Boat tours in Iceland sort into five kinds, and only two of them are sightseeing
Whale boats, aurora cruises, glacier-lagoon zodiacs, island ferries and sea angling. What each one actually is, what it costs, and which are worth a slot.
“Boat trip in Iceland” covers five completely different things sold with the same photograph of a hull and a fjord. We list 72 per-person boat products from 20 operators, median €156. Before you compare prices, work out which of the five you actually want.
1. Whale boats — the default, and the reason most people get on a boat here
Three hours out of Reykjavík’s Old Harbour, Akureyri, Dalvík or Húsavík, looking for minke, humpback and white-beaked dolphins. Elding’s Reykjavík Classic Whale Watching at €103 is the reference version and runs all year.
This is the only boat category where the thing you are looking for might not appear, which is why most operators issue a free retry ticket. Which harbour and which month is a decision in itself — whale watching month by month has it.
2. Northern lights by boat — better than the bus more often than you’d think
Same bay, winter evenings, engine off in the dark. The argument for the boat over the coach is that Faxaflói has no streetlights and the skipper can move to a hole in the cloud without driving two hours inland. The argument against is that you cannot follow a clearing sky across the country the way a bus can.
Special Tours’ Northern Lights by Boat with a Backup Plan is €75 for two hours, the cheapest aurora boat we hold. Reykjavik Sailors’ Northern Lights Cruise with Hot Chocolate and Free Retry Included is €96 and spells the retry out in the title. Dress as if you will stand still outdoors for two hours in February, because you will.
Full comparison in bus versus boat versus super jeep.
3. Glacier-lagoon boats — the shortest and the most photographed
Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón, in the southeast. Amphibious craft trundle in from the shore; zodiacs go further and faster among the icebergs. Forty minutes on the water, and they run roughly May to October because the lagoon ices over.
Almost every version we hold pairs the boat with something else, because forty minutes is not a day: Arctic Adventures’ Jökulsárlón Zodiac Boat & Glacier Hike is €190 for seven hours, and the same operator’s Fjallsarlon Zodiac Boat Tour & Glacier Hike is €166 at the quieter lagoon next door.
If you are coming from Reykjavík with no car, Iceland Discover’s Glacier Lagoon by Minibus is €164 — thirteen hours, most of it driving. Read the Jökulsárlón day trip guide before you book that one; it is a real day and not everyone should do it.
4. Ferries — transport, not a tour
The cheapest water in the country. Elding’s Viðey Ferry from the Old Harbour is €18 for a twenty-minute crossing to an empty island with Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower and a good hour’s walking. That is the best value on this page by a distance.
The Westman Islands crossing from Landeyjahöfn is the other one people mean; Magic Iceland Travel sells the Reykjavík to Westman Islands leg at €53 including the bus to the harbour. Ferries are not sightseeing. They are how you get somewhere worth a day.
5. Sea angling — dinner with a boat attached
Two or three hours in Faxaflói with a hand line, and the crew grills what you catch. Special Tours’ Sea Angling is €132 for three hours. Elding’s Reykjavík Sea Angling Gourmet is €163 and takes the food part seriously.
It is the most reliably enjoyable boat on this list, because the outcome does not depend on an animal turning up. Cod are not shy. We wrote it up in sea angling with a barbecue.
What about a harbour dinner cruise?
Sea Trips Reykjavík’s Harbor Cruise with Three Course Dinner is €121 for under two hours. It exists, people enjoy it, and we would not book it — you are paying restaurant prices for a view of the harbour you can walk along for nothing. Say no to this one before you say no to anything else on the page.
Beyond Reykjavík
The Westfjords have the quietest water in the country. Borea Adventures runs whale watching in Ísafjarðardjúp at €105, and the Vigur Island tour at €161 takes you to a farmed island of eiders and puffins in summer. Fewer boats, fewer people, and the fjord does most of the work.
Our honest take
One boat per trip is usually the right number. If it is summer, make it a whale boat from the north or a puffin RIB. If it is winter, make it the aurora cruise, because the boat solves the light-pollution problem that the bus solves with a two-hour drive.
The glacier-lagoon zodiac is the one people regret least and the one that costs the most to reach, so only take it if you are already in the southeast. And if you have two hours and €18, take the Viðey ferry — it is a boat trip, an island and an afternoon, and it costs less than a round of coffees.
More on what’s sailing: boat tours and boat tour prices.
