The Faroe Islands
August 5th - 10th, 2025
The night before our flight, Rosie and I met up in Copenhagen, where we had a lovely dinner in the Nordhavnen area, which is the former industrial port that has been transformed into a swanky and modern residential neighborhood. The next morning we flew from Copenhagen to the Faroe Islands. The direct flight on Atlantic Airways to Vagar Airport takes just over two hours. We rented a car (which is a must to get around there), and drove 45 minutes to the capital, Torshavn. Along the way we crossed a fjord through one of the many undersea tunnels, and got our first glimpse of the spectacular treeless landscape.
We had rented a beautiful house on AirBnB located just 15 minutes outside of Torshavn in the small coastal village of Velbastaður.
Torshavn has several large supermarkets, where we could stock up on food. Only alcohol is a bit more difficult to get, since the supermarkets are not allowed to sell it. If you want wine or spirits, the only option is the National Liquor store, which has somewhat limited opening times. (There is one other store that sells beer and cider, which is open a little bit longer.) For our first night Rosie cooked a lovely lamb dinner, and we saw our first beautiful sunset right from our little house.
The next morning we had to drive back up north to Vagar Island to see one of the most famous sites on the islands, the spectacular Drangarnir sea stack. (I had booked a guided trip through this website: Guide to Faroe Islands, which has lots of great day-tours led by locals guides.) We met up in the town of Sørvágur, where we were put onto a small but very fast speed boat, which brought us out to the sea stacks in only about 15 minutes. We were dropped off along the coast and had about two hours to ourselves to explore the area and take lots of pictures.
The geological history of the Faroe Islands goes back to around 60 million years ago, when the islands began to be formed by massive volcanic activity along the rift zone that separated Greenland from Europe. These volcanic eruptions occurred over the course of many millions of years, which explains the many layers visible in the rocks. Strong winds, waves and glaciers during multiple ice-ages have carved these rugged coast lines and deep fjords, which make the Faroes so spectacular today.
Although the first traces of human presence are still debated, evidence suggests that Irish monks may have been the first humans to live on the islands somewhere around the 6th to the 8th century. In the 800s Vikings from Norway began to settle here permanently. They also brought the first sheep with them, which remain central to the Faroe's culture and economy even today. In fact, even the name “Faroe” comes from Old Norse, meaning “Sheep Islands.”
From the late Middle Ages, the Faroes came first under Norwegian rule and eventually became a Danish possession in the 14th century. Though officially part of Denmark, the islands remain largely self-governing when it comes to internal affairs. Denmark handles only defense and foreign policy. The Faroese language is quite different from Danish, and much more closely related to Icelandic.
There are thousands of seagulls nesting on the narrow cracks and ledges on the Drangarnir arch.
On the return trip, our boat even took us through the arch, which seemed a bit perilous given the high swells coming through it.
After returning from the sea stack we drove further north on the other side of the fjord to visit Múlafossur, the islands' highest and most famous waterfall.
The village of Gasadalur, sitting right above the waterfall, had at last count a population of 11. The tunnel to reach the village by car was only built in 2004, prior to which it was only reachable by boat or a strenuous hike over the mountain.
The weather on the Faroe Islands can only be described a rather cold and wet. On average the islands enjoy a total of 8 rain-free days a year. Yes, 8, you read that right, which leaves 357 days with at least some rain. Temperatures rarely reach above 15 degrees (59 Fahrenheit) in the middle of the summer. Our guide told us about, as she put it, an "extreme heat wave" last year, where they had several days of 20 degrees. The next morning, we decided to do a short hike near our AirBnB, and not surprisingly we got fairly wet along the way.
At the end of our hike we reached the medieval village of Kirkjubøur. Christianity spread to the Faroes around the year 1000, replacing earlier pagan traditions. Kirkjubøur was an important religious and cultural center, and became the islands' only bishop’s seat. The impressive ruins of the Saint Magnus Cathedral are witness to the sites former importance. The cathedral was likely built in the late 13th century, but gradually fell into disrepair in the 16th century after the reformation.
On the way back we discovered that there was a very long tunnel connecting us to the large island to the south, called Sandoy Island. So we had to check that out. The tunnel is 11 kilometers long. Sandoy island is less mountainous than the more northern islands. Its fertile sandy soil makes it the best island for agriculture, and much of the potatoes and vegetables grown on the islands come from Sandoy. We found one of the three cafés on the island for lunch. First we were a bit surprised to see almost all of the tables reserved, even though it was very empty. But soon after we had set down a large tour bus with Danish tourists arrived and the cafe was indeed packed.
That evening we had a lovely dinner in a restaurant in town, were we learned a lot of interesting facts from our waiter (including the fact the over-tourism is starting to become a problem even here). Since it is still light here at 10 pm in summer, we had time after dinner to walk around the Tinganes peninsula, which is the historic part Tórshavn. It was here that the Løgting was established by Viking settlers in the 9th century. The Løgting was a gathering place for free men to meet and settle disputes, make laws, and organize community matters. It is therefore considered to be one of the oldest continuously used parliaments in the world. The deep red painted and grass covered wooden houses you can see in Tinganes today, are mostly from the 16th and 17th centuries.
