Westfjords · Baldur Ferry Loop
Two days across the south-west Westfjords, entering overland from Hólmavík and leaving on the Baldur ferry into Snæfellsnes. Látrabjarg falls in the evening light of Day 1; Day 2 is a slow morning and the boat.
▤ Printable PDF · 92 KB · 3 pp — save it before you leave; there's no signal over the heaths.
Google letters the destinations only — Hólmavík is the unlettered start (•). Markers A–F below match its pins.
Fuel and coffee, then go — the early start is what makes the evening cliffs possible. Skip the Sorcery Museum on this version; it opens at 09:00 and the day is long.
A natural rock pool metres above the shoreline, ~38–40 °C, open all hours, honesty box. Twenty minutes over Steingrímsfjarðarheiði and the rebuilt Route 60 to get here.
Busy by afternoon — you're passing at the good hour. First thing to cut if you're behind.
The finest single sight in the Westfjords: 100 m of water fanning down a stepped face, with six smaller falls along a ~20-minute walk to the top. Allow 1.5 hours. Paid parking, toilets, no food — eat the lunch you carried.
Route 60 over Dynjandisheiði is an active work zone — the final phase, ~7.2 km of new roadbed, through ~end Sept 2026. Expect blasting stops and pilot-car waits on the upper section near 300 m; no closure times are published, so check umferdin.is that morning. You cross the zone twice — up to Dynjandi and back down for Garðar — so double whatever delay you budget. The boat is safe regardless: Day 2 runs over Kleifaheiði and never touches these works.
Iceland's oldest steel ship, beached on purpose in 1981 and rusting at the fjord head. Ten minutes, free to pull up, better in flat light than bright sun. Seals sometimes in the lagoon.
Last reliable fuel and the last real grocery before you go west. Fill the tank and buy tomorrow's breakfast and lunch. Then the surface turns to gravel.
Hotel, cabins and campground on a golden bay, 12 km from the cliffs — the whole reason to sleep out here rather than back in town. The restaurant is the only kitchen for miles and well liked; eat early, before the cliff run.
▸ Evening — the puffin shift
Two unhurried hours on Europe's largest bird cliff, in low gold light with the buses gone and the puffins at arm's length. A 20-minute drive each way from the hotel; back well before dark in July.
The edge is undercut and unfenced — people have died here. Lie down to look over, never lean.
Breiðavík is the unlettered start again, so A is Rauðasandur and B is Brjánslækur. The ferry crossing isn't a driving point, so it has no letter.
Ten kilometres of shell-sand running red to gold, backed by a lagoon and a black church. Allow 2.5 hours: it runs about half an hour on foot each way to get properly out onto the flats, then the seal colony at low tide, then coffee and cake at Franska kaffihúsið by the church. Leave by 11:30 and the ferry looks after itself.
You park above the beach and walk — there's no driving onto the sand. Two lots: the café by the church, or the Melanes campsite at the road's end. From Melanes you cross a shallow stream on foot, so expect to wade and carry something you don't mind soaking. Navigate to the beach / Melanes end — the default "Rauðisandur" pin drops you short. Note the two spellings, Rauðisandur and Rauðasandur; paper maps often show only the farm names (Melanes, Saurbær) and the 614. Route 614 in is a steep gravel switchback; low gear, slow, unpleasant in rain.
Back over Kleifaheiði with margin in hand. Check in at 13:30, 30 minutes before sailing. It's a pier and a small terminal — no restrooms at the port, so stop before you arrive.
This 45-minute buffer protects the whole plan. One sailing can mean no second chance — treat the time as spent, not spare. The morning's spare hour is now committed to the beach, so 11:30 off the sand is the number that matters; slip past it and you're eating this buffer.
Stay on deck leaving Brjánslækur — the run out through the islands of Breiðafjörður, calling at Flatey, is the best part. Café aboard. Lands you two hours from Reykjavík, or sleep in Stykkishólmur and take Snæfellsnes in the morning.