Of all the excursions on this trip, Vigur Island might be the one I keep thinking back to. It’s a small stop — a tiny island in the middle of Ísafjarðardjúp fjord — but it packs in wildlife, history, and one genuinely remarkable owner into just a few hours.
Getting There
We were picked up right off the dock of the ship and loaded onto a small boat for the crossing. The ride took about 30 minutes, and we couldn’t have asked for a better morning for it — calm water, good light, and views back across the fjord toward Ísafjörður as we pulled away.
Pulling up to the small dock, the island’s red-roofed boat shed, and windmill came into view — a quiet, working little harbor that felt worlds away from the cruise port we’d just left.
The Island and Its One Family
What makes Vigur so fascinating is who lives there: just one family, and they’re the island’s sole year-round caretakers. The current owner is Felicity Aston, a British polar explorer who, in 2012, became the first woman in the world to ski solo and unassisted across Antarctica — towing her own supplies for 1,744 km over 59 days, using nothing but her own strength the entire way. She first came to Vigur while guiding expedition travelers there, fell in love with the place, and years later bought the island with her husband. Today they’re two of just three permanent residents, running Vigur as a working eider farm and bird sanctuary.
Their main livelihood comes from sustainably harvesting eiderdown — the eider ducks nest right around the family’s home and outbuildings for protection, and in exchange, the down they naturally shed is collected once the ducklings have left the nest. It’s a genuinely symbiotic relationship that’s been part of island life here for generations.
We spotted this eider duck tucked up on the rocky beach, blending almost perfectly into the stones and dried seaweed around her.
The Birds
The numbers are hard to wrap your head around: Vigur is home to something like 100,000 puffins, along with thousands of eider ducks and one of Europe’s largest colonies of black guillemot. We saw hundreds of puffins bobbing in the water on the approach, with a handful more flying in low and landing right next to their burrows along the path. Watching them come and go from their nests at close range was worth the trip on its own.
Catching one mid-flight was its own challenge — puffins are fast, low fliers, and this one banked hard just before touching down.
The other bird you can’t ignore is the Arctic tern — and our guide made sure we knew it before we got very far. Arctic terns nest right alongside the walking path, and they are fiercely protective of their chicks. Expect a few dive-bombing runs at your head as you walk through; it’s harmless, if startling, and part of the experience.
The Puffin Path
The boardwalk that lets you walk right through the colony without disturbing it is relatively new — it’s called the “Puffin Path,” and it was built in collaboration with National Geographic–Lindblad Expeditions, whose ships regularly stop at Vigur as part of their Iceland itineraries. It’s a genuinely well-designed piece of infrastructure: close enough to the birds to feel immersive, but built specifically to keep foot traffic away from the burrows.
Marriage Cake and the Smallest Post Office in Europe
Before heading back to the boat, we stopped for Hjónabandssæla — literally “marital bliss,” a traditional Icelandic rhubarb cake that’s been a Vigur family recipe for generations. It’s a simple, comforting treat after a couple of hours outside in the wind.
Just as memorable: Vigur’s post office, which claims the title of Europe’s smallest post office. We sent postcards from there, stamped with the island’s own puffin design — mail gets picked up “every now and then” rather than on any fixed schedule, so don’t expect it to beat you home.
Worth Its Own Trip
Between the boat ride, the puffins, the eider ducks, the Arctic terns keeping us on our toes, the cake, and Felicity’s story, Vigur ended up being one of the most memorable stops of the whole cruise — a tiny island that somehow has more going on than places many times its size.
Read next: our full day in Ísafjörður, including the walk through Old Town and the decision that sent us to Vigur instead of Dynjandi Waterfall.
Peaks to Palaces 