Has it always been your dream to see some whales in the wild? Here the place that could make your dream come true.

We went on a whale trip in the north of Iceland in a town called, Husavik. The town is located an hour’s drive from Akureyri. The boat takes you to the Arctic Circle with a 96% chance of seeing some whales. Unfortunately, you are not guaranteed to see any whales. The tour company who we went through: ‘North Sailing’, were fantastic with us. The first time we went out to sea, the sea was too rough; therefore we did not see any whales. They offered us another sailing, free of charge, on a different day, when the sea was forecasted to be calmer. We booked ourselves on another sailing and we were lucky enough to see some minke whales.

There may be more than one whale watching company that runs excursions to see the whales. However, I can only talk about my experience with ‘North Sailing’ as that is whom we went with. I thought the company ‘North Sailing’ was good. You set sail on an old-style fishing boat, wearing bright orange fishing style jackets to keep you warm. At the end of the 3 hours of sailing, they bring out a lovely mug of hot chocolate and a cinnamon bun each, to enjoy. On the tour, while your out at sea, there is somebody who educates you about the different whales that can be seen. If you suffer from seasickness, maybe give this excursion a miss! Due to the style boat, you feel every movement on the water. On our first trip when the sea was stormy, we had water going over the bow on the boat. However, if you are somebody with a strong stomach, you will love it! Even if you do not see any whales!

For more information about ‘North Sailing’, prices and sailing times, check out their website: North Sailing.

Minke Whales

The minke whales were the type of whale we got to see on our boat trip. It is the second smallest of the baleen whales. They’re about 8 to 10-metres in length. Up in the North Atlantic where we spotted them, they have white diagonal stripes across their flippers. The minke whales that live in the south have plain black flippers. They are the most common whales to be seen in Iceland; around 174,000 of them live in the Central and Northeastern Atlantic. Minke whales enjoy eating plankton, krill, and small fish. They can stay submerged for up to 20 minutes, but usually they normally only for 3 – 4 minutes.

Here’s a photo of one we captured. Sorry for the poor photo quality. The photo was taken back in 2007 before I had all the cool camera gear.