The Westfjords are Iceland’s most remote and dramatic region, a jagged peninsula of deep fjords and towering cliffs jutting into the North Atlantic. Home to the thundering Dynjandi waterfall, vast puffin colonies, and the haunting Hornstrandir nature reserve, this is Iceland at its most raw and uncrowded. The roads wind endlessly around fjord after fjord — slow, scenic, and utterly unforgettable.
Dynjandi
Dynjandi, the so-called Jewel of the Westfjords, is a tiered waterfall that fans out from a narrow point at the top to a 60-meter-wide curtain at the base — the shape of a bridal veil, though photographs rarely capture the scale. It sits at the head of the Arnarfjörður fjord, and reaching it means driving the gravel roads that wind around the fjord’s edge, which takes longer than any map suggests. A series of smaller named falls cascade down the same slope, each with a trail marker and a short walk, before you reach the main fall at the bottom.
Hornstrandir
The Hornstrandir nature reserve, at the very northern tip of the Westfjords, is accessible only by seasonal ferry from Ísafjörður and offers a version of Iceland that has had no permanent human habitation since the farms were abandoned in the 1950s. The hiking routes are unmarked and demanding, the weather shifts fast, and the Arctic fox population — fully protected here — is dense enough that encounters are near-certain. A shorter option: the boat drops you at the old settlement ruins at Hesteyri and picks you up the same afternoon, giving you a few hours in the reserve without committing to multi-day camping.
The Road In
Getting to the Westfjords is part of the experience. The drive from Reykjavík takes around four hours to Ísafjörður, following roads that cross the interior or hug the coastline, with the fjords only revealing their scale as you round each headland. A faster option is the short flight from Reykjavík’s domestic airport — Air Iceland Connect runs the route in under an hour, which makes a long weekend viable without spending the better part of a day behind the wheel. Ferry connections are also possible seasonally from the northern coast.
