Coast Tour

Ingólfshöfði

Bird Watching and History Trip in
the Nature Reserve INGÓLFSHÖFÐI

Ingólfshöfði is an isolated headland between black sands and the Atlantic Ocean, with thousands of nesting seabirds, especially puffins and the great skua. This historical cape is named after the first settler of Iceland, Ingólfur Arnarson, who spent his first winter in Iceland there in the year 874 AD.
To get to Ingólfshöfði we cross 6 km of waters, marshes and sands in a tractor-drawn hay cart. The drive takes about 20-30 minutes each way, so we spend about 1 1/2 hour hiking around the cape. We make several stops to explain the history of the cape (in English only) and of course to do bird watching. The circle we hike around the nature reserve is 2-3 km long. In the beginning we need to hike up a steep sand slope, but then it gets more easy, mostly hiking on flat grass land. We don't recommend that people participate in this trip unless they can do this hike.

Daily departures from 5/5 until 18/8

From 5/5 - 18/8 we will leave every day except Sundays at 12:00. The price per person is 3000 ISK even if there is only one client on the trip. Individuals and families do not need to book before, just be at the parking 10 minutes before departure.

In July there will also be a departure like this at 15:00.

Do you need a bus ride?

If you don't have your own car to get to our parking (and even if you have our own car to get to our parking) we recommend that you use the service of Glacier Guides travel service and do the Blue Ice and Black Sands trip with www.glacierguides.is . They pick up their clients from Skaftafell National Park and Hotel Skaftafell and Svínafell. In this trip you kill two birds with one stone, do a short glacier hike on Vatnajökull, and then our trip to Ingólfshöfði. Please note, you are not allowed to kill any birds in the nature reserve though :-)
Their bus leaves Skaftafell at 9:00 and you are back at Skaftafell at 15:00.

	Time of year possible from April to October but daily scheduled trips are from 5/5 until 18/8 2009 (not Sundays)
	Fixed departure time 12:00 from 5/5 until 18/8 every day except Sundays. Also at 15:00 in July.
	Duration about 2 1/2 hours, depending on weather and participants.
	Price 3000 ISK per person (free for 1-5 years old children and 1000 ISK for children 6-16 year old, i.e. born in year 1993-2002)
	Groups With groups of 10-110 people we can also go at 9:00 or 15:00 every day except Sundays from April until October. No group reductions, we consider our price to be a group price.

There are often plenty of puffins in Ingólfshöfði in the summer.

ÖRÆFAFERÐIR ehf
Phone: +354 8940894    Email: info@hofsnes.com    Mail: Hofsnes, 785 Oraefi, Iceland
Banki 172 höfuðbók 26 og reikningur 5212    Kennitala 5212033310

Last edited 03.06.2009