5 Best Puffin Tours Reykjavik To Take In 2025

My Top 3 Picks: Puffin Tour Reykjavik

#1 TOP PICK

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Boat Tour
✔️ 450 reviews
✔️ Guaranteed to see puffins or money back

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#2 PICK

Reykjavik: Half-Day Whales and Puffins Cruise Combo Tour
✔️ See puffins
✔️ See minke whales & humpback whales
✔️ 4 hour tour

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#3 PICK

Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Tour
✔️ Get the closest to the islands on a RIB
✔️ Puffin commentary

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1. Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Boat Tour

⭐RATING: 4.4 out of 5 Stars (450+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 1 hour |
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The best puffin tour Reykjavik has to offer is the Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Boat Tour with over 450 positive reviews!

When booking a tour, I always like to go with a tour which has been tried and tested. I’m not too keen on booking a tour with no reviews or very few reviews.

With more than 450, Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Boat Tour has certainly passed the test of time. And as hundreds of travellers before me rated this tour highly, I was confident enough to book it myself.

And it did not disappoint.

It’s one of the best things you can do in Iceland without a doubt. Getting to see puffins in their natural habitat while observing from a boat is incredible.

They’re such playful birds, they almost don’t seem real. Puffins are like cartoon characters and I could genuinely watch them all day.

This tour takes you to two spots to see puffins: Lundey and Akurey, two islands just off the coast of Reykjavik. You’re guaranteed to see puffins, or you get your money back. I think this is a nice touch because there’s no point in taking a puffin tour with no puffins.

Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Boat Tour lasts one hour in total, but it doesn’t take very long to reach the islands, allowing for plenty of time for birdwatching.

It’s quite unbelievable actually how much is squeezed into just one hour. Seeing puffins in the wild will leave you with memories to last a lifetime.

And if you’re looking for the best possible experience, then I recommend booking the Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Boat Tour.

2. Reykjavik: Half-Day Whales and Puffins Cruise Combo Tour

⭐RATING: 4.3 out of 5 Stars (290+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 4 hours |
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Reykjavik: Half-Day Whales and Puffins Cruise Combo Tour is another favourite of mine, and it offers more than “just” a puffin tour. How does whale watching sound?

Iceland isn’t known for many animals, as there are such few native species, but two animals Iceland is known for are puffins and whales.

Many people come to Iceland to go on a whale watching tour, so why not combine it with a puffin tour from Reykjavik?

Both are once-in-a-lifetime experiences and Reykjavik: Half-Day Whales and Puffins Cruise Combo Tour offers the opportunity to do both of them in one go.

For transparency purposes, many people are misled and assume it’s one tour altogether. I assumed this tour. What it actually is is a puffin tour, back to the harbour, then a whale tour on a different boat.

But that doesn’t take away from the experience- it’s still one of the best things you’ll ever do in your life. The turnaround is quick and no time is wasted transferring boats.

It’s surreal experiencing them both back to back. Getting up close to the islands where there are hundreds if not thousands of puffins is amazing in itself.

And then heading to Faxaflói Bay where you can spot minke whales, humpback whales, white-beaked dolphins…wow. It’s the definition of pinch-yourself.

As an animal lover, there are not many excursions which compare to Reykjavik: Half-Day Whales and Puffins Cruise Combo Tour. It’s one of my favourite days ever.

3. Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Tour

⭐RATING: 4.9 out of 5 Stars (90+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 1 hour |
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Another really good option for a puffin tour from Reykjavik is Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Tour which has a whopping 4.9/5 star rating. Impressive, to say the least.

Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Tour takes you to Faxaflói Bay, the same place where you go whale watching. So there’s a chance of seeing whales too.

But it’s also one of the best spots in Iceland for birdwatching, obviously. There is an abundance of seabirds on show here, including gannets, auks, fulmars, Arctic terns and more.

And who could forget the star of the show, puffins? As I said earlier, they’re real-life cartoon characters. They’re fascinating, and it’s like they all have their own little personalities.

