One of the things I had pre-booked before arriving in Reykjavik was a whale-watching tour, something I’d not done when I was living in Vancouver. The tour was run by Elding Whale Watching who were great, with a very informative guide, and my pre-booking ensured that I was picked up at my hotel and taken down to the harbour, so didn’t have to worry about getting there on time myself.
There are of course no guarantees on these kind of tours that you will get to see any whales and indeed the best time to see them is between May and September and I was there at the beginning of October. But, amazingly, we did see some minke whales.
There were actually three separate minke whales we saw over the time of our tour – about 2 1/2 hours in total – the fin of one you can see above. Our tour guide thought it was quite unusual to see three so close together, unless they were feeding, so we were very lucky indeed.
The weather was perfect for the tour, with calm seas (though that did not stop several members of the tour having to resort to use of the provided sick bags!), with only a very brief rain shower. It also gave us the opportunity to see Reykjavik and its surroundings from a different vantage point.
It’s definitely an experience worth going on, even if you aren’t lucky enough to see whales. If I was there in the summer I would absolutely have done the Puffin Tour as well which also leaves from the Old Harbour and which I understand has a guaranteed success rate as you are taken very close to where the Puffins make their home. All in all, a very enjoyable way to spend a morning in Iceland.
Louise Jayne's Blog 