Western Iceland & Farmstays

Iceland Roadtrip Part 4: Akureyri back to Reykjavik

After concluding Lara’s travels in Iceland with whale watching and a delicious sushi dinner in Akureyri last week, Kristen and I were left to or own devices. We spent the last week tearing around the western part of the island, staying on farms, and doing a bit of hiking.

Highlights from Roadtripping in Western Iceland

The Ísafjarðardjúp fjord and the whales we saw feeding offshore
Látrabjarg cliff with its howling wind, puffins, and other sea birds
The amazing views of the ocean from the Krossneslaug geothermal swimming pool
The magical Hraunfossar waterfalls in all their turquoise beauty
The bright green moss and colourful volcanic rocks of the Berserker Lava Field
The coast of the Snæfellsnes peninsula and its impressive rocks formations

Ísafjarðardjúp fjord

Icelandic turf house

Driving around the Ísafjarðardjúp fjord

Krossneslaug geothermal swimming pool

Látrabjarg cliff

Puffin nesting on the Látrabjarg cliff

Moss lava field

Colourful volcanic rock

Colourful moss

Hraunfossar waterfalls

Snæfellsnes peninsula

More on Farmstays

We used a handy “farmstay” information guide we picked up at a tourist site somewhere to decide where to stay every night for this part of the trip. While this cost us a little more than the hostels we had previously been staying at, the prices were still very reasonable (for Icelandic prices) and it was worth every penny.

Here are five reasons Icelandic farmstays are amazing:

The hospitality of farmstay hosts is incredible
They are generally more off the beaten track
Most farms have cute animals you can cuddle like dogs or new born lambs
There is likely going to be a mountain, hot spring, waterfall or river to explore in the backyard
You never know what sort of perks you’ll get – like getting a demonstration of the Icelandic horse’s five gaits