By road no. 1 , About 140 km east from Selfoss
Region: South East
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About: (Description) Vík, a town with approximately 290 inhabitants, an official trading post since 1887. Vík attracts a great number of tourists year-round, who come to experience its famed natural beauty and mild climate.
A large arctic tern nesting colony is located east of Vík, while Mt. Reynisfjall, to the west, is home to a vast number of bird species, including puffin, fulmar, auk and kittiwake. A great diversity of flowers and grasses may be found on the eastern side of Mt. Reynisfjall, the most extensive in one place in all of Iceland. This is also where the most robust field mice and the largest slugs in the country are found, something that has captured the attention of foreign scientists.
The entire area is perfect for nature lovers and many lovely hiking paths exist in Vík and its surrounding regions. Brydebúð, the origins of which date from 1831, contains an information centre, a café, and exhibitions about living conditions, nature, climate and ship strandings on the southern coast.
There is a memorial to German seafarers in Vík, and a storehouse opposite Brydebúð contains the Skaftfellingur, a 60-ton vessel built in 1916-1917, which sailed with people and goods to “harbours” on the harbourless coast of Vestur Skaftafellssy´sla for some 20 years, beginning in 1918.
Various services are available in Vík, including a hotel, guesthouse, youth hostel and campground. There is also a playing field for sports, a golf course, a gymnasium and a swimming pool, as well as a district commissioner’s office, a bank, a health care centre, a preschool, an elementary school and a music school.
Vík was the home of Sveinn Pálsson, MD (1762-1840), the first Icelandic natural historian.
How to get there: From Selfoss you take road no. 1 direction east to Vík.
source Iceland Road Atlas
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