Travel Blog

East Iceland is home to a handful of breweries that make delicious craft beers from the country’s pure water. Creativity is often on display, with beers that take inspiration from intriguing local ingredients (hello wasabi!), or perhaps are named for unique local features (from mountain peaks to hidden trolls). You can try Austurland’s beers at these 3 fun, friendly breweries in unexpected locations, and look for them being served in local restaurants and bars.

Austurland’s Stuðlagil canyon recently gained a big moment in the spotlight, thanks to visitors (domestic and foreign) blown away by its beauty. You can see why, can’t you? There’s simply no bad angle to this gorgeous gorge in East Iceland.

The Austurland Freeride Festival is an annual mountain skiing and snowboarding event headquartered in Eskifjörður and using the Oddskarð ski area as its base. It was created by local enthusiasts: mountain guides and skiing pros who know these mountains well and could see the potential of a winter festival with a difference.

One of Austurland’s highlights is Seyðisfjörður, the pretty fjord town that offers year-round art and creativity with lots of color and flair. Its rainbow-painted main street is a traveler favorite, and the unspoiled nature in its surrounding mountains and valleys is a joy to explore.

Every year, in the lead-up to Christmas, many children around the world become fixated on reindeer. Not in Iceland, however - even though reindeer roam wild here in Austurland. Santa Claus and his reindeer-pulled sleigh play relatively no part in Icelandic Christmas traditions. Instead, children are visited by 13 Yule Lads in the days preceding Christmas.

Thrainn Kolbeinsson is an Icelandic adventure and travel photographer. Recently he went on a vacation with his family in East Iceland. With his wife and two children (8 months and 3 years old) he recently visited some of their favourite locations in the Eastfjords. Here he shares why he thinks the Eastfjords might be the perfect destination for a family trip and shares a few tips for people traveling with children in Iceland.

A blog post by Gunnar Freyr, Icelandic Explorer about his family trip, the Ring of Riverdale.

Two new routes this summer

This summer, Nature Relaxation Films came to Austurland to film this amazing video. Nature Relaxation Films have over 600.000 followers on Youtube and specialize in making videos like this. Check this out :)

Skaftfell Art Center is pleased to announce the opening of its autumn exhibition: PREFAB / FORSMÍÐ Prefabricated houses and artistic expression from one century to another Skaftfell gallery, Skaftfell Center for Visual Art, Austurvegur 42, Seyðisfjörður Curator: Guja Dögg Hauksdóttir Opening: September 26, 2020, 14:00-18:00. Light refreshments and short guided tours will be offered throughout the afternoon. Due to Covid regulations and the nature of the exhibition only 25 people can be in the gallery at the same time, but to accommodate everyone we have expanded the opening time across the afternoon. We kindly ask visitors to keep a 1m distance from each other and to sprit their hands before entering the gallery. The exhibition will be on view from September 26 to December 20, 2020. Opening times: Wed - Sat 12:00 - 16:00. Closed Sun - Tue.