Puffins are part of the Auk family of seabirds that also include razorbills and guillemots. They are quite small in size; only 30 cm. in length, weighing 400 gr. with a wingspan of 55 cm. They feed on sandeels, capelin and herring but seem to be decreasing in numbers over the last few years due to the lack of food in the bay caused by increasing water temperatures. They are consi

After a few days with no sightings of whales, it was refreshing to go out this morning to witness a humpback whale lunge feeding! elding.is/thursday-7-march-2019

"Lunge feeding could be regarded as a kind of inverted suction feeding, during which a whale takes a huge gulp of water, which is then filtered through the balee

What a pleasant surprise! Two male orcas / killer whales were seen swimming together on our 13:00 tour on the last day of February 2019. They are not residents of the area and not really a common visitors either, although we see them a few times a year; in winter and most often again in summer. They tend to stay closer to the North of Snæfellsnes penins

Elding has now achieved the PLATINUM CERTIFICATE of EarthCheck which is the highest certification in their ranking! It is awarded to those organisations that successfully meet the environmental requirements with a consistent commitment for 10 years. We are proud to be the ONLY EarthCheck certified whale watching company in the entire world - a great achievement for an

That's right! We've encountered our first minke whale of 2019. Unusual that, since minke whales are "supposed to" come back from migration around march, but it seems that this individual is just back a bit earlier than customary. Great news for us since we've missed this species not having seen many since last autumn!

Read more about the tour: eld

Akureyri in the North of Iceland

Our love for whales and wildlife has spread! In summer of 2016 we started operating whale watching tours from down town Akureyri. Now a couple of years later, we have merged with another boat operator in the area so we can provide a greater variety of services and higher quality tours.

Sighting guarantee

Better service & more comfort

Hunting the aurora lights by boat gives you more comfort. On the boat we have a heated inside seating area where we also sell light refreshments and hot drinks. Our boats have great 360° viewing platform for searching for the lights and expert aurora guides that help you enjoy the lights to the fullest. You can borrow our free overa

Viðey island situated just few minuets from Reykjavik city by ferry.

Unspoiled nature reigns on island of Viðey, which has a unique place in Icelandic history. Birdlife abounds on the island, while out­stand­ing works of modern art also make their mark.

Viðey was inhabited from soon after the sett­lement ofIce­land around 900 AD. In 1225 a

Most modern classifications split the minke whale into two species, the Antarctic minke whale sometimes called the southern minke whale and the Common minke whale or northern minke whale found f.ex. around Iceland.

The minke whale is the smallest member of the rorquals and the second smalles

Become a humpback identify specialist

Matching humpback whale flukes can be simple, especially after our scientists have done the preparatory work for us. Humpback whales have a unique pigmentation pattern on the underside of their tail (flukes) much like a "thumbprint" that allows us to identify individual animal

Baleen whale filtering system Humpbacks in hunting mode usually take a good dive, by lifting their fluke and swimming down to the deep for food. Once they have found their prey, usually krill or small fish like mackerel, they increase their speed and just before they reach their prey, they open their mouth.

The humpback whale is a species of baleen whale. One of the larger rorqual species, adults range in length from 12–16 m (39–52 ft) and weigh around 25–30 metric tons (28–33 short tons).

Humpbacks are found in every ocean and seas around the world and have the longest migration route of any mamma

Fyrirmyndafyrirtæki ársins 2018 Ábyrg ferðaþjónusta

- Elding

Undanfarin tvö ár hefur Elding ásamt 300 öðrum fyrirtækjum tekið þátt í hvatningarverkefni um að fyrirtæki tengd ferðaþjónustu sammælist um nokkrar skýrar og einfaldar aðgerðir um ábyrga ferðaþjónustu svo Ísland verði ákjósanlegur áfangastaður ferðamanna um ókomna tíð og styðji við

Snæfellsjökull (Snow mountain glacier) often seen on our tours from the city of Reykjavík over Faxa Bay, at a distance of 120 km. The name of the mountain is actually Snæfell (Snow mountain) but it is normally called "Snæfellsjökull" to distinguish it from two other mountains with this name. The mountain is one of the most famous sites of Iceland, primarily due to the novel Journey to the Cente

When sailing out from Reykjavik for whale searching, mount Esja, sometimes called "the queen of mountains" (by capital residents) is one of the first things you notice. Esja is not a single mountain, but a volcanic mountain range, made from basalt and tuff. Esja's formation dates back to the beginning of the last Ice Age, the volcano is no longer active. The mountain is one of the most popular

Our captain, Gulli, met up with this beautiful humpback whale. It doesn't matter how often you see these giants rising out from the deep, it always gets your heart going good. Still you know, that under the surface, the whale is hiding most of its body as it can reach up to 16m in length (50ft) and can weigh up to 60 tons! These friendly giants rule the oceans as you can find them in every ocea

WHITE BEAKED-DOLPHIN

The white-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) is a marine mammal belonging to the family Delphinidae (dolphins) in the suborder Odontoceti
(toothed whales).

Its scientific name Lagenorhynchus means bottlenose (lageno - flask or bottle, rhynchus - nose, beak

The Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are some of the most extraordinary natural phenomena on Earth. They occur when charged particles from the sun are carried by solar winds and collide with Earth’s magnetic field. These particles are drawn toward the magnetic poles, where they interact with gases in the atmosphere (mainly oxygen and nitrogen) producing light in various colours.

