Heimaey

Heimaey is the only inhabited island of Iceland's Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) archipelago — a volcanic cluster off the south coast where the forces that built Iceland continue to operate with occasionally terrifying immediacy. In January 1973, a fissure erupted without warning on the edge of the town, and the five thousand residents were evacuated overnight as lava advanced toward the harbor. The story of how Heimaey's residents fought back — pumping seawater onto the lava front to halt its advance and save their harbor — remains one of the great human-versus-nature narratives of the twentieth century.

Eldfell, the volcano that erupted in 1973, is now a red-and-black cinder cone rising above the eastern edge of town, its slopes still warm to the touch in places. Walking to the summit provides views across the entire archipelago and back to the Icelandic mainland, while the Eldheimar Museum — built around a house excavated from the 1973 lava — presents the eruption's human story with the intimacy of preserved domestic life interrupted mid-breakfast.

Heimaey's cliffs support the world's largest Atlantic puffin colony — an estimated one million breeding pairs that occupy the grassy clifftops from April through August, their clown-like faces and whirring flight providing one of the North Atlantic's most charming wildlife spectacles. Each August, young puffins — pufflings — become disoriented by the town's lights and land in streets instead of the sea. The island's children fan out at night to collect the wayward birds, keeping them safely until they can be released at the cliffs the following morning.

HX Expeditions, Holland America Line, Lindblad Expeditions, Royal Caribbean, and Windstar Cruises include Heimaey on Icelandic itineraries. The harbor approach — entering through the narrow channel between the original island and the 1973 lava field — provides a dramatic lesson in how volcanic eruptions reshape geography in real time.

May through August provides the best conditions for puffin viewing and hiking, though the island's dramatic atmosphere intensifies in autumn and winter storms. Heimaey is Iceland compressed into a single island — volcanic drama, wildlife abundance, and the resilient human spirit that defines a nation built on one of Earth's most geologically active hotspots.