Vestmannaeyjar Island, Volcanoes and Puffins Tour

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Top Attractions:

Vestmannaeyjar - The Westman Islands

The Elephant Rock

This day tour will take you on an exciting sightseeing trip to the Westman Islands. By joining, you’ll be able to explore the Vestmannaeyjar Islands and its numerous sights. Catch a glimpse of the famous Elephant Rock, watch some puffins in their natural habitat, and climb a volcano! Sounds too good to be true? Come and see it for yourself!

Vestmannaeyjar has been named a top travel destination for 2024 by The New York Times.

Tour Snapshot

Duration

12 hours 30 minutes

Level

Easy

Availability

june - september

Group

Small (19)

Starting point

Reykjavik

End point

Reykjavik

Languages

English

Trip style

One-day tours

Minimum age

6 years

What to expect

On Tour

Guided Experience
English Speaking Guide
Sightseeing
Walking Tour
Eldheimar Museum Admission
Tickets for the ferry to Vestmannaeyjar

Transportation

Pick up from Reykjavik
Meet on location

Accommodation & Meals

Accommodation
Meals
We recommend you bring your own snacks

Route Map

12 hours 30 minutes

Route Overview

This tour takes you on a day of adventure in the Westman Islands, from sailing across the sea to hiking a volcano. Along the way, you’ll see stunning rock formations, visit puffin nesting grounds, and explore the island’s dramatic history before returning to Reykjavik in the evening.

Sailing to Vestmannaeyjar

The day begins with a morning pick-up in Reykjavik before heading to Landeyjahöfn Ferry Terminal. Here, we board a ferry for a 30-minute ride across the sea to the only inhabited island in the Westman Islands archipelago. As we approach, you’ll see dramatic cliffs rising from the ocean—home to countless seabirds and shaped by volcanic activity over thousands of years.

Departure from

Reykjavik

Elephant Rock

Our first stop is one of the island’s most famous landmarks, Elephant Rock (Halldórsskora). This massive basalt formation, naturally shaped like an elephant dipping its trunk into the sea, was formed by past volcanic eruptions. Standing here, you’ll get incredible views of the rugged coastline while learning about the island’s powerful geological history.

Puffin Watching

Next, we head to Stórhöfði, the windiest spot in Iceland and home to one of the world’s largest puffin colonies during the summer months. These quirky little birds nest in burrows along the cliffs, waddling around before taking off in clumsy yet charming flights.

Eldheimar Museum & Lunch Break

At the Eldheimar Museum, we step into the past to witness the impact of the devastating 1973 volcanic eruption. Known as the ‘Pompeii of the North,’ this museum showcases homes that were buried in ash, frozen in time as a reminder of nature’s raw power. You’ll hear the incredible story of how the islanders were evacuated overnight and how they rebuilt their community from the ashes.

After the museum, we’ll head into town for a lunch break (not included in the tour price), where you can grab a bite at a local café or try some of the island’s famous fresh seafood.

Skannsinn Harbor & Viking History

After lunch, we explore Skansinn, a historic area by the harbor named after the fortress that once stood there. Here, you’ll find Stafkirkjan, a striking Viking-style wooden church gifted by Norway, a small lighthouse, and dramatic ocean views.

Eldfell Volcano & Return to Reykjavik

For the final adventure, we hike up Mt. Eldfell, the volcano that erupted in 1973 and reshaped the island’s landscape. The trail winds through lava fields, and as you reach the summit, you’ll be rewarded with breathtaking views of the town, coastline, and surrounding islands.

After exploring, you’ll have a little free time before meeting at the harbor for the afternoon ferry back to the mainland. We’ll arrive back in Reykjavik in the evening.

Pick up and drop-off information

You’ll get picked up from Reykjavik around 8:45 am, based on your chosen pick-up location. Nevertheless, we ask everyone to be ready on time. We’ll drop you off back in Reykjavik around 8:00 pm at the same place we picked you up.

Please Note

This is a combination of two separate tours. If one of the tours is cancelled, you will still be able to join the other part.

Get ready for your trip, here are some items, you should not forget.

Required

Dress for the weather
Hiking boots
Rent with us, +29 USD per person
Warm outdoor clothing
Thermal underwear
Warm Headwear
Gloves

We're here to answer your questions

The pickup time is stated on your voucher and therefore we recommend you to review your voucher carefully. We ask all participants to be ready from the start of the pickup time indicated as you may well be the first pick up of the day. Please be at your assigned location at the right pick up time that you chose when booking the tour.

Wait for your guide at your assigned pick up location.

Have your email and phone number listed with us so we can contact you if we run into any trouble finding you.

View our pick-up locations in Reykjavík.

