A Week in Bakkagerði, East Iceland

Arrival in the East Fjords

Land at Egilsstaðir airport (EGS) and make the 70-kilometre overland journey to Bakkagerði. The base for the week is a guesthouse in the small fishing village of Borgarfjörður eystri. The first afternoon is for settling in and orienting to the village grid, perhaps with a walk to Álfuborg, a rock outcrop central to local elf folklore.

DIY Reality Check: The 70-kilometre journey from Egilsstaðir airport to the remote village of Bakkagerði presents a classic coordination challenge. Public bus service to Borgarfjörður eystri is limited, running only once a day on weekdays from Egilsstaðir town, not the airport. This service requires a phone call to arrange and doesn't operate on weekends. A DIY traveler's alternatives are renting a car—which may sit expensively idle for the rest of a single-base trip—or hiring a taxi, a costly option for the hour-long drive. While the connecting Route 94 is paved, it crosses the Vatnskarð eystra mountain pass, where winter conditions can persist and road servicing is not performed on Saturdays. Arranging for a pre-booked vehicle to meet a specific flight sidesteps the entire chain of sourcing, booking, and navigating this final, crucial transfer.

Valley Trails and Village Downtime

The day starts with a two-to-three-hour walk through the Borgarfjörður Valley, following trails around Urðarhólar Lake between rhyolite mountains. It’s a quiet landscape, with good chances for spotting local birdlife in the meadows. After lunch, the afternoon is unstructured. Options in the village include visiting the local microbrewery or booking time at a small spa. The day ends with a meal at the guesthouse, which focuses on ingredients from nearby farms and fishing boats.

DIY Reality Check: The promise of a relaxing afternoon in Bakkagerði, a village of roughly 100 people, hinges on advance coordination. The town's primary spa, Musteri Spa at Blábjörg Resort, manages access in 1.5-hour timed-entry slots and has limited capacity in its hot tubs and saunas. For an independent traveler finishing a hike mid-afternoon, arriving to find the small facility fully booked for the rest of the day is a likely scenario, particularly as the spa transitions to an adults-only policy after 5:00 PM. Pre-booking a specific time slot from the trail without reliable cell service presents its own challenge. A trip that coordinates with local vendors ensures that access to such limited-capacity amenities is secured in advance, turning an afternoon of logistical chance into a guaranteed part of the plan.

Turf Houses, Fish, and Eiderdown

Today is a close look at the industries and traditions that sustain a small East Fjords community. It begins with a visit to the Lindarbakki turfhouse, a classic grass-roofed cottage, before moving to a local fish factory to see how the daily catch is processed. Here you might see Harðfiskur (dried fish) being prepared.

Later, a hands-on cooking class focuses on preparing regional staples like a traditional cake, bread, and a fresh fish dish. The afternoon shifts to another unique local product: eiderdown. A visit to a small company explains the sustainable harvesting process, followed by a short walk to see the seabirds nesting along nearby cliffs.

DIY Reality Check: Orchestrating a day of authentic local industry in a village of roughly 100 residents like Bakkagerði presents a significant coordination challenge. Experiences like a hands-on cooking class, a tour of a fish factory, and a visit to an eiderdown harvester are not publicly-ticketed attractions with regular hours. Commercial cooking classes, for instance, are centered in major cities like Reykjavik, not in remote eastern villages. Similarly, while some eiderdown farms in Iceland offer tours, they are private operations that explicitly require advance booking. An independent traveler would first have to identify and contact these small businesses, negotiate access for an individual, and then stitch together the timing for three separate private visits—a logistical puzzle without established local connections. A trip where these experiences are pre-arranged as a single, curated itinerary bypasses this entire operational hurdle.