Torshavn, Faroe Islands, Trip Report 8/18/08

[ilovhywd]

As promised, here is my trip report for Torshavn, Faroe Islands, on 8/18/08.

 

We docked right before noon and had to take a shuttle bus for 2-3 minutes down the length of the pier to a large parking lot where buses and taxis awaited. We asked a taxi driver for information about a private tour. We told him we wanted to see some scenic places to take photos. The taxi office in the parking lot has a large, portable sign that they set up with suggested tours. Our driver recommended a 2-hour tour to the town of Saksun. We paid 120 Euros ($180 US) which included a 5 Euro tip for all four of us, so it was $45 per person.

 

At first we thought we made a big mistake, as the port of Torshavn was blanketed with clouds and fog. But after 10 minutes or so, we drove through a long tunnel to the other end of the island and lo and behold the sun was shining brilliantly. The scenery became magnificent: black and white sheep on green pastures on green mountains. In Saksun, we drove down a narrow path to an old church with grass growing on its roof. Then we could see the sea coming through an inlet with cliffs. It was just beautiful.

 

The taxi took us back to town, and honestly, there wasn’t much there and the weather was deteriorating further. Passengers who stayed in town probably would not have a pleasant memory of the port visit.

 

The best advice I can give you is to get OUT of Torshavn, whether you take one of the ship’s shore excursions or a private taxi tour. It is a very beautiful country.

 

Ilene

[Marie-Claude]

Hi Ilene and thanks for this trip report - there's so little information on Torshavn...we'll be there in a few weeks on the Sea Princess so this is very timely!!

 

I have a question regarding the shuttle buses in port - it must get pretty congested to get to the shuttle bus as everyone is rushing out at the same time?? Did you have to wait long to get on a shuttle or was it easy?

 

Thanks for your help!

MC

[Jana White]

Just a quick comment-My husband and I were on the Sea Princess for a transatlantic cruise two years ago and we stopped in Torshavn. We did not take an excursion. It was lots of fun. At first glance it looked like we would not find enough to do, but we were totally wrong. First we walked the streets and around every corner was another treasure. Just a few of the things we saw were the old fort, fisherman, wonderfully old wood houses some with turf roofs, a very cool mini mall, the harbor, arts and crafts shops, a beautiful church. We talked to some locals and they suggested we hop the red local bus. It was free. We took the bus to the top of the town, what a view, then walked back to the harbor, probably a 1/2 hour downhill if you did not stop. The bus driver was very helpful. Later we stopped for lunch in a local restaurant on the harbor. It was delicious and everyone was so friendly. We talked to many of our fellow cruise passengers that evening many who had taken tours of the countryside. Everyone we talked to loved Torshavn and the surrounding area. It was one of our favorite ports on that cruise. My only disappointment was the time of year we were their. It was mid September and many of the birds that Torshavn is famous for had already left for the winter. And yes, it was a little misty in the morning and rained off and on most of the day.

[mycruz]

Thanks Ilene, this is great! I'm sailing with Marie-Claude as well and glad to hear about Torshavn. Glad to hear you had a good time on the island.

 

Mary

[Jujuju2]

Husband and I were on the same cruise with ilovehywd. Sounds like we had a similar experience to hers.

 

And before I forget, Marie-Claude, our ship was filled to capacity with 2115 passengers, and we had no trouble with the pier shuttle buses. There was always one there when you needed one, no waiting. It wasn't a very far distance, but it was a bit of a circuitous path to get to the public area.

 

Since we didn't have a tour booked, we got off the ship maybe around 12:30. Unlike ilovehywd's experience, we did not find the taxi area to be friendly. No signs, no taxis, woman in taxi booth who barely spoke English and didn't seem to want to be bothered with helping the people ahead of us. We tried to talk to the one taxi driver we could find, but he said he didn't speak English. One guy who did speak English didn't seem to be a taxi driver. He suggested we walk into town and call a taxi. Very, very odd (there is an explanation for this coming later). We thought surely that is not the way they handle things here and walked around looking for more taxis - none. Mystified, we walked into town and to the tourist center, which was a very short walk. Just as we were about to go into the visitor center, we spotted a very nice new looking taxi parked across the street and seemingly looking for business.

 

Faroe Islands is a Danish territory, and they have their own currency, which is the equivalent to the Danish kroner, and they also accept Danish kroner as interchangeable with their own. We had 500 Danish kroner left from our Copenhagen stop, so we were willing to spend that amount on a taxi. We spoke to this taxi driver who said his English was not the best, but it seemed just fine to us. His fee was 350 kroner per hour, 50 Euro per hour. He said where we should go (where the island was sunny today) was a two hour trip, round trip. 700 kroner, and we had 500. So we were talking to him about a one hour trip, and some Brits came up and tried to get the taxi away from us, but they were a party of six. Then an American man came up and said he was looking to split a taxi to go out and see some scenery, so we quickly agreed, loaded up him and his wife, and off we went.

 

(and it turned out later, the taxi driver also took credit cards and was willing to take U.S. dollars, even though he didn't know the exchange rate and seemed to think they were fairly useless. The other couple with us paid him $75 USD cash at the end of the trip.)

 

And so off we went through the cold gray fog and mist, went through a tunnel and came out to sunshine!!! Our experience was about the same as Ilene's (ilovehywd), sheep, steep green hills, blue water, colorful small fishing villages at the sea at the end of each valley. We were actually on a second island from the one we docked at, but it was a short bridge between islands, and you might actually have missed that you had crossed islands but I kept asking the taxi driver what island we were one. We ended at a small village pronounced Jog but spelled differently in Faroese, got out, walked around, admired the sod roofed houses, took pictures of some kids playing in a colorful little boat in a dam. Idyllic, bucolic, very pretty.

 

When we went back through the tunnel, we were back in the fog and mist. We got directions from the taxi driver for the public library, and found it about two blocks up the main street from the visitor center, on the left side of the street, on the second floor of a building with an interior courtyard open to the street. It wasn't particularly easy to find even with directions. We signed up for a half hour internet time about 45 minutes hence, and went back down to the street. We kept walking uphill up the main street, where we came to the main taxi dispatch office. I suppose one could also walk there to get a taxi.

 

Okay, explanation for why the woman in the taxi booth was not helpful and why there were no taxis around - The entire city shuts down from noon to 1, and everybody goes home for lunch!!! It has probably been that way for centuries, and they have not yet adapted to having 2000 tourists dumped onto their streets during their lunch. At one o'clock, which is about when we found our taxi, is when everybody goes back to work.

 

I knew about the red city buses being free, but we didn't have time to take one. I did speak to some people back on the ship who had taken a red bus to the top of the hill and walked back down. They were very happy with their day.

 

Mostly folks were astounded that we had spent some of the afternoon in bright sunshine, as Torshavn was socked in all day.