Best Whale Watching Iceland
Today we had one of these special whale moments at sea which we definitely will not forget. It was a beautiful winter day with a lot of sunshine and the view from the land was already breathtaking. After everybody got one of our warm overalls, we left the harbor and sailed in the direction where we observed the whales already in the last couple of days. The whole peninsula was covered in snow and provided beautiful photo opportunities from our boat Íris.
First Highlight of our Winter Whale Watching Tour – Dolphins
It took not long until we found a group of white-beaked dolphins. They swam all around the boat and were easy to observe. It is always fun to watch them but after 10 minutes we continued our ride to the end of the peninsula.
Orcas were the Second Highlight
After searching for a little while, we also found the mammals Snaefellsnes is famous for – orcas, also called killer whales. Snaefellsnes is the only place in Iceland where orcas are regularly seen on whale watching trips. It was such a unique experience to watch these black and white beauties with their large dorsal fins. The orcas were spread around and we saw them all around the boat. Everybody had good chances to photograph them and after a good time with them, we continued to the deeper waters of the fjord.
Best Whale Watching Iceland with the Third Highlight – Sperm Whales
There we found the third highlight of our tour today and had a look at the largest of the toothed whales – sperm whales. It was not difficult to find them since we saw their large blows already from the very far distance. We had a wonderful time with a sperm whale right next to our boat. He decided to come very close and just relaxed for many minutes on the water surface. After a long time with this sperm whale, he raised his fluke for a deep dive. But there was more to see and we had at least 4 more sperm whales around the boat. There was even some interaction between 2 sperm whales right next to the boat when one whale touched another whale. We enjoyed some more flukes and then it was time to turn back. On the way back to the harbor, we observed more orcas, saw another sperm whale and took some extra time with these whales before we finally went back to land. It was a truly magnificent tour and everybody on board had a big smile on the face.
So in case, you will read in a guide book that whale watching in Iceland is only worth in summer please definitely have this report in mind. It might be the case for other regions in Iceland but definitely not for Snaefellsnes where Láki Tours operates wonderful winter whale trips. For more than 2 weeks, we’ve had a 100% success rate with ORCAS every day that the weather allowed us to go to sea. We really hope this will continue.
Learn more about our whale watching tour from Ólafsvik.
Get inspired about the best things to do in Snaefellsnes.
Photos by Christina Degener & Karl O’Neill
