Westman Islands Volcano and Puffin Tour: The Heimaey Shore Excursion

The Night the Fissure Opened

A fissure opened on the edge of town in January 1973 with very little warning. The entire population, over 5,000 people, left overnight by fishing boat, and the museum on the island records that some never came back.

Lava and tephra buried part of the streets. What made this eruption famous was the response: islanders pumped seawater onto the advancing flow to cool and slow it, working to protect the harbour, which was the whole economy. The harbour survived, narrower than before and better sheltered.

What You See Today

The new cone, Eldfell, stands over the town, and the lava field beside it is where the buried streets are. Parts of the town are still under it, and the museum at Eldheimar is built around a house dug back out of the tephra.

That museum is not included in this tour. If the eruption is why you are here, budget it separately: adults 3,550 ISK ($29.15), seniors 2,900 ISK ($23.82), ages 10 to 18 1,900 ISK ($15.60), under 10 free.

Elephant Rock

The basalt sea arch on the north-west shore reads as an elephant's head with its trunk in the water, and it is the island's other photograph. It is columnar basalt, which is lava that cooled slowly enough to crack into columns, the same process that made the cliffs at Reynisfjara on the mainland.

The coach stops for it. The better view is from the water, which is what the boat tour sells.

The Season Is the Whole Story

The listing describes the world's largest Atlantic puffin colony, with over 1.1 million birds nesting in summer. That number is real and so is the caveat on the same listing: puffins are on the cliffs roughly May to August only.

Outside that window the birds are at sea and the cliffs are empty. A tour sold as volcano and puffins in October delivers half of what the title says, and the operator does not hide it. Check the month before you book on the strength of the birds.

What the Stop Is Like

The southern tip of the island is where the majority of the colony nests, and the listing allows about 45 minutes there. From the coach stop you are looking at cliffs across a gap rather than standing among the burrows.

Bring binoculars if you own them. At that distance a phone camera records grey cliffs with dots on them.

Built for a Ship's Clock

The tour exists because cruise ships call at Heimaey and passengers have a fixed window. That gives it a real virtue, tight timing, and a real limit: three subjects in 150 minutes means roughly 15 minutes at Elephant Rock, 45 at the puffin cliffs, and the rest split between the eruption sites and a replica stave church.

If you are on the island independently, the same money buys you more time in other shapes. The boat tour is $103 for 90 minutes and shows you the lava from the sea, and the scooter is $105 for an hour you spend at your own pace.

Getting There Independently

The island is reached by ferry from Landeyjahofn on the south coast, or by air from Reykjavik. No listing on this site includes the crossing, and the day trips from Reykjavik that do cost over $1,800 as private tours.

For most independent travellers, the practical plan is the ferry, a night on the island and a mix of these short tours rather than one packed loop.

The Comparison

All three are short. What differs is whether you see the lava from a coach seat, from the water or from a scooter saddle.

Which to Book

If you have one shore call and no plans, take the coach: it is the only one with a guide talking the whole way, and it covers the island's three subjects in the time a ship allows.

If you have a full day, take the boat and the scooter instead. Between them they cost $208, run two and a half hours in total, and show you the eruption from the water and from on top of it, which the coach cannot.