Faroe Islands Holidays & Guided Tours

Dear Julija,

Many thanks for your welcome e-mail.  It was very kind of you to write and very thoughtful of you to remember that we returned home yesterday (Monday) from our visit to the Faroe Islands.

I'm very pleased to report that all arrangements for the visit to the Faroes worked very well.  Independently, and knowing we had two nights at Hotel Vágar (opposite the airport), we had booked a boat trip which was supposed to show you the spectacular Vestmanna cliffs, in the extreme north-west of the main island, Streymoy, and then to go on to the small, isolated island of Mykines.  Sadly, the Mykines part of the trip was cancelled on the day.  It's a very difficult island to get to, so we'll have to try again sometime!  Everything else worked very much according to plan.  The weather was a bit grim on Thursday - with rain and more rain - but, otherwise, the weather was reasonably kind, ranging from "OK" to "very good".  In "very good" conditions the scenery in the Faroes is simply magnificent!

I think we may have mentioned that we are all members of the Faroe Islands Study Circle, a special-interest society for philatelists (stamp collectors!) interested in the postage stamps and postal history of the Faroes.  (Roger is the Chairman, John the Treasurer, I'm the Secretary and Journal Editor and Sheila is a founder member).  Because of this, one of our highlights was the pre-arranged visit we made to the postal headquarters on Wednesday where we had what was in effect a VIP visit to the postal HQ in Tórshavn, with a guided tour, coffee and cakes and a good chance to chat to two of our friends who work there.

I should also mention the cultural evening in Gjógv which you so kindly arranged for us later that same day.  As you know, we were all disappointed when we knew we wouldn't be staying in Gjógv as it's a beautiful little village in an amazing setting where we had stayed in 1993 and 1996.  I hope our disappointment didn't come across as a complaint as that was never intended.  To have an opportunity to attend the cultural evening was extremely welcome.  The evening itself - a buffet, live music and Faroese chain-dancing - was both interesting and rewarding but so too was the time we spent in the village for a while beforehand.

I have much to do on my return, including a despatch of the latest Study Circle newsletter

 http://faroeislandssc.org/members/newsletter46_da6aa3b4734d79a3def713c772e82100.pdf

but as soon as I've found time to download my photos (and I took rather too many!) I'll put together a montage of photos on one or two A4 sheets and will send them to you.  If it takes a few days to do this I hope you'll accept my apologies.

With thanks, on behalf of Sheila, John, Roger and I, for all the time and effort you put in to arranging our itinerary.  As I said, it all worked perfectly.

Very best wishes,

Norman

Dear Julija,

Thank you for your 'welcome home' email. I really enjoyed our trip - the only complaint was that it was too short. Thank you for organising everything. I have seen Norman's reply to you and can only endorse what he said. He may well have sent you some photographs by now. I haven't sorted out my pictures yet but will email you a few when I have done so.

I have other friends who are interested in Scandinavia so will bear Baltic Travel in mind if we decide on one of the countries you mention for a holiday another year.

With best wishes,

Sheila 

HI Inga

We had a fab time, some days more memorable that others. The best day by far was Mykines. WOW - all the birds were a wow, but the puffins - OMG. I could have spent a couple of days there - it was better once most people had gone back to the town, we  could then get closer to the birds & they were more relaxed. 

The 2nd best day was the Vestamma cliffs - the captains ability to get close to the cliffs was wow. Not as close to the birds as we would have liked, maybe needed to do a walking tour from the top - impossible to take any good photos of the birds. Aldo quite foggy that day, which was a nightmare.

The coach trips - the company that ran them, were great -  very impressed. The tour guides were great. If I am honest 1 coach trip would have been enough for us, would have preferred to do other things. 

We would have liked to go to the waterfall that empties into the sea on the cliff.  (On Vager island), cant recall the name. 

And maybe the schooner ship or the rib boat. 

And more walking tours. (if there are companies that do them)?

The coach trips are designed for the more mature people or less mobile clientele, and I know Peter & I are no spring chickens, but we are active & fit, so maybe a mix & match on the different trips would be good. I know some of the people struggled when we went to Mykines as it is about a 7 mile walk. I loved it - my kinda trip. You do need to tell people that the Mykines trips is active. Even the climb from the harbour is too much for some people. 

On the whole the hotel was OK - it gave the basics. 

The Faroes themselves

Lovely, stunning, has the wow factor & not as expensive as I thought, other than alcohol. 

People lovely, and so relaxed. I would love to be there when it is hit by a storm. 

The islands are not really ready for all the tourists, which in one way was is nice, other ways - its sometimes hard to spend any money other than on food or drink. 

Would recommend, but personally we would do different trips - they need to be more active for us. 

If we came again with you, I would be keen that we pick & choose the right trips for us, 8 hours on a coach it too much. I lost the will!!!! :-(

Hope this is useful. 

I have attached a few photos. I have hundreds. :-o

Lena,

Many, many thanks for organising a wonderful holiday for us to Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands. Copenhagen was warm and sunny and we walked miles looking at all the sites. The hotel was very comfortable and having a west facing balcony made the evening gin and tonic very pleasant. The highlight for me was climbing the spire of The Church of our Saviour, (not quite all the 400 steps), but The Tivoli Gardens, Little Mermaid, Kastellet, Nyhavn and all the churches and gardens in between were equally worth visiting

The Faroe Islands are totally fascinating. The geology makes for a stunning landscape (when the sea fog allows!) but there are enough things to see at low levels, however when the fog rises the views are just stunning. Although seeing the Puffins on Mykines was high on the bucket list visits to places like St Magnus Cathedral - medieval cathedral in Kirkjubour, the various ports etc are similarly worthy.

I've put a couple of photos on but once I've completed the holiday review I'll send you a copy.

Peter

Thanks for your email.
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Faroes and our Hotel looking over Torshavn was ideal.
The people were very friendly and helpful – the Tourist Information centre in Torshavn was extremely useful.
 
In terms of the culture and scenery it has it’s own individuality, it’s not Iceland and it’s not Norway or Denmark. The dramatic coastline was very exciting, with many fjords, caves and waterfalls. Unfortunately many of the seabirds had fledged and gone back to sea when we went (beginning of Aug.), but we did have a good trip to see the puffins and the ‘Bridge across the Atlantic’
There were lots of what appeared to be isolated settlements all over the islands and we often wondered how they managed, but they obviously do. The small towns and villages have kept largely to tradition on terms of style and decor, multi-coloured with grass roofs appear everywhere and must brighten life in the winter months!
 
Transport and the road networks were really good. There have been new tunnels built relatively recently to connect islands, some are amazing in their sheer length through solid rock. A few of the islands are only available by ferry, and the two southernmost islands will have to wait until another time.
 
There is plenty to do if you like outdoors, walking, climbing, boat trips etc. We had some trips pre-arranged and we took a couple of boat trips. One to see the spectacular cliffs and massive caves eroded out of the rock. The buses were very useful also.
You could plan your own itinerary, but as this was our first time here we were happy to have some things pre-arranged,
 
From our UK perspective, prices for everything is much more expensive, but we already knew that, but just a warning to take more cash than you might think is required.
Eating out was interesting as they had a few high class restaurants in town, and a number of fast food type outlets, but middle of the range, not much.
Saying that the food was very good, if limited in terms of vegetables, we didn’t starve!
 
We left enough unvisited to want to go back sometime in the future.
 
I have attached a couple of photos and will send in separate emails due to their size.
 
Best wishes
Tom