Sørvágsvatn, aka “Floating Lake” (June 2025)
The Faroe Islands had been on my bucket list for the past few years. I recall stumbling across a photo of Sørvágsvatn (aka “Floating Lake”) online and fell in love with it– since then, I knew I had to make the journey over, no matter what it took to get there. My fiancée and I had the incredible opportunity to spend five day in the Faroe Islands during our trip to Denmark last summer, and it was a dream come true.
Situated in the middle of the northern Atlantic Ocean, the Faroe Islands consists of 18 islands that are home to tons of green mountains, waterfalls, and lots of sheep– more sheep than people! The islands’ closest neighbors are Iceland (280 miles/450 km) and Scotland (200 miles/320 km), yet still quite isolated from the rest of the world. The Faroe Islands are part of Denmark, but are considered a self-governing, autonomous territory, similar to Greenland.
A total of 56,000 Faroese live on the islands and the population is surprisingly growing every year. Many people from mainland Denmark and other parts of the world have been moving over for its pristine nature. However, the Faroe Islands are still fairly untouched, with less than 150,000 visitors annually, so the islands still remain rather sleepy in comparison to over two million visitors to its neighbor, Iceland, each year.
Getting to the Faroe Islands isn’t difficult, but it does require a bit of planning for the weather and accommodation– best time is between June and August, for the best chance at sun and longer days to explore as much as possible. At the same time, it’s also peak tourist season, which means accommodations (hotels, Airbnbs, etc) get booked up well in advance. Not to forget that the Faroe Islands are expensive to visit and stay in. I was able to secure a guesthouse room for $90 USD/night over a year in advance, and it turned out to be a comfortable stay!
It was then a matter of booking our flights to the Faroe Islands. There’s only one airport on the islands, Vágar Airport, and there are daily direct flights from Copenhagen, as well as few weekly ones (Reykjavik, Bergen) and seasonal ones from Edinburgh, Paris, and London. Despite its small size, the Faroe Islands has its own airline, Atlantic Airways, which we booked round-trip for $400 USD each. Not cheap given it’s only a two-and-a-half-hour flight from Copenhagen, but we made it work!
Atlantic Airways
After a two-night stay in Copenhagen, my fiancée and I headed to the airport once more to catch our 18h30 flight to Vágar Airport. Given we were traveling in the summer, weather conditions were good to take off– flights to the Faroe Islands can get cancelled if there’s bad weather, so we were fortunate that it was a pleasant evening flight. Interestingly, my fiancée and I were one of the very few non-Faroese/Danish passengers on-board, as Atlantic Airways is a local airline. But we had a pleasant ride over, even chatting with a nice Faroese man sitting next to us who gave us tips on what we could check out on the Faroe Islands.
We landed into Vágar Airport at 19h50 local time (same time zone as the UK, so one hour behind Denmark). We’d arranged a taxi transfer from the airport to our hotel, so we found our driver and began the 45-minute drive to Tórshavn, the Faroese capital, where we would base our time to explore the other islands. We got to our guesthouse close to 21h00– we had a bit of issue finding the key to our room, eventually calling the owner for help, and finally being able to get inside! Room was small, but comfy, with a communal kitchen and bathrooms shared among three other rooms. The guesthouse was a bit outside of Tórshavn city center, but for the price and comfort, it worked for us.
My fiancée and I rested up before waking up early the next day to begin our tour of the Faroe Islands. We’d booked a multi-day packaged tour through Guide to Faroe Islands, which I highly recommend. We went with the 3-Day Highlights Package, and I believe it was a solid introduction to exploring the best parts of the Faroe Islands. One thing to know is that these packaged tours get outsourced to the smaller, local companies, and that many of the tours are hike-heavy, so it requires a good amount of physical activity to get through. All the same, we enjoyed our tours and saw so much beauty all around.
Our first day was spent visiting Vágar Island, the same island where we’d flown into the evening prior. Our tour guide picked us up at 9h00 and we headed back to Vágar. We began strong with a three-hour hike to Sørvágsvatn (aka “Floating Lake”): the first 45 minutes of the hike were relatively-easy, on a flat dirt path, before we had to hitch ourselves up and over a grassy slope to reach the vantage point. From there, we saw the illusion of the Sørvágsvatn lake “floating” over the cliff, and it was such a surreal experience. I was so happy it was the first site we visited, and my bucket list dream became a reality!
Views of Sørvágsvatn
Hiking to the views
Waterfall along the hike
Just before the ascent…
Afterwards, we hiked back to the entrance, having a packed lunch outside on the benches and taking in the gorgeous views (including some sheep close to us)! The rest of the tour wasn’t as physically-demanding, with a scenic and tranquil stroll through the picturesque village of Bøur. The village was very cute and charming, notable for its turf roofs– in fact, these roofs are iconic to the Faroe Islands, not only used for protection, but also insulation from the outdoor elements. They remind me vaguely of the hobbits’ homes in Lord of the Rings, and it really felt like The Shire!
Strolling the village of Bøur
Turf roofs
Our final stop was at Múlafossur, one of the 10,000 waterfalls on the Faroe Islands, but the most-photographed one of them all. I’d seen photos of it online, which also influenced my decision to visit the Faroe Islands, and I was happy we went on a nice, sunny day to see the waterfall tumble into the ocean. We also saw a rainbow, which was the icing on the cake!
Múlafossur
That concluded our tour, and we returned to Tórshavn by 15h30. I decided to explore a bit of the capital while my fiancée rested back at the hotel (more on Tórshavn to come later). I also brought back some fish and chips for dinner, and afterwards, we turned in for the night. It was a solid day in the Faroe Islands, exploring Vágar and already seeing the sites I’d dreamt of seeing (Sørvágsvatn, Múlafossur) that first day. However, we would continue to see other stunning sites on the other islands over the next few days, and I will recap them soon! Stay tuned 🙂
— Rebecca
Rebecca Goes Rendezvous 