Northern Lights (Aurora) Forecast & Old Harbour Whale Watching in Reykjavik

Two natural spectacles top almost every visitor's wish list in Reykjavík: watching the Northern Lights (Norðurljós / Aurora Borealis) ripple across the night sky between late August and mid-April, and sailing out from the Old Harbour into Faxaflói Bay to spot humpback whales, minke whales, and nesting Atlantic puffins.

1. How to See the Northern Lights in Reykjavik (Late August to Mid-April)

• How to Read the Official IMO Aurora & Cloud-Cover Map (en.vedur.is): Because Reykjavík sits right beneath the auroral oval at 64° North, solar particles collide with the upper atmosphere almost every night of the year, meaning you only need darkness (absent during the Midnight Sun from May to mid-August) and clear sky free of clouds. Instead of relying solely on generic smartphone apps, open the Icelandic Meteorological Office Aurora Forecast (en.vedur.is/weather/forecasts/aurora/). Remember one crucial colour rule on the IMO map: green shading indicates cloud cover, while white indicates clear sky. Look for white clear-sky windows between 21:00 and 02:00 paired with an Aurora Activity index of Kp 2 to 9.
• Best Dark-Sky Viewpoints Inside the City vs Boat & Super-Jeep Hunts: On clear, high-activity nights, walk or ride Strætó Bus 11 five kilometres west to the tidal spit of Grótta Island Lighthouse on Seltjarnarnes (where a small geothermal footbath, Kvika, sits carved into a boulder facing the sea), climb the dark pine trails of Öskjuhlíð hill below Perlan, or stand by the Sun Voyager. When coastal cloud blankets the peninsula, join an evening Old Harbour aurora boat cruise onto dark Faxaflói Bay or a minibus / super-jeep aurora hunt that uses live satellite radar to drive thirty to sixty minutes inland into clear mountain valleys.

2. Old Harbour Whale Watching (Year-Round) & Puffin Islands (May to Mid-August)

• Minke Whales, Humpbacks & Dolphins in Faxaflói Bay: Departing daily year-round from the wooden piers of Ægisgarður and Geirsgata in the Old Harbour (five minutes west of Harpa Concert Hall), three-hour classic vessels and fast two-hour RIB boats sail out into shallow, krill-rich Faxaflói Bay. Operators belonging to the IceWhale Code of Conduct supply warm insulated flotation overalls on board and encounter four resident cetacean species: minke whales (hrefna), breaching and fluke-diving humpback whales (hnúfubakur), playful pods of white-beaked dolphins, and shy harbour porpoises.
• The Puffin Islands of Akurey and Lundey (Early May to Mid-August): Every spring, more than thirty thousand pairs of Atlantic puffins (lundi) return from the open North Atlantic to nest in grassy burrows on the low islands of Akurey and Lundey ("Puffin Island"), located just fifteen minutes by boat outside Reykjavík's harbour mouth. Dedicated one-hour wooden skimmer boats with shallow draughts glide quietly close to the rocky shore so you can watch puffins whirring back to their burrows with beaks full of sand eels.