To u r i s m , C u lt u r e
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Business
I s s u e 35 • 2017
The Call of the Whale Ambassador provides Whale Watching in Reykjavík and Akureyri
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hale watching is very popular amongst tourists who visit Iceland, and whales can be seen all around the coast. Ambassador offers whale watching tours when weather conditions are favourable from both Akureyri in North Iceland and the capital, Reykjavík. Ambassador first offered tours from Akureyri in 2013 and soon built up a stellar reputation within the tourism industry. With very high sighting rates and fantastic online reviews, their business is booming. In the spring of 2017, they also started offering tours from Reykjavík.
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Their tours in the North of Iceland range from two hours for the Whale Watching Extreme Tour, a very fast ride by RIB safari boat, (which has a minimum age limit of ten years old), to a six-and-a-half hour tour to Grimsey island. Grimsey is located on the Arctic circle and has only 80 inhabitants. For the regular three-hour long whale watching tours in Eyjafjörður bay, they use their boats, ‘The Arctic Circle’, a catamaran, and ‘Konsúll’ which has indoor cabins and toilet facilities on board. The boats have decks that offer views in all directions. Eyjafjörður is surrounded by
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mountains that provide protection from Iceland’s well-known winds, which creates a calmer environment for whale-watching. This also helps prevent seasickness and allows for a more pleasant tour. In Reykjavík, the boat they use is called ‘The Ambassador’. It has been customised for whale-watching after serving as both a German police boat and a pleasure yacht. She is a very nice whale watching boat and goes faster than most whale-watching boats in Reykjavik. With smaller group sizes on each tour, you are able to get closer to the whales. These three-hour tours