After a first excursion in September 2014 in Quebec with my brother, I tried again to do some whale watching. Indeed, our bus trip had been great, but we hadn’t really seen anything… If Tadoussac and Baie-Sainte-Catherine are well-known for whale watching, there are other places where you can observe them. For example, Iceland! You can book boat trips in Reykjavik or in Akureyri.
2014 Whale Watching: Take 2
In December 2014, the company Wow Air offered great packages to discover Iceland. My housemate, Marlène, and I booked a short trip there that included the Golden Circle, but also whale watching. If I remember correctly, we were supposed to see the whales on our last day in Reykjavik.
Apparently, 2014 was not my year for whale watching, because the weather was not great and the company cancelled our trip. We were disappointed, but decided to use this time to walk around Reykjavik in the snow. It was really cold, windy and dark, but we had a lot of fun in the fart-smelling winter. We nearly went to the Icelandic Phallological Museum because it seemed cool, but chose not to after reading some online reviews saying that it was not worth going.
In the end, we hugged statues, walked near the water, enjoyed the Christmas lights and drew angels in the snow. After all that, we went back to the hotel, soaked and cold, but happy.
Whale Watching in Akureyri
In June 2017, I did a road trip in Iceland with Beatrice, an Italian friend I had met in London. We did the Golden Circle (that looks very different in Summer and Winter), travelled to the Westman Islands and… booked a boat trip to watch the whales in Akureyri.
If you look at the map, Akureyri is right at the top. We nearly went all around Iceland, but didn’t do a full circle because there didn’t seem to be much to do in the northeastern part of the country. Instead, we went to Akureyri and then drove back to Reykjavik. Before the trip, we had done some research and Akureyri had great reviews for whale watching. Plus, given the season, there was no reason our trip would be cancelled.
Success at last!
And it wasn’t cancelled! On the foggy morning of June 24th, we embarked on a small boat to see the whales. It was a success: we saw many of them. They were really close and we had no trouble seeing them. To be honest, I don’t remember the type of whales but, according to my research, they might have been humpback whales.
I think that this experience was probably better than the one in Baie-Sainte-Catherine because the boat was much smaller, there were less people and I could actually hear what the guide was saying. I definitely recommend going to Akureyri for whale watching. We booked our trip with Ambassador, and we had a good experience.
I usually don’t post any videos in my articles, but here, I think that it’s the best option for you to really see what it is. When you are there, it’s magical. However, capturing the right moment is very difficult. So here, I mixed some of my best shots in a 5 minutes video. It’s a bit long, I know, but I won’t be upset if you skip some of it. Sorry for the wind, bear in mind, I filmed these with my small camera. I hope you’ll enjoy the views!
To see more photos of Iceland, you can visit the gallery Iceland.
