Vestmannaeyjar travel guide — Vestmannaeyjar tourism and travel information

Vestmannaeyjar travel guide

about Vestmannaeyjar

Vestmannaeyjar or Westman Islands is a small cluster of islands off the south coast of Iceland. Only the largest, Heimaey is inhabited.

The islands are named after Irish slaves. The Old Norse word "Vestmenn", literally "west-men", was applied to the Irish. Archeologists have found out in the meantime that in the 7th and 8th century, there was indeed a settlement of celtic people on these islands. But it was not mentioned in the famous landnámabók (the book of the first settlement of Iceland).

In the year 1627 the islands were attacked by a fleet of Algerian pirates, who killed many and enslaved much of the population and took them to Algeria where most of them lived the rest of their lives in bondage.

The area is very volcanically active, like the rest of Iceland. There were two major eruptions in the 20th century. The Eldfell eruption of 1973 caused the island's 5000 inhabitants to be evacuated to the mainland and the Surtsey eruption of 1963 created the new island of Surtsey.

The islands were from 1998 to 2003 home of Keiko the killer whale, the star of Free Willy.

The islands are famed in Iceland for their yearly festival, "Þjóðhátíð", which attracts a large portion of the nation's youth. The festival was originally held because of the islanders inability to participate in the festivities due to the 1000 year aniversary of inhabitation of Iceland, and decided to hold their own festival. The word "Þjóðhátíð" means "national festival". For the first seventy years or so it was a large family oriented festival, but has in the last century become a rite of passage for teenagers, and an exceptionally fun event for the alcohol-oriented.

Near cities to Vestmannaeyjar

• Hvolsvollur travel guide 35 km
• Selfoss travel guide 67 km
• Hveragerethi travel guide 83 km
• Kopavogur travel guide 110 km
• Hafnarfjorethur travel guide 110 km
• Kirkjubaejarklaustur travel guide 110 km
• Reykjavik travel guide 110 km
• Grindavik travel guide 120 km
• Akranes travel guide 130 km
• Keflavik travel guide 140 km

Near webcams to Vestmannaeyjar

• Hvolsvöllur webcam 33 km
• Reykjavík webcam 110 km
• Borgarnes webcam 150 km
• Höfn webcam 260 km
• Akureyri webcam 270 km
• Isafjord webcam 320 km
• Sudureyri webcam 340 km
• Egilsstair webcam 350 km
• Tórshavn - Faroe Islands webcam 700 km
• Shetland Islands - Fair Isle webcam 1 100 km

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