Gretchen Stuppy Carlson
Iceland is one of the best places in the world to see puffins. Each year, puffins flock to the cliffs along the coastline to nest and raise their young. Puffins can be seen in several places in Iceland, but the Borgarfjörður Eystri Puffins are the easiest to get up close to safely. The nesting area is directly on a fjord at Borgarfjarðarhöfn.
Some of the other popular places to see puffins in Iceland include Heimaey Island, Hornstrandir Nature Reserve and the Cliffs on the Westfjords, and Dyrholaey Lighthouse. If you are driving the Southern Coast or the Ring Road in Iceland, Borgarfjörður Eystri is worth the side trip.
We visited the Borgarfjörður Eystri puffins on our drive around the Ring Road. Seeing puffins in the wild had been one of the items on my bucket list for years – I even had a childhood cat named Puffin, and after hours of research, we decided that Borgarfjörður Eystri was the best place to see these amazing birds.
See our complete guide to a 7 day Iceland Itinerary: Driving the Amazing Ring Road
5 Things to Know About Visiting the Borgarfjörður Eystri Puffins
- The Puffin viewing area at Borgarfjörður Eystri Marina has boardwalks and stairs that take you up into the nesting area. There is an indoor viewing space as well where you can sit and watch the puffins right outside the window.
- It is estimated that over 10,000 pairs of puffins nest in Borgarfjörður Eystri each year
- Borgarfjörður Eystri is a fjord in eastern Iceland with a population of about 130 people
- In addition to seeing puffins, there are also many excellent hikes in the area around Borgarfjörður Eystri
- The drive from the Ring Road to Borgarfjörður Eystri is incredibly beautiful with expansive views of the coastline and fjords
Facts About the Borgarfjörður Eystri Puffins
Puffins are amazing animals. The puffins that nest at Borgarfjarðarhöfn are Atlantic puffins. Iceland is home to the largest numbers of Atlantic puffins of any country in the world. These distinctive birds only develop their iconic orange beaks during the mating season when you will see them strutting along shireside cliffs. Puffins also have a distinctive flying style making them easy to spot in the air.
Puffins spend the majority of their life at sea, bobbing on the surfance and fishing for small fish. They are able to hold multiple fish in their beaks at a time and you can watch them as they try to dodge the gulls on their way to bring their fish into the nest. Puffins live for an average of 30 years and baby puffins are known as pufflings.
Each pair of puffins work to together to build an underground burrow where they lay one egg. The pair take turns sitting on the egg for 40 days. Shortly after the puffling hatches, both the parents and young puffins return to the sea.
How to Get to Borgarfjörður Eystri
Borgarfjörður Eystri is located about 1.5 hours from the Ring Road in Iceland. This makes it a long detour if you are driving and touring around the island, but also means that this a much quieter part of Iceland and is off the beaten path. In our opinion, this detour is absolutely worth it if you want to see puffins and have the time.
The best location to put into your map app to get to the puffin viewing platform is: Borgarfjarðarhöfn – this is a small marina just past the small village.
The drive from the ring road on 94 starts by following the fjord. This part of the drive is mostly flat and a well maintained dirt road. You can make the drive in any vehicle and don’t need a 4×4. As the road bears to the right, you will see a large coastal hill and the road follows a series of switchbacks up over the hill and down Borgarfjörður Eystri.
During our drive we spent most of the drive up the mountain within a cloud with only a few feet of visibility. This is common and was slightly unnerving as there are some steep drop offs. Once you descend below the clouds the view is beautiful and I can only imagine what it must look like on a clear day!
After passing through the small village, continue around the bay until you reach Borgarfjarðarhöfn. This is a small penninsula just past the marina where the puffins nest.
How to See the Puffins – Borgarfjordur Eystri Marina
Once you arrive at Borgarfjarðarhöfn, park in the large parking lot and walk down towards the marina. There is a small cafe right next to the marina. Just past the marina, you will find the boardwalks and stairs that take you into the bird nesting area. Puffins tend to return to their nest late in the day, so try to arrive in the evening. We visited around 5:00 in June and there were plenty of puffins flying in with their fish.
Puffins are not the only birds on this remote cliff. You can also see plenty of ducks and gulls. Watching the birds compete for cliff space and fish is fascinating, and the puffins make somewhat frantic flights into their nesting holes to get their fish past the gulls who dive bomb them trying to steal their fish.
The entire viewing area is not very large, but you will want to give yourself about 1 hour to watch the birds. There were about 30 other people there when we visited with a variety of cameras and binoculars. We absolutely loved visiting the puffins and watching their funny little movements and sounds.
There is a small enclosed building with windows where you can sit inside and view the puffins. It’s worth checking out the view from here, but we liked watching the puffins best from outside.
Where Else to See Puffins in Iceland
While we think Borgarfjörður Eystri is the best place to see puffins in Iceland, there are several other places where you can view these amazing birds. Since seeing puffins was one of our goals when we visited Iceland, we researched every option and gave ourselves a backup option so we were sure to see these birds.
We first saw puffins when we visited Dyrholaey Lighthouse and Sea Arch. The cliffs around the lighthouse are home to puffins and it’s possible to see them here. It is difficult to get too close to the puffins here safely as most of them are nesting very close to the cliff edge.
Heimaey Island on the Westman Islands. To visit these islands, you will need to take a boat tour or ferry. There are several amazing things to see on these islands, but this is a great place to see puffins. See a great post on things to do in the Westman Islands.
Hornstrandir Nature Reserve and the Cliffs on the Westfjords are remote and difficult to get to, but offer several amazing places to see puffins.
If you are visiting Iceland and will only be in Reykjavik, the best way to see Puffin is on a tour. You can find several tours like this short trip right from Reykjavik.
Beyond the Borgarfjörður Eystri Puffins: What Else to See in the Area
If you are visiting Eastern Iceland and the Borgarfjörður Eystri Puffins there are several other interesting sites to consider visiting. The village and nearby hikes are worth exploring and back on the Ring Road, you should consider visiting Hengifoss and Litlanesfoss and taking the hike to Studlagil Canyon.
You can also head further west along the South coast towards Diamond Beach and Vatnajokul Glacier.
Planning Your Trip to Iceland
Iceland is one of our favorite places to visit and we are already planning another trip. Seeing puffins was one of our top activities. If you are in the planning stages of your Iceland trip, make sure to check out:
You can also see some of the other amazing adventures on our family’s adventure bucket list here.
