As soon as you arrive at Reykjavík’s Old Harbour, you know you’re in for a treat. You’ll board a small, comfortable boat and sail out of the city in less than fifteen minutes—to the rocky islands where thousands of puffins gather to breed during the summer months. On the Puffin Watching Tour, you’ll get the chance to see these colorful birds up close in their natural habitat, with Reykjavík just visible on the horizon.
Every day of the week. Starts at 10:00, 12:00 and 14:00.
In Reykjavik at your chosen pick-up point or at the tour starting point at:
Elding Ticket Office, Ægisgarður 5c, Reykjavík 101, IS
As soon as you arrive at Reykjavík’s Old Harbour, you know you’re in for a treat. You’ll board a small, comfortable boat and sail out of the city in less than fifteen minutes—to the rocky islands where thousands of puffins gather to breed during the summer months. On the Puffin Watching Tour, you’ll get the chance to see these colorful birds up close in their natural habitat, with Reykjavík just visible on the horizon.
The Puffin Watching Tour takes you to one of the offshore islands, such as Akurey or Lundey, where you can see hundreds of puffins flying, diving or resting on the rocks at once. The small boat and the gentle pace of the boat mean you can get really close without disturbing the birds. Using the binoculars on board, you can see their striking orange beaks and black and white feather patterns in great detail—sometimes they seem to be looking right at you.
What makes this Puffin Watching Tour extra valuable is the guidance by experienced guides. They will tell you more about the behavior and lifestyle of the puffin, and how important Iceland is for this species: more than half of the world population breeds here every summer. For example, you will learn how puffins build their nests in grassy hills, how they catch fish, and what threats there are to their survival.
The organization behind the tour, Elding, strongly focuses on sustainability and respect for nature. The boats are silent and are steered in such a way that the birds are disturbed as little as possible. You can tell that nature comes first here—without sacrificing comfort or visibility.
Whether you come specifically for the puffin or just want to get out of the city for an hour to see something unique, this shortPuffin Watching Tour offers a surprisingly peaceful and impressive moment in nature just outside Reykjavík.
We really enjoyed our tour and it was amazing to see all the puffins in their natural habitat on their island. It was a spectacle to see them flying around the boat too! Many thanks to the amazing crew who were all so friendly and helped make the experience so special
We enjoyed the boat trip to a puffin island near Reykjavík. The binoculars given to passengers were helpful. But what we really appreciated were the photos taken by a crew member, which appear to be of professional quality, and which were sent to us free of charge upon request after the trip was over.
We did this tour whilst visiting Reykjavik on a cruise ship. The boat was a cabin cruiser which gave us protection from the weather, not an open RIB. They took us close to an island which is a puffin colony so there were lots of puffins there which we were eager to get up close and take lots of photos. They also sent us some fantastic photos which our guide took by email. It was thoroughly enjoyable and very educational.
We were super happy with this excursion. We did this on the last day of our 10 day tour and it stands out as one of the highlights of our time in Iceland. The boat was comfortable, and it only took ~15 minutes to do the puffins. The guides were friendly, helpful and knowledgeable. The puffins flew, floated and stood on the rocks.
Considering it was raining, cloudy and very rough seas… not the best for taking pictures of small seabirds. But a great crew.
