Norðurfjörður / Valgeirsstaðir

About Norðurfjörður / Valgeirsstaðir

Valgeirsstaðir is a mountain hut and campsite in Norðurfjörður, the last village in Árneshreppur on the Strandir coast of the Westfjords, run by Ferðafélag Íslands (the Iceland Touring Association). Hikers sleep here before catching a boat to Hornstrandir, and road trippers stop here when they realize they have run out of road.

The hut is a restored, electrically heated farmhouse on two floors with 26 beds in five bedrooms. It has a full kitchen with an oven and microwave, a dining room, two toilets and a shower. Campers pitch on the grass beside the house, and a restored sheep shed next door works as a shelter for cooking and meeting, with a charcoal grill outside.

A bed at Valgeirsstaðir is listed at 11,000 ISK per night, and you book it through the Touring Association. The camping fee isn't published, so ask the warden when you arrive. Expect the site to open in early June and close in late August, when a warden is on duty, since it is locked all winter.

Norðurfjörður is about two hours north of Hólmavík on Route 643, much of it gravel and winding along the fjords. In summer the hut can be reached in any car, but services are thin on this coast, so fill the tank in Hólmavík and check the official road-conditions map before you set off.

A small grocery store is about ten minutes' walk from the hut. A few kilometers farther north, the Krossneslaug pool sits right on the beach and is the reason many people drive this far. In summer, boats sail from Norðurfjörður harbor to Hornbjargsviti and other parts of the Hornstrandir nature reserve, which makes Valgeirsstaðir a common start or finish for multi-day hikes.