Heimaey, Westman Islands RIB Safari Tour

[kimkencruzers]

Hello,

 

We are in Port 8a-5p (Niew Statendam).  Tender.  The options seem to be (i emailed for more info or more times, but no response yet) a two hour RIB tour at noon or a one hour tour at 2:30 pm. Is the one hour tour cutting it close to tender back to the ship for a 5 pm departure? Is it even close to where the tenders are?

I am more comfortable with a noon-time tour, but is it worth the extra cost for a two hour tour, or is one hour enough? I'm also concerned about the weather, but I feel like the few spots would book up if I don't book now. There website does not explicitly state they will refund for cruise ship port missed due to weather.

 

Thank you in advance for your advice.

[Nitemare]

It is a small island.  Won't take 45 minutes to get from the further point to the tender dock, probably less.

 

I'd ask what the 2 hour includes that the 1 hour doesn't include.  There are lots of great wildlife opportunities on the island

 

You can also hike the volcano, shop in the cute shops and there are a couple REALLY good restaurants

[kimkencruzers]

On 1/30/2024 at 2:20 PM, Nitemare said:

It is a small island.  Won't take 45 minutes to get from the further point to the tender dock, probably less.

 

I'd ask what the 2 hour includes that the 1 hour doesn't include.  There are lots of great wildlife opportunities on the island

 

You can also hike the volcano, shop in the cute shops and there are a couple REALLY good restaurants

I ended up booking the two hour tour and they did email me back and advise me that they would provide a refund if the ship didn’t dock. 

[miami mama]

What companies can you recommend for the RIB tours at Heimaey? I like the company you reserved with will refund if the ship can't dock due to weather. Heard that happens frequency.

[kimkencruzers]

I can’t really recommend them because I am not going until July. This is their website 

https://www.ribsafari.is/  Hopefully someone will comment if they have been on it. Reviews sound very fun. 

[miami mama]

Thanks kimkencruzers. Will look into them. 

[kimkencruzers]

I just wanted to follow up.  We were very disappointed to have to cancel this port due to swells. The vender promptly refunded me.  I was very bummed, I will have to make it back there one day.

[ljandgb]

That's too bad.  Weather can be an issue on any trip to Iceland.  We were on a land trip last May and had our return ferry canceled to the Westfjords (which I didn't find out, my bad for not checking my email, until we were on the ferry TO the Westfjords.)  

[kimkencruzers]

The extra bummer was that the weather was great! It was the swells that would not allow tendering. But yeah we don’t make it to one other port but it was replaced with a comparable one 

[Nitemare]

We went to Westmann via ferry on our last land trip to Iceland, we were staying overnight and had a reservation on the 10AM ferry back to the mainland.  Due to high winds we didn't get off the island until 5PM, and they somehow squoze all (most?) of the cars planning to return onto that 1 ship. Literally door handle to door handle.