Ísafjörður

The flight into Ísafjörður is one of the ones Icelanders tell stories about. The plane drops into a narrow fjord with mountains close on both wings, banks hard, and lands on a strip that seems to have been fitted in wherever there was room. Then you step out into the quietest town you've ever seen with a cruise ship in port.

Ísafjörður (Isafjordur) is the largest town in the Westfjords of Iceland, with about 2,600 people, built on a sand spit in Skutulsfjörður under steep mountains. It's the region's centre for everything: shops, fuel, restaurants, flights, and the boats to Hornstrandir, the uninhabited nature reserve at the far north of the Westfjords where Arctic foxes roam and hikers are on their own.

What to do in Ísafjörður

The old town is compact and easy to walk, with some of Iceland's oldest timber houses. Tjöruhúsið, the fish restaurant in an old wooden warehouse, serves whatever came in that day on long shared tables. At Easter, the Aldrei fór ég suður music festival draws people from all over Iceland. In summer, boats run to Hornstrandir for hikers, and the town is the starting point for day tours to Dynjandi waterfall and for seal watching along the fjords.

Dynjandi and other tours from Ísafjörður

Dynjandi, the tiered waterfall at the head of Arnarfjörður, is the classic day trip, roughly an hour to an hour and a half each way through the tunnels and over the heath. Some tours add a farm visit or stop at old villages along the fjords. There's also a seal watching tour that stops at an avalanche memorial on the way, a reminder of how hard life under these mountains can be in winter.

Pro tip: if you're arriving by cruise ship, book your Dynjandi tour before you land. The drive there and back takes most of a port call, and seats on the small-group tours go quickly on busy ship days.

How to get to Ísafjörður from Reykjavík

Flights take about 40 minutes and are the easiest option, though they're weather-dependent. By road it's about 450 km and five to six hours of winding fjord driving. The Westfjords always take longer than the map suggests. Give the region at least two or three days if you're driving, and check road.is in winter, when mountain roads can close.

The tours below all start in Ísafjörður, several from the cruise port: Dynjandi waterfall trips, historic Westfjords tours and seal watching.