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Isafjordur, Iceland: A Guide to the Capital of the Westfjords

Ísafjörður (usually written Isafjordur in English) is the largest town in Iceland’s Westfjords, yet the town itself is home to fewer than 3,000 people. It sits on a hooked sand spit, the eyri, in Skutulsfjörður, a side fjord of the great Ísafjarðardjúp, with steep, flat-topped mountains rising almost straight from the water on every side. The wider municipality, Ísafjarðarbær, which also takes in Hnífsdalur, Flateyri, Suðureyri and Þingeyri, has around 4,000 residents. Once a busy fishing and trading port, Ísafjörður is now also the main base for travellers exploring the northern Westfjords: an 18th-century trading quarter, a good seafood restaurant, small museums, and boats out to bird islands and the uninhabited Hornstrandir peninsula.

This guide covers what to see in town, the best trips from it, how to get there and how long to stay. For the route through the wider region, see our guide to Iceland’s Westfjords. On Odyssey Traveller’s Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour, Ísafjörður is the stop that ends Day 6 and begins Day 7, after the bird cliffs of Látrabjarg and the Dynjandi waterfall.

Small Group Tour

Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour

17-Day Tour · Round trip from Reykjavík · Small group, up to 16 travellers, solo travellers welcome

Ísafjörður falls on Days 6 and 7 of this 17-day circuit of Iceland: the road from Látrabjarg over the Dynjandisheiði pass, a stop at Dynjandi waterfall, then a morning museum visit in town before the drive along Ísafjarðardjúp.

View the Tour

Isafjordur town reflected in the still water of Skutulsfjordur, Iceland, beneath a layered mountainside

Ísafjörður seen across the still water of Skutulsfjörður, with the town on its spit and the terraced basalt mountainside behind.

Is Ísafjörður worth visiting?

Yes, if you want to see the Westfjords rather than just pass through them: Ísafjörður is the region’s main service centre, and it puts the bird island of Vigur, the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve and the Arctic Fox Centre within a short boat ride or drive. The town itself is small and can be walked in a morning; its appeal is the setting, the preserved trading houses on the harbour and the sense of a working fishing town at the edge of the inhabited country. Travellers expecting Reykjavík-style sights may find it quiet. Those who come for landscape, birdlife and maritime history usually wish they had stayed longer.

A short history of Ísafjörður

According to the medieval Landnámabók (Book of Settlements), Skutulsfjörður was settled in the 9th century by Helgi Hrólfsson. Foreign merchants had set up a trading post on the spit by the late 16th century, and it continued under the Danish trade monopoly that followed. When the monopoly was wound up in 1786, the settlement became one of Iceland’s six official trading towns. The name Ísafjörður, “ice fjord”, originally belonged to the great fjord system; the town on the eyri took it over as it grew through the 19th century on salted fish and, later, the herring boom.

Fishing has shaped the town’s fortunes ever since, through boom years, the collapse of the herring in the 1960s and the quota system that followed. Our companion article, Ísafjörður’s fishing heritage, tells that story in full. Today the harbour still lands fish, while tourism, including summer cruise ships, has become a second economy.

What to see in Ísafjörður

Neðstikaupstaður and the Westfjords Heritage Museum

The town’s main historic sight is Neðstikaupstaður, the old Danish trading quarter at the tip of the spit. Its four timber buildings are among the oldest wooden houses in Iceland: Krambúðin (1757), Faktorshúsið, the factor’s house (1765), Tjöruhúsið, the tar house (1781), and Turnhúsið, the tower house (1784). Turnhúsið, originally a storehouse, has been the home of the Westfjords Heritage Museum since 1988. The museum focuses on the area’s maritime history, with fishing gear, displays on the working life of the fjords, a collection of old boats that the museum keeps seaworthy, and an unexpected collection of more than 190 accordions. It opens daily in summer and by arrangement in winter, so check current hours before you go.

Tjöruhúsið

Next door, the 1781 tar house is now Tjöruhúsið, a family-run seafood restaurant with no printed menu: it serves whatever the boats have landed that day, typically fish such as cod, wolffish, halibut and redfish. It is one of the best-known places to eat in the Westfjords and is very busy in summer, so booking well ahead is advised.

Safnahúsið, the old hospital

The town’s former hospital was designed by Guðjón Samúelsson, the state architect who also designed Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavík, and opened in 1925. It served as a hospital until 1989 and was renovated as a culture house, reopening in 2003. Known as Safnahúsið, it now holds the town library and archives and the Ísafjörður photography and art collections, and it is a pleasant place to get out of the weather.

The town centre and harbour

Many of the houses in the old town date from the late 19th century, when Ísafjörður grew on the profits of the fishery, and a good number are still clad in timber or corrugated iron rather than concrete. Walk the short grid of streets between the harbour and the mountainside, and look for the arch made from the jawbones of a blue whale in Jónsgarður, the public garden. Down at the harbour you can watch fishing boats come and go, and on summer days large cruise ships berth here too, which can make the small centre busy for a few hours.

Pedestrian square in the centre of Isafjordur, Iceland, with a vintage bakery van and mountains behind

The pedestrian square in central Ísafjörður, with a vintage Gamla Bakaríið delivery van parked on the square and the mountains rising behind the town.