Alcohol is prohibited on all of our tours before and during activities. If we find the participant to be intoxicated, we will prohibit them from taking part in the activity.

After the activities of the day are finished then you are more than welcome to have a drink and relax.

Yes, we do have a tour into Langjökull Ice Cave that has no minimum age and it is a fantastic option for the whole family. As a Whale Watching with our partner company Special Tours, enjoyable tour for a family traveling with young children, these guys have an enormous success rate in seeing whales (upwards of 98% in the summertime).

If you want to explore parts of Icelandic Highlands than we have our magnificent Landmannalaugar Safari tour that also offers you to bathe in natural hot springs. Almost all of our jeep tours are suitable for children over the age of 6 years old. Then we also have a relaxing experience that we highly recommend, our Golden Circle & Secret Lagoon tour.

We reserve the rights to adjust the itinerary and/or take different routes depending on conditions. Your safety is our number one priority.

Please read more information in our terms and conditions in regards to this matter.

Yes, we have specially trained and certified guide on all of our tours, expect on our self-drive tours.

All of our tours are English guided.

No, for all your questions and concerns you would need to contact our customer service.

In Iceland, the standard is 230V and 50Hz and we use F-type power sockets and plugs. If you are visiting from the UK, USA, Canada or other countries using a different voltage, Hz or plugs, therefore, we highly recommend you to bring an adaptor.

We have four different categories that help participants to get a better understanding of what to expect from the tour. The categories are Easy, Moderate, Challenging and Demanding. All of our tours are rated to make it easier for you to find a tour that suits you.

For further information about the difficulty ratings and descriptions.

You can book almost all of our trips here on our website. You will find a booking window on each tour page and the best and safest way is to book and pay is directly through our website.

1. You can pay directly through our website. That is the easiest, safest and fastest way to reserve and pay for your adventure. If you choose this way then you will receive a voucher as a confirmation via email. Which you will need to bring with you on your trip.

2. You can pay via phone, our phone number is +354 562 7000. Please be noted, however you pay, you will always get a voucher. It is important to have your voucher ready for your tour so please remember to print it out or make sure that you can show it through your electronic device.

You will receive a confirmation email after you have made the booking. If you think that you have made a booking and haven’t received an email confirmation then you may please contact us via email with an inquiry through our contact form, and we will figure it out together.

All charges are made in the tour operators currency: For tours in Iceland it's Icelandic krona, ISK, but for tours in Canada/Greenland it's either USD or CAD.

On Adventures.com you can view an estimate of prices in EUR and other currencies. This is only to help you understand the approximate price.

Your credit card will always be charged in the operators currency.

Keep in mind that your card issuer may charge you a foreign transaction fee.

We do not require minimum participants on most of our tours but there is a minimum of 2 people for a few of our trips. If you are traveling solo and interested in a tour that requires more than 2 participants than we can take down your information and contact you if more people book the tour.

We can arrange private departures as per customer request. Almost all of the tours that we offer can be arranged as a private tour. If you prefer to have a private tour arranged than you may feel free to contact us through email info@adventures.com

Unfortunately, we don’t have any waiting list for our tours. Availability is found on our website in the availability sheet where all updates will automatically be made to the sheet listed in each tour description. We have a variety of different adventure tours around Iceland so there is a big chance that you find a similar version of the tour that you were originally looking for.

If your tour that you have booked is canceled on our behalf than you will receive a 100% refund. The refund process is different depending on the way you booked the tour.

If you booked the tour through our website then we will start the refund process as soon as we know if you will not be rescheduling and you will receive a separate email with a confirmation about that your refund has been processed.

If you booked the tour via booking agent than you will need to contact them directly to receive the refund. We will confirm with them about your canceled tour and then the refund process will start on their end. Extreme Iceland only receives the payment when the tour has finished, that means that your payment still remains with the booking agent and therefore, the refund can only be processed directly from their end.

The minimum age requirement is decided by our operational managers and is dependent on each activity and its difficulty ratings and can, therefore, vary between tours We put great value towards safety for our customers and the minimum age policy falls under this. Therefore we can not accommodate a person that has not reached the age limit on the tour.
We ask you to try to understand that this is based on safety procedures and we can therefore unfortunately not make any exceptions on this rule.

We can unfortunately not accommodate you and your group if the number of your group extends the number of available seats left on the tour. Our website shows the correct number of available seats left. It is impossible to squeeze additional participants onto sold out departures as we have really strict policy measures as to how many participants are assigned to each guide on our tour departures. Therefore we hope that you understand as this is of course done with our customer's safety in mind.

Still not convinced?

Customer Care

For Canada tours

Open daily from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM GMT-7

+1 778 348 1676

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