Iceland
Borgarfjörður eystri
An elven capital whose harbour islet fills with nesting puffins each summer.
From spring to late summer, puffins nest on Hafnarhólmi, the grassy islet by the harbour; above the village rises Álfaborg — the rock that local lore names home of Iceland's elf queen. Borgarfjörður eystri is a village of around a hundred people where folklore isn't quaint decoration but a lived relationship with the landscape.
Borgarfjörður eystri styles itself the capital of Iceland's hidden people, the huldufólk: an elf church, the queen's residence at Álfaborg and a complete mythology are mapped onto the rocks with the seriousness of street signs. Down at the harbour, Hafnarhólmi hosts one of Iceland's most accessible puffin colonies — purpose-built platforms put you within metres of nesting birds from roughly mid-April to mid-August. Beyond the village, marked trails climb into rhyolite mountains and out towards the Víknaslóðir's deserted coastal inlets, and the tiny population means visitors meet genuine personal warmth rather than tourist infrastructure.
Solo
Folklore walks, the puffin platforms and long marked routes into the rhyolite mountains — a base camp for wildlife, mythology and solitude in equal measure.
Family
The elf stories enchant children, the puffins are close enough to count feathers, and the village's tiny scale keeps everything manageable.
- Hafnarhólmi's platforms put you within metres of one of Iceland's most accessible puffin colonies.
- Local lore crowns the village capital of the hidden people, with the elf queen resident at Álfaborg.
- Marked routes lead from the village into rhyolite mountains and deserted coastal inlets.
- Around a hundred residents — the welcome is personal, not packaged.
At Álfacafé, order the popular fish soup with bread baked in-house and fish processed next door in the village.
Save room for its thin waffles with whipped cream and fresh berries, served during the café’s May-to-September season.
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