Boat trips and day trips from Ísafjörður

In summer, boats from Ísafjörður’s harbour reach places that are hard or impossible to get to by road. The most popular half-day trip is to Vigur, a low, grassy island in Ísafjarðardjúp about half an hour away by boat. It is a working farm with large colonies of eider ducks, puffins, black guillemots and Arctic terns (the terns will defend their nests, so expect to be dive-bombed), and it is home to Iceland’s only windmill.

Hornstrandir, the uninhabited peninsula to the north, has been a nature reserve since 1975 and covers 589 square kilometres. Its last permanent residents left in the 1950s, and today it is a refuge for the Arctic fox, Iceland’s only native land mammal, and for nesting seabirds. Boats run from Ísafjörður in the summer season; there are no roads, shops or services, so this is a trip for confident hikers or for a guided day visit, and conditions are worth checking with Safetravel before you go. If you would rather meet the foxes on easier terms, the Arctic Fox Centre in the village of Súðavík, about 20 kilometres from Ísafjörður, has an exhibition on the animal and its history in Iceland, housed in the oldest house in the village.

Closer to town, sea kayaking on the sheltered waters of Skutulsfjörður is a gentle way to see the fjord and its birdlife, and there is good walking on the slopes above the town, as well as horse riding in the surrounding valleys. By road, the tiered Dynjandi waterfall is roughly an hour to an hour and a half’s drive away, and the fishing villages of Flateyri and Suðureyri are each around 23 kilometres through the tunnel. Further south, the seabird cliffs of Látrabjarg are a long day’s drive; our guide to Látrabjarg’s puffins and bird cliffs covers when to go and what you will see.

A kayaker on calm water in a fjord below a mountainside settlement near Isafjordur, Iceland

A kayaker on the calm water of the fjord, with houses strung along the shore beneath the mountain.

How do you get to Ísafjörður from Reykjavík?

The quickest way is to fly: Icelandair flies from Reykjavík’s domestic airport (not Keflavík) to Ísafjörður in under an hour, normally twice a day. The approach between the mountains is spectacular, but flights are sensitive to wind and low cloud, so build some slack into your plans. By road, Ísafjörður is about 455 kilometres from Reykjavík via Hólmavík, a paved route, or roughly 410 kilometres via Dynjandi. Allow at least five to six hours of driving in good conditions, and more with stops or bad weather. The Westfjords lie well off the Ring Road, which is why many Ring Road trips skip them (our Iceland Ring Road itinerary shows how a full circuit fits together). Check road conditions on umferdin.is and the forecast with the Icelandic Met Office before setting out, especially outside summer. A car ferry, the Baldur, also crosses Breiðafjörður from Stykkishólmur on the Snaefellsnes Peninsula to Brjánslækur in the southern Westfjords.

How many days do you need in Ísafjörður?

One full day is enough to see the town itself at a comfortable pace: the Heritage Museum and Neðstikaupstaður in the morning, lunch or dinner at Tjöruhúsið, and a walk around the centre and harbour. Add a second day for a boat trip to Vigur or a visit to the Arctic Fox Centre in Súðavík, and more if you plan to hike in Hornstrandir. Because Ísafjörður is a long way from anywhere else, most travellers combine it with two or three days elsewhere in the Westfjords rather than visiting on its own.

When is the best time to visit Ísafjörður?

Summer, roughly June to August, is the best time for most visitors, because that is when the boats to Vigur and Hornstrandir run, the Heritage Museum keeps its longest hours and the seabirds are nesting. It is still cool: July, the warmest month, averages only around 10°C, and wind and rain are common at any time of year. Winter is long and dark. For several weeks around midwinter the sun stays hidden behind the mountains, and the town celebrates its return on 25 January with sólarkaffi, “sun coffee” and pancakes. Around Easter the town hosts its Ski Week and Aldrei fór ég suður, a music festival that has been held in the town since 2004. Mountain passes into the region can be closed or difficult in winter, so check conditions before travelling.

How much walking does a visit to Ísafjörður involve?

Not much in town: the old quarter, museums, restaurant and harbour all sit on the flat spit, a few minutes’ walk from one another, though pavements can be wet or icy outside summer. Boat trips involve stepping on and off small vessels at the harbour, and on Vigur the paths are easy but grassy and uneven. Hornstrandir is a different matter, with rough, unmarked trails, river crossings and no facilities, and suits only fit, well-equipped hikers. Good waterproof footwear and warm layers matter more here than distance.

Seeing Ísafjörður on our Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour

On the Iceland cultural and wilderness small group tour, the group reaches the Westfjords on the afternoon ferry from Stykkishólmur to Brjánslækur on Day 5. Day 6 starts with the drive to the seabird cliffs of Látrabjarg, then crosses the Dynjandisheiði pass with a stop at Dynjandi waterfall, continues to the village of Flateyri on Önundarfjörður and passes through the Westfjords tunnel into Ísafjörður. On the morning of Day 7 the group visits the town’s cultural museum to learn about its history, then drives along Ísafjarðardjúp and over the Steingrímsfjarðarheiði mountain road, past the fishing village of Hólmavík, to the Hrútafjörður area. An Odyssey Program Leader travels with the group, and the tour is rated Level 2 – Moderate.