A rural haven of tranquillity, where the smell of a typical sheep farm perfumes the air, Sólbrekka Holiday Homes offers a unique opportunity to disconnect from a busy city life, work hassle and the buzz of everyday living, allowing you to reconnect with nature and your inner self.
As you travel on the ferry boat, the only access during winter, heading from Neskaupstaður to Mjóifjörður you’ll feel like being far from civilisation, noise and pollution and perhaps experience that you’re at the edge of the earth and the unknown.
After the one hour boat journey to Mjoifjordur, step outside, breathe the fresh air, and enjoy superb panoramic views over the fjord and mountains. Take your time to appreciate your tranquil settings, your eyes catching nothing but the sea stretched out in front of you and the rugged or snowy hills surrounding you.
The thought of a warm and cozy cottage and the traditional hot Icelandic chocolate waiting for you provides excitement and reassurance.
The purity in the air harmonising with nature, the smell of freshness and the sense of relaxing isolation impending, fill all senses with anticipated motivation, previously unknown to you, bringing on a lighter sprint in your steps. Allow yourself to melt in with the surroundings and feel at home. You have great days ahead, filled with peace and quiet.
Who can benefit from a weekend away to Mjóifjörður?
Mjoifjordur can be a weekend escape for parents with children. Solo travellers with whatever motive for a brief getaway, mini retreat for someone in the need for peace and comfort and or for those having to catch up with deadlines on work or projects. You don’t need a particular reason, Mjóifjörður is the reason to want to spend a quality weekend in the unspoiled somewhat isolated rural fjord in the East of Iceland.
What is there to see and do in this rural haven?
It appeared the embodiment of rural tranquillity, but you soon discover otherwise. There is more than what meets the eyes at first. It can be as busy as you want it to be or simply just relaxing, an opportunity to recharge your energy, before heading back into the busy world again. Your imagination can run wild to match the environment.
For parents there’s the chance to sit back and enjoy the tranquillity, superb meals and wine tasting while the kids enjoy visiting the sheep, try some of the card games, splash in the hot tub or throw snowballs.
The cottages are well equipped with modern appliances and the comfort you need for a successful long weekend, or if you choose to stay on for a week, then that’s perfectly fine. Each cottage has a cozy hot tub on their veranda, and once inside the warm water you can decide what view you want. Out over the fjord and the ocean with mountains in a distance or right up the mountain hills off the tiny village in Mjoifjordur. Either way, it will be easy on the eye. After October, when it gets colder however, the hot tubs will be moved off the terrace into the bathhouse, which is a few meters from the cottages. People can access the hot tub as often as they want during their stay. We do this because these tubs can’t maintain the temperature outside; they are not hard-shelled, but inflatable.
For individuals and everyone
We have mapped out some easy hikes for you to try, go fishing by the harbour, try out some snow shoes, take a cold plunge in the sea, enjoy the view from the hot tub, or simply sit down with a good book, one you’ve been wanting to read, with the complete silence as your backdrop music. We welcome you into the sheep house to follow our work with the residence sheep, you might very likely find Tobbi, our beloved dog, hopping along and we are also a bit of pigeon fanciers, keeping a few pigeons with us and caring for them.
What you can do in Mjoifjordur, besides relaxing and taking it easy, can vary depending on the season.
Early winter
We consider this to be from early October until around mid or late November. Before the real snow hits the ground, perhaps it is lingering in the mountain tops but enough for the roads to close. There’s still the opportunity to go for bike rides around the fjord. Feed the sheep if that takes your fancy, write a novel, watch the starlit skye or gaze at the northern lights. Uh yes we get plenty of Aurora Borealis gracing us with her presence during the season. The northern lights are visible in Iceland from mid or end August until just after mid April.
Christmas
The thought of a white white Christmas can happen here is quite appealing, as long as the weather gods oblige, a saying in Icelandic.
The ground will stay white as there’s no pollution like it mainly is in the towns and cities. There’s no car traffic to discolour the snow or shops to distract the mind. Just you with yourself or those you’ve chosen to spend the holidays with.
Late winter
Oh here it comes, the winter stillness, the real snowfall which adds to the magic of Iceland’s most rural havens like Mjóifjörður.
You get the chance to build a snow house or a snowman, if you wish. Walk on the snow shoes, with a promise of an alternative promenade in nature. Staying in places like this for a weekend gives you a different insight to life and its meaning to you.
Spring
When spring arrives, so does hope for brighter days. The days are getting longer and longer each day. The sun starts melting the snow and waterfalls and rivers get busy carrying the excess water to the sea. The lambs get born, something you could get a chance to witness if staying here. Birds arrive again, searching for ideal nest building places and your ability to explore nature on foot is also upon us.
The road opens normally in May and Solbrekka Holiday Homes can offer single night accommodation again in the cottages.
One can basically do all the activities possible in Mjoifjorður at all times. Although some are more seasonal like walking on snow shoes, enjoying the northern lights or cycling around the fjord.
With this article we wanted to highlight first and foremost the beautiful and unique opportunity spending time in an isolated remote destination like Mjóifjörður can be. It fulfills its role to completion as one of Iceland’s rural havens well worth exploring.