Northern lights boat tour from Reykjavik: two hours, no horizon in the way

Reykjavik sits on a peninsula, and twenty minutes out of the old harbour the city lights are behind you and Faxaflói bay is open to the north. There are no hills in the way and no street lighting anywhere in front of you.

That matters because the aurora often sits low on the northern horizon on a quiet night. On land you are frequently looking at it over a ridge or through the glow of a town. At sea you are not.

The boat is also the only option here that does not involve an hour in a vehicle each way, which makes it the practical choice if you have a short evening or an early start the next day.

The whole argument for a small-group minibus is that it can be told at half past nine to drive two hours east. A boat cannot. It goes where boats go, at the speed boats travel, and if the cloud sits over the bay that is the evening.

Boats are also cancelled by sea state as well as by sky. A tour that would run fine on land can be pulled because the swell in the bay is too much for comfort.

Dress for it as you would for the land tours and then add a layer. Standing on an open deck in a moving boat in February is colder than standing in a field.