My name is Christina and I am the Marketing Manager for Láki Tours. My usual workplace is in the office but from time to time I leave this place to join one of our whale watching trips. March 4 was such a day and I really enjoyed being out on the ocean to hear the sound of the waves and to fill up on sea air.
Our tours start from the small fishing town Olafsvik, located on the northern part of Snaefellsnes in West Iceland. It was a beautiful winter day with a lot of sun shine and the short drive from our office in Grundarfjordur to Olafsvik provided already beautiful sea views.
After everybody put on a warm overall, we left the harbor and sailed in the direction where my colleagues observed the whales already in the last couple of days. The whole peninsula was covered in snow and provided beautiful photo opportunities from the boat. 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. There we 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.
There we 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 two 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 their faces.
So in case you will read in a guide book that whale watching in Iceland is only worth in summer please definitely have my whale report in mind. This might be the case for other regions in Iceland but definitely not for Snaefellsnes where Láki Tours operates wonderful winter whale trips.
-Christina
Read more about the best time to see Orcas in Iceland on our blog.
Get inspired about the best things to do in Snaefellsnes Peninsula Iceland.
Láki Tours Iceland
Láki Tours is a family-owned company that offers responsible whale watching in Iceland. We operate our whale trips from Snaefellsnes and the Westfjords of Iceland.
Snaefellsnes is famous for its unique whale species. Nowhere else in Iceland is there a better chance to see orcas, sperm whales and pilot whales than along the Snaefellsnes Peninsula coastline. Other species we regularly see on our tours are humpback whales & dolphins.
In the Westfjords we operate our whale tours from Hólmavík. The most common whales in the fjord are humpback whales. The fjord is incredibly sheltered from most wind directions and the whales usually stay very close to land.
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