Ísafjörður Travel Guide

Hornstrandir is a nature reserve at the northernmost tip of Iceland's Westfjords, one of the country's remotest and most pristine areas. With no roads and no permanent residents, it can only be reached by boat from Ísafjörður. The reserve offers steep bird cliffs, deep fjords and abandoned farmsteads, making it a paradise for hikers and birdwatchers and the only native habitat of the Arctic fox in Iceland.

The Westfjords Heritage Museum sits in Bolungarvík in Iceland's remote northwest, a cluster of restored herring-processing workshops that recreate the harsh life of early 20th-century Icelandic fishing and whaling. Inside are old fishing boats, curing barrels, tools and recreated fishermen's homes, alongside the story of Norwegian migration across the ocean. It is the finest window into how Iceland's fringe island communities survived by the sea.

Dynjandi, whose name means thunderous, is the largest and best-known waterfall in Iceland's Westfjords. It tumbles roughly 100 metres down a cliff face in a series of seven tiers, the uppermost fanning out like a bridal veil and the lower ones spreading ever wider. Fed by meltwater and several small streams, it runs fullest in spring and early summer. The falls stand on the north side of Arnarfjörður, reached by Route 60, with a gravel footpath and steps leading up past each tier. Access and trail conditions vary with the season and are subject to local closures.