idea was to see the island’s beautiful coastline and its resident puffins from the water and then drive ourselves around to tour the rest of the island and visit the excellent Eldheimar volcano museum.
Unfortunately sea conditions didn’t cooperate – apparently that’s very common and all of the day boats on the island were cancelled. Our guide ended up doing the land tour instead and it worked out just fine – we saw most of what we had hoped to see.
Second, we were traveling as a family of four and wanted to make sure we had all of the outerwear and snacks everyone might need available to us. Conditions in Iceland can change so quickly – even on a beautiful day – and we also anticipated needing additional layers for our boat trip.
In reality, we learned that day that basically all boat trips in Iceland provide insulated waterproof full-body suits so we didn’t need to prepare as much as we did. Be sure to check with your provider to find out if they have something to fit the smallest members of your travel party if you’re bringing kids!
If you’re traveling without kids and everyone has sufficient mobility, I think it’s fine to book the ferry for passengers only and leave your car behind at Landeyjahöfn as long as you’re up for a lot of walking. Otherwise it’s easy and fairly affordable to bring your car with you and driving around the island is a piece of cake. If you want to bring your car on the ferry and are visiting in summer, book your ferry tickets in advance to ensure a spot.
We were on Heimaey from roughly 11am to 4pm and that was about right. We initially planned to take a later ferry back, but the island is small enough that had ample time to see what we wanted to and had time for an excellent late lunch at Gott and a brief walk around downtown. The ferry staff allowed us to board the earlier ferry as standby passengers since there was space available.
If we had done the Eldfell hike I would have wanted the additional hour. But getting back earlier allowed us to add in a stop at Seljalandsfoss, which is right near the turn off to get from the Ring Road to the ferry back on the mainland. We even had time to visit Skógafoss and Reynisfjara Beach that evening!
2. Prepare for ferry changes
Do you like to plan your trips in advance? It’s definitely a good idea if you’re visiting Iceland during its busy summer season, as so many activities (even ferries) can book up early.
So we were very surprised to receive an email changing the Westman Islands ferry schedule just two weeks before our trip! We had booked the tickets six months in advance and arranged a tour accordingly. Our morning ferry to Heimaey was shifted 45 minutes earlier, while the return ferry was shifted an hour later.
Thankfully the ferry schedule website now has two tabs at the top to show you the ferry schedule by season.
The other really shocking deviation is that sometimes the ferry location on the mainland moves to an entirely different port, Þorlákshöfn, which is about 90 minutes closer to Reykjavik. This isn’t common but happens now and then due to sea conditions (and generally even less often in summer than winter). You should find out the night before if this will happen for your sailing so be sure to check your email. While the normal ferry ride is just 40 minutes, if you’re departing from Þorlákshöfn it’s closer to three hours. If you’re unlucky enough to have a sailing that gets moved, the ferry company will refund your ticket if you reach out to them.
We stayed the night before at Migard Base Camp, which is a wonderful adventure lodge in Hvolsvöllur. It gave us easy access to the Landeyjahöfn ferry port but was also close enough to Þorlákshöfn that we could have made it there in time as well. The restaurant food is great and the rooftop has a hot tub and sauna; I only wish I’d booked early enough to get us a private bathroom!
That said, for a day trip I would probably have cancelled our ferry tickets if the location had been moved as it increases the total ferry time by four hours – fine if you’re staying overnight, but not worth it in my opinion if you’ll just spend a few hours on the island. One of the great things about staying at Migard is that the folks working there are incredibly knowledgable about all the things to do in the area and can even take you on one of their guided tours if you have a change in plans.
3. Give yourself plenty of time in Landeyjahöfn
While you don’t need to camp out in Landeyjahöfn the night before, I’d recommend arriving about 30 minutes early – especially if you’re taking your car. That was enough time to put us near the front of the car line to board the ferry.
Since most people taking the ferry to Heimaey at that time of year were tourists, there was some confusion about what we were supposed to do. There wasn’t any staff there to direct us but eventually everyone figured out that there were several parallel queues to drive on.
The ferry departed exactly on time, so don’t get left behind! If you’re not there when the car loading occurs, they may sell your spot to someone on standby. You also may not want to be parking your car in the hold and getting situated when the ferry leaves port, as it can be a bit of a jarring feeling.
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