Flatey stop-over on the Baldur crossing

A Flatey stop-over is the Baldur crossing with the island in the middle of it: off at the quay, a walk round the old village and the bird shore, and back on a later sailing while the car goes through to the other side. It is the best idea on the Westfjords route and, on 1 November 2026, the one with the least to plan on, because the ferry is in dry dock and the operator's page carries a notice instead of a timetable. This entry states the fares, the rules and the arithmetic, and leaves the figure blank until there is a schedule to compute it from.

What the operator's pages say, read today. The notice: "Baldur is in dry dock in Hafnarfjörður", expected to remain until late November, and "Baldur's regular sailing schedule is not in effect while Baldur is in dry dock". A passenger boat, Sjöfn, sails Stykkishólmur to Flatey and back on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, departures published to 20 November at varying times (13:00, 15:00, 16:00, 16:30 or 17:00 from Stykkishólmur, with the return from Flatey 70 minutes later), and it "does not stay on the island"; it leaves once loading is done. Passengers to and from Flatey must be booked in advance. No vehicles.

The fares, winter season 1 September 2026 to 31 May 2027, one way: the through crossing Stykkishólmur to Brjánslækur "stopping in Flatey" is 6,300 ISK for an adult, 5,020 for over-67s and 3,150 for ages 12 to 17; Stykkishólmur to Flatey alone 4,320, 3,480 and 2,160; Brjánslækur to Flatey 3,560, 2,850 and 1,780; children up to 12 free with their parents, not as groups. A regular car up to five metres is 6,300 ISK with the driver not included; campers and wide vehicles 9,180 plus 2,500 per extra metre; a motorcycle 3,760. Summer fares are not on the page. One company operates the route.

The arithmetic, with the figure left open: a stop-over costs the day the gap between the sailing you leave the ferry on and the sailing you rejoin, plus the 30-minute buffer for the booking, and nothing for a detour because the crossing replaces the drive round Breiðafjörður. On the published passenger-boat days the gap is zero, so the ledger figure is zero and the island is a view from the deck. When Baldur returns and a timetable with two sailings a day appears, the gap is the figure, and in past summers it has been an afternoon. Put the published times in and date them.

#What goes wrong

The notice itself is the current failure: a plan built on the summer pattern of a morning and an afternoon sailing meets a boat that does not carry cars and does not wait. Beyond that, the usual ones. Breiðafjörður is sheltered but Baldur has cancelled in winter gales; the Flatey leg is the first to go. The through-fare with a stop-over is a booked product, and the car must be booked on the sailing it travels on; a party that misses the later boat from Flatey has a car on the far shore and a night on an island with one hotel. In winter the island is nearly empty and the hotel shut.

#Alternatives on the same road

Drive round: Stykkishólmur to Brjánslækur by Route 60 is the long way and is what the dry-dock notice leaves you with. The island on its own as a day trip from Stykkishólmur is what Sjöfn offers now, 70 minutes out and 70 back with no time ashore, which is a boat ride rather than a visit. Puffins and the Breiðafjörður islands can be seen from the Stykkishólmur boat tours in summer, not checked today.

Practical line: no fuel or shop at Brjánslækur, fill at Stykkishólmur or Patreksfjörður; on Flatey, a hotel and a church and the shore, and nothing to buy in winter. Phone signal is fine on the island.

#Sources

ferja.is sailing-schedule page (dry-dock notice, passenger-boat days and times, booking rule) and price-list page (winter fares), both read 1 November 2026.