Iceland
Flatey
A tiny, car-free island where time has frozen in a cluster of nineteenth-century houses.
The ferry pulls away and the engine noise fades, leaving wind, birdsong and the creak of a wooden gate. Flatey, in Breiðafjörður bay, is a single flat island of painted wooden houses, nesting Arctic terns and absolute quiet — a place where the nineteenth century never quite ended.
Flatey was a cultural centre of medieval Iceland — the Flateyjarbók, one of Scandinavia's most important manuscripts, was kept on this island for centuries and carries its name to this day. Now the island holds a handful of year-round residents, joined each summer by visitors to the restored old houses and the single historic hotel. There are no cars and no shops; Arctic terns dive-bomb the paths, eider ducks waddle between buildings, and the tiny church glows with murals by the Catalan-Icelandic painter Baltasar. The Baldur ferry calls on its crossing between Stykkishólmur and the Westfjords, allowing day visits or an overnight, and the surrounding bay — scattered with thousands of islets — is rich with seals and white-tailed eagles.
Solo
Flatey strips life to essentials: walking, watching birds, reading in silence. One of Iceland's most profoundly quiet experiences.
Couple
An overnight on a near-empty island of painted houses and nesting birds, with nothing to do but be together — romance reduced to its purest form.
- The largest of Breiðafjörður's western isles holds only a handful of year-round residents.
- The Flateyjarbók — medieval Scandinavia's most celebrated manuscript — was kept here and bears the island's name.
- No cars, no shops — just painted 19th-century houses and dive-bombing Arctic terns.
- The Baldur ferry's summer crossings turn the island into a genuine time capsule.
Dinner in Hótel Flatey's restored 1890 community hall — Breiðafjörður fish on an island that has always eaten from the bay.
Shellfish from Breiðafjörður's beds — the bay whose fish and shells fed these islands through Iceland's leanest centuries.
Sur
Oman
Dhow ribs curve beside a lagoon where Oman's seafaring craft still has a workshop.
Russell
New Zealand
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Shigar
Pakistan
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Moulay Idriss Zerhoun
Morocco
Five pilgrimages here during the moussem are said locally to equal one hajj to Mecca.
Látrabjarg
Iceland
Vertical sea cliffs swarming with puffins at the absolute western edge of Europe.
Búðir
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Dynjandi
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Siglufjörður
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