To many the „Westfjords“ area is the biggest secret in Icelandic tourism due to less traffic, wonderful mix of mountain and ocean sceneries and the closeness to the old and traditional way of making a living of the land and sea in these northern latitudes. This trip explores some of the fantastic attractions of the area, small fishing villages, great seacliffs with astonishing birdlife, golden beaches you wouldn‘t expect to find in these latitudes and beautiful mountains. This trip is all about culture, landscapes, wildlife, midnight sun and great food. The biking is mixed between gravel and asfalt seaside roads with quite a bit of climbing over mountainpasses between the fjords. Lacking technical sections and continous dwellings in highland altitudes this trip is ranked in our moderate group. A trip that truly gives an insight into both modern and past lifes of people in these northern latitudes, is a great holiday that suits bikers of all abilities although a fair fitness level is needed. The luxury of a support vehicle should also be of comfort to those who may worry that they can‘t make the longest days.

Day 1 | Stykkishólmur to Rauðsdalur | 4 km (biking)
Meeting up in the beautiful town of Stykkishólmur the trip starts at the harbour area where we will aboard the Baldur ferry that will take us over Breiðafjörður bay to Brjánslækur via the island of Flatey. The boatride takes about 3,5 hours and at Brjánslækur we saddle our bikes and make an easy 4 km ride to Rauðsdalur farm hostel. Your guide and assistant will make you a nice dinner and in the evening there is an option to ride an easy 10 km on blacktopped road (20 km with return ride) for a soak in a primative rocky beach jacuzzi that makes use of a nearby geothermal borhole.

Day 2 | Rauðsdalur to Örlygshöfn | 62 km
From Rauðsdalur we ride westward some 20 km before climbing over the Kleifaheiði pass (400m) over to Patreksfjörður. We then travel out the fjord on the south side until we get to Örlygshöfn, which is against the town of Patreksfjörður on the other side of the fjord. Our destination is close to where the road starts climbing up again over the Breiðavíkurheiði (340m) towards Látrabjarg.

Day 3 | Daytour to Látrabjarg | 48 km
In the morning we ride from Örlygshöfn over Breiðavíkurheiði (340m) and Látraháls (220m), to Bjargtangar, the western most point of Iceland. From the lighthouse at Bjargtangar we will make an optional walk along the cliffs of Látrabjarg, one of Iceland‘s most densily populated birdcliffs and the largest one, over 14 km in length and upto 441m high. We then turn back and bakctrack our route from the morning and back to Örlygshöfn where we spend a second night.

Day 4 | Örlygshöfn to Bíldudalur | 72 km
From Örlygshöfn we ride around the fjord of Patreksfjörður until we get to the town of Patreksfjörður. In the second half of the day we will then climb over two mountainpasses, first over the pass of Botnaheiði (380m) over to the fjord of Tálknafjörður and then over the pass of Hálfdán (500m) over to Arnarfjörður and make a nice descent to the town of Bíldudalur where we will spend the night.

Day 5 | Bíldudalur to Þingeyri | 97 km
This is the longest day of the trip that also takes us over two quite hard mountainpasses. Typically this day is shortened a bit by using our support vehicle to transfer us (e.g. by skipping the second big climb), especially if weather or road condition is foul. From Bíldudalur we travel towards Trostansfjörður before we make an approximately 500m climb to the top of Dynjandisheiði pass. We then travel on top of the mountains for some kilometers over undulating ground until we drop down by Dynjandi, one of Iceland‘s most picturesque waterfalls. Still travelling around the great Arnarfjörður we make our way pass the largest hydroelectrical powerplant in the westfjords at Mjólká and further on until we reach our second mountainpass of the day over Hrafnseyrarheiði (540m). After the strenous climb up we are rewarded with an exhilirating drop on the other side down to Dýrafjörður. Still a short climb (100m) over the side of the Sandafell mountain awaits us before we drop into the town of Þingeyri were we will spend the last night of the trip.

Day 6 | Þingeyri to Ísafjörður | 62 km
The last day first takes us around Dýrafjörður and against Þingeyri on the other side of the fjord we climb up the pass of Gemlufallsheiði (280m) over to Önundarfjörður. We will make our lunchstop in the town of Flateyri, where 19 people lost there lifes when an avalanche struck the town in october of 1995. We will be able to view the huge avalanche protection hill that was built in the aftermath of this tragic accident. After our visit to Flateyri we will climb the highest mountainpass of the whole trip over the Breiðadalsheiði (620m) that will make us work hard on the way up but we will be rewarded with a wonderful drop down to Skutulsfjörður and the capital town of the Westfjords, Ísafjörður, where our trip comes to an end. At Ísafjörður, some may go straight to the airport for their flight to Reykjavík or into the town for an extra night in the westfjords.