Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
On the other side of the West Fjords, the eastern Strandir coast, which stretches
north from the busy fishing village of
Hólmavík
, is hard to beat for splendid isolation,
its few villages hardly visited by tourists, and with some of the most dramatic,
forbidding landscapes this corner of the country has to offer, particularly around the
former herring port of
Djúpavík
.
GETTING TO THE WEST FJORDS
By plane
The West Fjords' airports are at Bíldudalur,
Gjögur and Ísafjörður - all connected to Reykjavík. Details
of services are given in the accounts of the three towns
(p.200, p.209 & p.186).
By bus
Operating all year, buses run three times per week
(Sun, Tues & Fri) from Reykjavík via the Ringroad village of
Bifröst and along Route 61 to Hólmavík, from where there
are connections to Ísafjörður between June and August.
Outside the summer months there are no long-distance
services to or from Ísafjörður, but local buses do run
between Ísafjörður and Bolungarvík, Flateyri and
Suðureyri.
By ferry
The most interesting option for reaching the West
Fjords is to catch the ferry from Stykkishólmur on the
Snæfellsnes peninsula (see p.167). This lands you just at
Brjánslækur, from where summer buses leave three times a
week (Mon, Wed & Sat) for Látrabjarg via Patreksfjörður,
and also to Ísafjörður via Flókalundur.
Ísajörður
With a population of around 2700,
ÍSAFJÖRÐUR
is far and away the largest
settlement in the West Fjords, and is where most travellers choose to base
themselves when exploring the region - not least because this is the only place
from which to reach the Hornstrandir peninsula by boat, a major goal for many
visitors. All administration for the area is centred here, too, and there's also a
significant
fishing industry
. It's hard to imagine a much more dramatic location;
built on the L-shaped sandspit,
Eyri
, which stretches out into the narrow waters of
Skutulsfjörður,
fjord and provides exceptionally good shelter for ocean-going fishing
vessels, the town is surrounded by towering mountains on three sides and by the
open waters of
Ísajarðardjúp
on the fourth. During the long winter months, locals
are forced to battle against the elements to keep open the tiny airport, which very
often provides the only point of contact between the entire region and the rest of
the country. Should you arrive in Ísafjörður by plane, however, you'll be treated to
an unforgettable experience as you bank steeply around the fjord, then skim past
the sheer mountainside of Kirkjubólshlíð before dropping onto the landing strip.
In fact, during the darkest months of the year (Dec & Jan), the sheer height of the
mountains either side of the fjord prevents the low winter sun from shining directly
onto the town for a number of weeks, and the sun's reappearance over the mountain
tops at the end of January is celebrated with
sólarka
, “sun coffee” (in fact just
normal coffee) and pancakes on January 25.
Today, Ísafjörður is a quiet and likeable place where you'd be wise to make the most
of the shops and restaurants on offer before venturing out into the wilds beyond.
There's very little of note, though, in the town itself - Ísafjörður's pleasures are more to
be found in strolling through its streets or watching the fishermen at work in the
harbour than in tourist sights. However,
Neðstikaupstaður
, the
West Fjords Heritage
Museum
, one of the very few museums in the region, is worth visiting for an insight
into the extreme conditions that past generations have lived under here. That it's
located in one of the country's oldest timber buildings is unusual in itself, when you
consider that the climate here is so severe that anything made out of wood tends to be
quickly decimated by the elements.
4
Brief history
According to the
Landnámabók
, a Viking by the name of
Helgi Hrolfsson
was the
first person to settle in Skutulsfjörður, building his farm here during the ninth
