Travel: Puffin Watching

Puffin watching! Okay, so I had no idea how awesome puffins were until I was in Iceland. From all the gift shops, sweaters, and mittens (I bought mitts!) with puffins on them, I was quick to do some research and find out simply how lovely they are. They keep the same partner for life, around 20 years, an share moments of affection, which is super sweet.

Oh, and they can do cool things like dive up to 60 metres. Neat, eh?!

When we had a change of plans with our hike (more on that in another post) it opened up some time and we went puffin watching! At first, I was going to go alone since Bryce isn’t a huge fan of boats. Seasickness and all. But he was a trooper, took some gravol and joined me on the boat.

The tour was about an hour, and while it was windy and a little chilly, it was so worth it. The photos don’t do the puffin watching justice, since we had them flying over our heads at some points and I could see them better than the camera could capture. All that to say, go puffin watching if you get the chance! Okay, photo time.

Puffin Watching

First up, the boat – we boarded first and got good seats outside and on edge.

After we made it through the harbour, it’s about a 7-10 minute ride to the island. The boat will spend about 30-35 minutes going slowly around the island, pointing puffins, telling stories, and even passing around artifacts. Then, it’s a quick 10-15 minutes back to the harbour.

Puffin time!

Pretty neat, eh?!

We had an awesome time puffin watching. One tip, go as early as you can in the morning since that’s when they’re most active. The 8am boat was the perfect choice for us. We arrived around 7:30am and were done by 9:10am, just in time to grab some sweet breakfast eats!