Welcome to the Westman Islands, a volcanic, hidden gem of Iceland.
If you have traveled on the South Coast of Iceland on a relatively clear day, you certainly have spotted some mountains, far away from the road, on the horizon. Those mountains are actually islands, and you need to take a ferry to get there. If they are easily visible from the road, most travelers tend to oversee them and do not take the necessary extra day to visit them. This makes them a place far less traveled than the other sites of the South Coast of Iceland.
All those islands are actually volcanoes, (Yes, welcome to Iceland, where literally everything is a volcano!) Two eruptions in recent history are in fact quite remarkable. The first one is the eruption of Surtsey in 1963, where a completely new island was formed and added to the archipelago. The second one was ten years later in 1973, when the whole town of Heimaey had to be evacuated in an emergency.
Another beautiful thing about the Westman Islands is that they are the home of the biggest colony of puffins in the world. And children living there are actually used to caring for and saving the baby puffins that sometimes end up on the city streets.
Please note that the availability of this tour is as always in Iceland, weather-dependent, but also depends on the booking availability of the ferry.
