Höfn í Hornafirði

The town like many other fishing towns in Iceland is located where the conditions by the coastline for sailing out to the sea were good and to go out for fishing. With better technology and growth in fishing early last century the town was building up fast. Today there are about 2200 people living in Höfn and in the there are a lot of fishing companies, the biggest one is Skinney-Þinganes.

In the town you can find a lot of service like doctor, pharmacy, shops, hotels, restaurants and more. It has developed fast for the past years for serving tourists in the area. There is a great swimming pool there as well as a glacier museum and the landscape there is amazing with small islands and the black sand coast. To the north there is a great view over the glacier Vatnajökull and the mountains like Vestrahorn and Stokksnes.

The town is a paradise for bird watchers, there is a lot of birds coming there during the springtime as well as many rare birds stop by there. Höfn is also the biggest lobster town in Iceland so you should find lobster on the menu of many restaurants in town.

The area has been used as a movie set for some good movies like James Bond; A view to Kill and Die Another day, as well as Lara Croft and Batman Begins. In 2015 a part of the Bollywood movie Dilwale was filmed there as well.

Höfn is a great location for people who like to visit Jökulsárlón and surrounding area and also a good place to stop on the way from the south east to the east part of Iceland.

Directions

Höfn is located about 6 hours drive (450 km) from Reykjavík. Take Ring Road nr. 1 heading East and then turn right on road nr. 99. Höfn is about 3 hours and 20 minutes (272 km) from Vík í Mýrdal, 2 hours and 30 minutes (204 km) from Kirkjubæjarklaustur and 2 hours and 40 minutes (187 km) from Egilstaðir.