Up the in Westfjords of Iceland sits the village of Þingeyri. A fishing village, there is not much there that would attract international toursts. However there is a seal colony there, so lovers of the animals can come and watch the seals hunt, bask in the sun and get into arguments.

We discovered the seals purely by accident; we were driving to Þingeyri to spend the night in accommodation there when suddenly, seals! On the way into Þingeyri there weren’t many seals. Just a couple on the rocks. However on the way out the next morning, there were a lot more!

There are two types of seals that inhabit Iceland permanently: grey seals and harbour seals. This handy guide shows the differences between the two:

Grey seals are also much larger than harbour seals.

Both species stay close to or on land during low tide and then are out during high tide: the best time to hunt. We saw them at low tide, so there were a lot of seals lying on rocks out in the water. We saw two get into a slapping match over the same rock, which was a lot of fun to see:

The Westfjords hosts seal colonies in several places, so you are likely to see them when travelling around the region. It is also possible to see whales in Westfjords as well. In addition to the many tour companies that will take you out into the ocean, sometimes you can find them suddenly when driving around the fjords (spoiler alert!).

Here are some videos of the seals:

Thanks for reading! Want to do some more exploring? Have a look at the travel map:

Interested in seeing our social media? Follow us on Instagram for travel photos and Youtube for travel videos!