Iceland is the best place on earth to see Atlantic puffins. The country hosts the largest breeding population of the species anywhere — frequently estimated at more than half the global total — and several colonies are so accessible that you can walk to within a few metres of birds that show no interest in you whatsoever. The catch is timing: puffins spend most of the year out at sea, and if you arrive outside the window there is simply nothing to see.
When to go
Puffins come ashore to breed from roughly mid-April to early May, and the last of them leave between mid-August and early September. Outside that, they are living on the open North Atlantic, sleeping on the water and coming to land not at all.
The best viewing is from late May through July. By then the birds are settled, pairs are established, and adults are commuting constantly to bring sand eels back to the burrow — which is when you get the classic image of a puffin with a beakful of silver fish. Each pair raises a single chick, known as a puffling, incubating the egg for around six weeks in a burrow dug into the turf.
Time of day matters more than most guides mention. Puffins spend much of the middle of the day fishing offshore, and colonies can look almost deserted at noon. Early morning and, especially, the hours before dusk are when the cliffs fill up.
Dyrhólaey and Reynisfjara
On the south coast, the Dyrhólaey promontory near Vík is the most convenient colony in the country — a short drive off the Ring Road, with puffins nesting in the grassy cliff edges beside the viewing areas and the famous stone arch below. The neighbouring cliffs above Reynisfjara hold birds too.
Note that parts of Dyrhólaey are closed during the early nesting season, typically from around the start of May into late June, to protect breeding birds. The closures vary year to year, so check locally rather than assuming.
Látrabjarg
The Látrabjarg cliffs in the Westfjords are the serious pilgrimage. The cliff runs around 14 kilometres and rises to more than 400 metres, holding vast numbers of puffins along with razorbills, guillemots and fulmars. The birds here are famously indifferent to humans — historically they were not hunted at the accessible edge — and you can lie on the turf and watch them at arm’s length.
It is a long way from anywhere: the final stretch is gravel road, and getting there realistically means committing a couple of days to the Westfjords. One serious warning: the cliff edge is undercut turf, not rock. It has collapsed under people. Stay back from the lip, lie down rather than standing near the edge, and never let the photograph pull you forward.
Other excellent colonies
- Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands), home to the largest colony in Iceland. In August, local children run the pysjueftirlitið — the puffling patrol — collecting fledglings that get disoriented by town lights and releasing them at sea the next day. Visitors can join in.
- Borgarfjörður eystri in the east, where a purpose-built boardwalk and platform at Hafnarhólmi puts you within a couple of metres of nesting birds. It is arguably the easiest quality puffin viewing in Iceland, and it is almost never crowded.
- Grímsey, the island on the Arctic Circle north of Akureyri, with cliffs full of puffins and a ferry or flight to get there.
- Ingólfshöfði, a headland near Skaftafell reached by tractor-drawn hay cart across the sand on a guided tour — a genuinely unusual outing.
- Papey and Vigur, small islands off the east and in the Westfjords respectively, both reached by boat.
Puffin tours from Reykjavík
If you are staying in the capital, boats run from the old harbour to the small islands of Akurey and Lundey in Faxaflói bay, roughly an hour to ninety minutes round trip. These are landing-free trips — you circle the island and watch from the boat — so bring binoculars and expect the birds to be at some distance rather than at your feet. It is a decent option with limited time, but it is not the Látrabjarg experience.
A note on respect
Puffins are not doing well. The Atlantic puffin is classified as vulnerable, and Iceland’s population has declined significantly, with repeated breeding failures in the south linked to shortages of sand eels as sea temperatures shift. The birds you are looking at are under real pressure.
So: never walk on the grassy slopes above a colony, because the burrows are directly beneath the turf and they collapse. Keep your distance and use a zoom lens rather than closing in. Do not fly a drone anywhere near a colony — it panics the birds off their nests and is prohibited at many sites. Keep dogs away entirely. And skip puffin on restaurant menus while you are here; there is no shortage of better things to eat in Iceland.
Written by
Erika Sand
Erika has spent the last decade driving, hiking, and hot-spring-hopping across Iceland in every season. She writes NRF.is’s itineraries, guides, and trip reports to help travelers see the country safely, affordably, and without the tourist-trap detours.