Unlike most mammals, marine mammals cannot rely on vision and smell as their main senses. The vision is compromised under slow physical movement of the water. Therefore, marine mammals have evolved to use sounds and hearing as their primary means of c

Today we celebrated our Nordic Council Environment Prize 2018 nomination by inviting our colleagues in the toursm industry as well as our passengers and anyone else willing and wanting to make the world a bit cleaner to a beach cleaning.

Among those who helped were our friends from Gray Line, Reykjavík Excursions, Arctic Jet, Dive.is, Erik the Red Guesthouse, Hotel Reykjavík Lights an

Elding has been nominated for the Nordic Council Environment Prize 2018! We are nominated for decades of work on the protection of marine environment — which is the title of the environmental prize this year. We, the Elding family, are extremely proud of the nomination.

The nomination alone is a significant acknowledgment of our environmental work that truly is close to our heart

The northern lights are back and the season is already off to a great start! First tour of the winter had great views and sightings of the auroras.

Book your preferred northern ligths experience here.

On July 23, for the first time in the history of Elding whale watching, we came up on a North Atlantic Right whale! one of the most endangered of all large whales It has now been identifide by The Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life as: Mogul a 10 year old male born to Slalom in 20

BREAKING NEWS! A first in Elding history; a north atlantic right whale was seen in Reykjavík today, 23 July 2018. 

It is one of the most endangered of all large whales, with a long history of human exploitation and no signs of recovery despite protection from whaling since the 1930's. The female north atlantic right whale can reach 18 m. and the males strech to 1

From our whale diary 13 July 2018: "It was a beautiful individual of basking shark, the first spotted this season. They are only coming close to the surface when is warm enough and this one delighted our trip with very close encounters so we could see his gigantic white mouth while filtrating plankton. A unique experience without any doub

Come join us this Saturday on Whale Day where there will be plenty of things to see in and around the Old Harbour.

Join us in Fífill 'the floating museum' by the Old Harbour and witness the magical world of whales from below sea level and listen to their call. Have some waffles, play games, try our whale cookies, face painting, a treasure hunt (with prizes!) and learn about the wildli

We proudly announce that Elding received Kuðungurinn award for outstanding performance when it comes to environmental issues for the year 2017!

Elding started paying special attention to environmental issues in 2006 by integrating Green Globe (now EarthCheck) into our daily operations to get a clear insight of the matter within the company. Now, 12 years on, we are still nowhere near

PUFFINS have already been spotted in Faxaflói bay!

Although the season doesn't officially start until mid May, more and more Puffins will travel long distances in the coming days and weeks to nest in burrows on islands just off Reykjavík's Old Harbour where they will stay for the summer! 

Read more about Puffins: www.elding.is

Elding - Viðeyjarstofa Café - Reykjavík City Museum

The annual easter egg hunt will be held on Viðey island this weekend, 24 March 2018, with ferry sailing from Skarfabakki pier constantly from 12:30 and onwards. The hunt itself will start at 13:30 from Viðeyjarstofa Café.

This year we will offer limited amount of tickets, so make sure to book your tickets e

Time to head back to our home base in Reykjavík as we're expecting quite dull weather on the south side of the peninsula this week.. Join us from the Old Harbour where we sail daily at 9am and 1pm!

Book online: www.elding.is/winterwhale

With the weather being difficult and sightings scarse in Reykjavík, we decided to move our boats to Sandgerði this week to try our luck from there. We heard news from some fishing boats in the are that Orcas and Humpback whales were being sighted frequently, chasing food - so we thought, why not!

Already we have been sailing from Grindavík and Sandgerði these past few days with great

Sometimes we don't have to venture far off shore in search for wildlife!

This morning we encountered what seemed to be an injured Northern Bottlenose Whale INSIDE the Old Harbour in Reykjavík - perhaps looking for a final resting place?

Although it looks like it has found its way back to open wat

Earlier today our friends at Köfunarþjónusta Sigurðar ehf. successfully pushed the Northern Bottlenose whale, previously seen inside the Old Harbour, off the rocks of Sæbrautin in Reykjavík. It is believed that the whale has some external as well as internal injuries, possibly due to pl

We have added an extra whale watching departure on 31 December 2017 at 9:30 AM from Reykjavík. On our last few tours we've seen a couple of different Humpback whales as well as some dolphins and are therefore optimistic of what the next days have in store for us!

Check our online whale diary here: https://elding.is/whale-diary

Happy Holidays one and all

We would like to take the opportunity to thank you all for the busy year that's soon behind us! Wishing you all the best this holiday season and hope you have a prosperous and joyful New Year!

The Elding crew

Finally - we have our very own COMPLETELY COMPOSTABLE coffee cups and lids available onboard our vessels! But, how are they different from regular coffee ones? The materials come from sustainable resources and are made of all-organic ingredients and rather than being coated with petroleum they are lined with corn.

It's been looking quite Christmassy the past couple of days with snow pouring down from the sky left and right. The general athmosphere in the harbour is festive and onboard it's ideal to sit down in our heated lounge with a warm cup of 'Whale Punch' and watch the flakes melt into the sea.. This time of year is definitely on our favourites list!

Exciting news - we just learned that we have retained EarthCheck's Gold Certification for the 5th year in a row!

"Best practice and sustainable initiatives - raising awareness about pollution and its impact on the environment and marine life."

Read more: https://elding.is/earthcheck