On day 4 of our trip we headed up north, through the enormous Eysturoy Tunnel, which contains the world's only underwater roundabout, where three tunnels meet under the ocean. Our destination was the island of Vidoy and its most northern village - Viðareiði.
We had planned to do a big hike here and climb to the top of Kaap Enniberg. Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes into the hike, the rain became so heavy and the fog so dense, that we gave up and turned around. We headed back to Klaksvík, but stopped for more pictures along the way. One thing you see in almost every fjord (other than numerous waterfalls) are fish farms. Fishery is the largest and most important industry on the islands. Wild-caught cod, haddock and herring, as well as farmed salmon, make up over 90% of the islands' exports, and it is a big driver of its prosperity. With its small population of around 55,000, the Faroese GDP per capita is among the highest in the world.
In the town of Klaksvík we found a nice cafe with lovely cakes and good coffee. But we weren't done for the day, and tried another hike. Even though it was still raining on the way up, this time we were luckier and it cleared up enough on top for some amazing views and it even allowed me to fly the drone.
The 45 minute hour hike from the Klakkur trailhead presents you with one of the best views to be had on the islands. This is the view of Kunoy Islands from the Klakkur viewpoint.
We also had these beautiful views of Klaksvík, which is nestled on a small land-bridge between two fjords, just as a few sun rays started to come through.
And when you combine sun and rain you end up with beautiful rainbows like this one.
We had another guided tour booked the following day to Kalsoy Island and the Kallur Lighthouse. Kalsoy Island is one of the view islands not linked by a tunnel to the rest of the islands, so you have to take a ferry from Klaksvík. It is possible to do the trip by yourself, but its a little complicated, since you need to book the car ferry in advance, and there are only a limited number of parking spaces at the trailhead. So, we had decided to book a guided tour instead, which was definitely the right choice. They organized the ferry tickets for us, and we could leave the car in Klaksvík, since we were picked up by a bus on the other side. The bus took us through a series of dark single-lane tunnels along the eastern coast of the Kalsoy island. We first stopped at the village of Mikladalur to visit the statue of the seal woman.
The seal-woman sculpture is based on an ancient legend, and was created by a local artists. We continued further north through another tunnel to reach the Faroe Islands' most northern settlement, the tiny village of Trollanes (population 13). Before the tunnel was built in the 1980s, the village was only accessible via a 3 hour hike over the mountain.
From here we started the hike to the lighthouse. The hike was not difficult, took only about an hour, but it was quite muddy. Kallur lighthouse appears on all the typical postcards shot of the Faroe Islands Located on the northern coast of Kalsoy island, and sitting right above a steep cliffs, it is a breathtaking sight.
It was incredibly windy up here, and we had trouble staying on our feet along the narrow ridges.
This is the James Bond memorial, meant to be the "final resting place" of James Bond. The final scene in "No time to die", in which 007 dies, was filmed here on Kalsoy Island, and appropriately they erected a small tomb for him. (Apparently Daniel Craig never even set foot on the Island, but was later CGI'd into the scene.)
You also have these amazing views along the coast, where the northern edges of several other islands stick out into the ocean. Apparently this particular shot is very famous on Chinese social media.
When we got back to Trollanes, there was one more sight our guide wanted to show us. There is a small puffin colony along the cliffs just behind the village. Most of the birds where out on the ocean, but we spotted a couple of them hiding in the deep grass.
On our last day on the islands, there was one more sight we really wanted to see, even though our flights were scheduled to leave that afternoon. We had read about the amazing floating lake, and since it was located close to the airport, we could squeeze in the hike on our way to the airport. We managed to hike quite fast and reached the viewpoint in only 45 minutes. And this is the unbelievable sight we were rewarded with:
This was truly one of the most beautiful and weirdest views I have ever seen. Sørvágsvatn lake is the largest lake in the Faroe Islands with a length of around 6 km. It sits dramatically on a plateau separated from the ocean by only a narrow stretch of sea cliffs. This spectacular view is partly created by an optical illusion, which makes the lake appear to float much higher above the ocean than it actually is.
When viewed from exactly this angle, the lake seems to sit directly above the cliffs and looks like it hovers hundreds of meters above the Atlantic Ocean (when in fact the height difference is only about 30 meters).
At the other end the waters of the lake drain into the sea through the Bøsdalafossur waterfall, but we didn't quite have enough time to walk down to see it. (And we had already seen probably a hundred other waterfalls in the last 5 days.)
You can also get some epic views along the coast lines of Vágar island from here.
Back at the trail head, we changed clothes in the car park and then drove the 10 minutes to the airport for our respective flights to Oslo and New York.
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