Watching them hop about on the rocks, fly through the air and dive into the sea, then swim round in circles in the sea, it’s amazing. You’ll know what I mean when you see it, but the way they swim in the sea is quite unique. It’s pretty funny!

The tour is on a boat known as a RIB which is a “rigid inflatable boat”. In fancy terms, it’s an inflatable speedboat.

But this is a huge advantage as it means you can get a lot closer to the islands where the puffins are than on other tours, allowing a better look at the birds.

Of course, it’s important to always respect the wildlife and appreciate that it’s their home, we’re simply visiting. To help with this, all of these tours have commentators who will share puffin facts and teach you a lot about the magnificent birds you will get to see.

All in all, Reykjavik: Puffin Watching Tour is amazing and it’s highly rated for a reason. But this makes it very popular, so make sure to book well in advance.

4. Reykjavik: 1-Hour Puffin Watching Tour

⭐RATING: 4.5 out of 5 Stars (100+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 1 hour |
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It’s amazing how high the standard of these puffin tours Reykjavik has to offer is, Reykjavik: 1-Hour Puffin Watching Tour makes for yet another unforgettable hour at sea.

Reykjavik: 1-Hour Puffin Watching Tour takes you to Akurey, Engey or Lundey which are known as some of the best spots in the world for puffin-watching.

You can get pretty close to these islands on the boat, but still, puffins are pretty small. That’s why I really like the fact that the tour offers you the use of their binoculars for free.

I felt like a proper explorer or birdwatcher as I can’t say I use binoculars every day, but using them to watch puffins was pretty epic.

If you’re a photographer, puffins will be your dream shot. As apart from when they’re flying or heading towards to cliff face, they tend to sit still for long periods of time, so it’s easy to capture them.

But, if you don’t have a great camera or would prefer to live in the moment, another thing I really like about Reykjavik: 1-Hour Puffin Watching Tour and most of these other tours, is that the guide will take photos and share them with the group.

It’s a nice touch and I think by reading this post, you’ll be able to spot the quality difference between ones taken on my phone and ones taken on a proper camera haha.

Another really nice touch is that by booking this tour, you are supporting non-profit wildlife protection organisations, environmentally conscious and ethical tourism, and summer research programmes.

It’s good to see money being put to good use, especially since puffins are vulnerable and on the IUNC Red List.

So if you want to spend some time appreciating these beautiful birds and contributing to their protection, then be sure to book your 1 Hour Puffin Watching Tour.

5. Reykjavik: Puffin Observation and Birdwatching Boat Tour

⭐RATING: 4.7 out of 5 Stars (25+ reviews) | ⌛ TOUR LENGTH: 1.5 hours |
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Last but by no means least of these Reykjavik puffin tours is the amazing Reykjavik: Puffin Observation and Birdwatching Boat Tour.

Reykjavik: Puffin Observation and Birdwatching Boat Tour is the longest tour on this list (excluding the whale-watching tour), so if you’re looking to spend as much time as possible admiring the puffins, this is the tour for you.

As the above review says, it’s not a major tour company. It’s just two brothers with a passion for the sea, puffins and Iceland. This makes for a much more personable experience, and you really get to know them rather than just hear their puffin facts.

That being said, puffin facts are fascinating. Did you know puffins are nicknamed sea parrots?

Or that they can dive from 50 metres or more straight down into the water? That’s why the review above calls them “funny divers”. Because it’s just as funny to watch as it is impressive.

Seeing puffins was on my bucket list for years before taking a puffin tour from Reykjavik, and as I’ve said throughout, it’s been one of the best days of my life.

Note that it’s only possible to take these tours at certain times of the year. Puffins stay in Iceland from June until August, the summer months. Outside of this period, they stay out at sea, so unfortunately taking a tour isn’t possible.

Thankfully, there are lots of other animal opportunities in Iceland throughout the winter such as dog sledding in Iceland. It’s another of the best things you can do on the island.

But if you visit in the summer, you have an experience which simply can’t be missed, and that is, of course, taking a puffin tour.

I can’t recommend it enough and Reykjavik: Puffin Observation and Birdwatching Boat Tour provides the perfect opportunity.