Cruising to adventure in Iceland
Windstar’s small ship allows excursions to dramatic landscapes in the island’s most remote locations
“Are you ready for an adventure?”
The cheerful guide speaking to us from the front of the 36-foot-long Ribsafari boat signals the driver to flip a switch, and the chest-thumping opening notes of Queen’s We Will Rock You erupt from speakers all around us.
We have been dressed headto-toe in bright yellow survival suits and told to hang on tight, and soon we find out why. The driver opens up the throttle on two giant, 400-horsepower engines, and we blast out of the harbor in a cloud of sea spray.
Moments later we are racing along the soaring lava cliffs that line the volcanic island, banking sharply around rocky outcroppings and darting into deep black sea caves. We stop to admire rock formations that resemble elephants and dinosaurs, as hundreds of puffins dive into the sea from cliffside perches.
“It gives you a new perspective on the place,” quips Lilija Kubilius, a sprightly, 76-yearold retiree from Philadelphia who is here with her daughter and granddaughter. “You always see more of a country if you can get away from the bus tours and out into the middle of it.”
Kubilius has arrived in remote Haimaey, just off the coast of mainland Iceland, on Windstar Cruises’ Star Pride. It’s a small, 212-passenger vessel that is operating a new Iceland itinerary designed to give travelers plenty of such opportunities to dive deep into the suddenly booming destination.
In fact, the ship is making a complete circumnavigation of the country — one of the newest trends in cruising.
Windstar became the first traditional cruise line to operate regular circlings of the Kentucky-size island nation last summer when it deployed one of its six ships to the itinerary, and this summer it has doubled down on the route with a second vessel. The Seattle-based company is following in the wake of several expedition-style cruise operators such as Lindblad Expeditions and Hurtigruten that have added Iceland circumnavigations in recent years. Three more cruise sellers — Ponant Cruises, Adventure Canada and Scenic Cruises — plan to start such trips in the next two years.
The voyages offer travelers an easy way to get to some of Iceland’s most remote areas and see the full range of its famously striking landscapes, from geothermal fields of geysers and fumaroles to mountains, glaciers, volcanoes and waterfalls.
“We’re getting to see a little bit of everything,” notes Karen Brower, 66, of Butte, Mont., after emerging from a maze of giant lava formations known as the Catacombs of Hell.
Brower is on an all-day excursion out of the port of Akureyri to the otherwordly Lake Myvatn area, which also is
home to the spectacular geothermal fields of Hverir. She and her companions gaze over a Marslike landscape pocked with bubbling, boiling mud pots, hissing steam vents and sticky red soil. The smell of sulfur oozing from deep within the Earth is overwhelming.
“It’s really interesting to see the different expressions of the same forces as we have at home,” says Brower, who lives just a few hours from the geothermal areas of Yellowstone National Park. “But, unlike home, this is such new land.”
Located along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are splitting apart with explosive volcanic force, Iceland is, indeed, one of the newest places on Earth, and it’s growing. During tours of Haimaey, passengers see frozen-in-place lava flows from a 1973 eruption that expanded the
island by 20% even as it buried a third of its harbor town. Near Lake Myvatn, rugged lava flows just a few hundred years old reach like fingers into the valleys.
If the stops on the itinerary have a common denominator, it’s the emptiness of the landscape. With no more than a few thousand people apiece, the small towns where Star Pride ties up quickly give way to expanses of sparsely populated backcountry.
Still, each of Star Pride’s calls brings something a little different. At Isafjordur, on Iceland’s fjord-spiked West Coast, some passengers head out kayaking, while others ride a boat to a nearby island to see Eider ducks in their natural environment. In Grundarfjordur, along the remote Snæfellsnes Peninsula, a popular outing is a hike onto the glacier atop nearby Snæfellsjökull volcano — made famous in Jules Verne’s 19th-century classic Jour- ney to the Center of the Earth.
Upscale but with a laid-back atmosphere, Star Pride also has its own water sports platform, which opens for one of the highlights of the trip: A “polar plunge” into the frigid waters just off Grundarfjordur. Though it’s the height of summer, the water isn’t even 50 degrees.
With barely 100 cabins spread over three decks, Star Pride feels more like a large yacht than a small cruise ship. Passengers spend much of their time on board in one of just two main public spaces: The forward-facing Yacht Club observation lounge or the aft-facing Compass Rose bar. There also is a single main restaurant, casual buffet eatery, small casino, spa, fitness center, library and shop.
“The size of the ship makes it a very personal experience,” says Neal Mayer, 76, of Millsboro, Del., a veteran of seven Windstar voyages who says he has no interest in the giant vessels that many lines are building.
Pausing to talk during a Windstar-organized reception at a quirky machinery museum in Seydisfjordur, on Iceland’s east coast, Mayer says he’s attracted by the camaraderie among passengers that is typical of smaller ships. Like other Windstar vessels, Star Pride draws a sophisticated and lively crowd that likes to be social. Passengers gather around the pool bar at cocktail hour to share stories of the day’s adventures, and they crowd into Compass Rose after dinners for dancing.
It’s perfect for exploring an offthe-beaten-path destination such as Iceland, Mayer adds.
“We don’t want big crowds,” he says. “This is just about right.”