Blönduós

Northwest

Blönduós is the largest service town on Húnaflói Bay, where the Blanda river meets the sea in northwest Iceland. With roughly 880 residents it's a practical Ring Road stop — supermarket, fuel, accommodation, pool. The modern church has an unusual crater-inspired form. The Icelandic Textile Centre covers the country's weaving traditions, and the Sea Ice Exhibition documents the polar ice that drifts down with the East Greenland Current and has historically disrupted fishing on this coast. Most travelers use the town as a base for the Vatnsnes Peninsula, about 30 minutes away. Hundreds of harbour seals haul out on the rocks at Illugastaðir on the peninsula's west coast; there's a small car park and you can walk to close range. The best window is two hours either side of low tide. The basalt sea stack Hvítserkur, about 15 metres tall, sits just north and is easily combined in the same outing. Blönduós falls roughly halfway between Reykjavík and Akureyri, making it a natural break. Allow an hour for the town, and add half a day if you plan to loop the Vatnsnes Peninsula.

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