Seeing the Westman Islands with Eyja Tours

Most everything you’ll find on this web site or in our book are things we have seen or done during one of our Iceland trips. Eyja Tours on the Westman Islands was an exception: I had met the owners on the Westman Islands, but not actually done the tour. And between talking to the owners and reading reviews online, I was confident enough to recommend their bus tour. On our most recent trip to Iceland in the summer of 2019, we finally got to try the tour. As it turns out, my confidence was well justified.

Ebbi is your guide. Ebbi knows everything there is to know about the Westman Islands. He can tell you about the little unnamed islands you can see as you take the ferry in, the ones with a single house on them. Turns out those are clubhouses for hunting groups!

Ebbi can trace his ancestry back to Viking Settlers who lived on the Westman Islands around the year 930. People sometimes assume there’s a typo when I use years like that, but I meant for that to be a 3 digit number! Oh, and if you’re not convinced already, Ebbi is also known at the puffin whisperer. He seems to be a local legend.

On to the tour. Ebbi varies the tour based on what’s going on. For example, if there are baby lambs around, you might get to see baby lambs. We got sheep instead, and they were some of the fluffiest sheep I have ever seen:

But this tour is called Puffins and Volcanoes; the sheep were just an adorable distraction on the way to see some puffins. You’re not getting super close to the puffins, at least not while you’re outside. (Spoiler alert!) But you will learn about them, and see them flying and landing. Or at least trying to land. The picture below isn’t a classic puffin picture, but I like the dots of puffins scattered throughout the image:

We also stopped by the golf course where the huge music festival Þjóðhátíð is held every year at the end of July. This year (2019) “only” 12,000 or 13,000 people attended. That’s still 3 times more people than live on the Westman Islands! We were there a week or so before the start of the festival, and construction on the stage was just beginning.

From the golf course area you can also see elephant rock, which is a rock that looks like an elephant (of course!)

You can take a boat tour to get closer to Elephant Rock, but this gives you a good sense of it. Oh, and you’ll also see Surtsey from here; it’s one of the newest islands in the world.

The Volcano part of the tour covers the famous Volcano that almost destroyed the island. On January 23, 1973, a volcano that was considered dormant erupted. The island was evacuated, and stayed evacuated for months. By the end of the eruption, a third of the houses on the island had been buried, and another third were damaged. Lots of volcanic eruptions in Iceland seem like ancient history, but you can run into people on the Westman Islands who lived through this one! Eyja Tours takes you to the top of the volcano Eldfell where it all started.

There’s more to the tour, including a demonstration of swinging on a rope attached to a cliff to practice gathering bird eggs. My son and I went back later to try it out. Be careful!

The tour ends at the new Sea Life Trust Aquarium. They rescue puffins there, and you’ll definitely see some on display:

And Ebbi the Puffin Whisperer will probably show you how he got his nickname … but we won’t ruin that surprise.

The cost of the tour includes admission to the Sea Life Trust. You’ll have to stay with the group during the tour. But once the tour is over, feel free to head back into the aquarium area– you’ve paid for it! I enjoyed spending extra time watching the puffins. And the beluga whales, though they probably won’t be there in 2020.

The Puffin and Volcano Tour costs 8900 ISK for adults, though 2000 of that is admission to the Sea Life Trust. Kids are 4900 ISK, with 1300 being admission to the Sea Life Trust. (Eyja’s web site calls that a fee for the “Puffin Sanctuary.”) Tours run May through mid-September.

I love the Westman Islands. The ferry ride to get there makes it unique. The recent volcano makes it memorable. And Eyja Tours brings it all to life. So visit the Westman Islands if you can. The new ferry makes it even easier! Hike on the new lava fields, the one with houses buried beneath your feet. Dine at Slippurinn, a fun upscale restaurant. And take a bus tour with Eyja Tours. It will be a memorable part of your Iceland vacation.

Read more about the Westman Islands here. Or check out our new Driving in Iceland Course!