Faroe Islands travel review July 2022

One good thing about transport was the city busses in Torshavn that are free of charge. But there are some issues here too. Some of the schedules are again hard to read. And there is no service/tool (also for the SSL buses that travel between towns) where you can just enter your point of departure and destination that will then show which bus you need to take. It's tedious work to figure it all out. And it doesn't help that the bus drivers sometimes don't know the names of their bus stops.

I spent the first few days in a hostel in Sandavagur. Unfortunately booking.com did not properly inform me that my bed would be in a bus and that I have to bring a sleeping bag, otherwise I'd be charged for linen. When you go through all pictures of the hostel on booking.com you will see some of the bus' interior, but at no point in the booking process was it made clear that this would be my "room". Price was 34€/night (+ one time payment of 8€ for the linen), which is 2-3x what hostels cost in other countries I've been in. The host was very supportive and friendly and overall the stay was OK. There was no place you could lock your backpack in, though.
The rest of the trip I spent in an Airbnb in Torshavn. It was the only affordable one, costing 74€/night. But it was 45 minutes away from the city center and most of the way to the Airbnb is uphill. More central places started at 160€/night and the range was quite extreme, going to 450€/night.

Now if you want to say this may all be due to the war and inflation, there are 2 things to say about that. I ran into a former politician who was in parliament all his life and he told me the Faroe Islands are not that entangled in world politics and not quite as much affected by inflation as e.g. central Europe. Secondly, I can list some rip-offs that have nothing to do with inflation. Here goes:
A popular tourist attraction is the Island Mykines where swarms of poffins reside. What you are not told before taking the ferry to Mykines, is that upon arrival you are charged 36€ to be allowed to walk the island.
Among the most annoying things was the fee that you have to pay for using some hiking trails. The fee for the Trælanípan hike for example was 28€. And this is a short hike (1 hour one way). For this price you would expect a trail that is at least well developed. But there were only 60-70m or so that had wooden steps. You couldn't get lost because it's a short track and soon enough you can't go left anymore anyway (cliffs). But especially at the end, if you want to go down to the waterfall, you just have to find your way through a rugged stoney and dangerous landscape. On this hike and later on some other places I also realized the pictures are often misleading. Trælanípan is a spot where you are supposed to see an optical illusion. There is a large lake and behind it and 150m or so below it you can see the sea. However it turned out that the pictures were taken either from the other side of the lake or by a drone. (You can't get to the other side at the end of the trail, unless you walk ~12km around the lake. It's shorter if you don't take the trail.) Which is strange because on the one hand you are not allowed to use drones, but on the other they use them for misleading marketing pictures.
I had booked 2 helicopter flights. Good thing about this is that it's subsidized and affordable. Because of this, however, you can only book one flight per day and cannot use the helicopter to return (on the same day). That's understandable, they don't want the subsidies to be taken advantage of. Here you have to watch out. As far as I could tell there are only 2 places you can go to by helicopter and return the same day (by other means of transportation). If you want to stay the night and return the next day, be prepared to pay a lot for accomodation, because the accomodations know about the logistics predicament.
To be continued...

My first flight was cancelled due to weather conditions and you don't get your money back if it's cancelled for reasons that are out of the hand of the operator. So then I cancelled the second flight myself, because the weather didn't look like it would allow a flight, even on another day. Yes, the weather is unpredictable on the Faroe Islands and can change quickly, but I wouldn't speculate on it getting better. The weather is mostly the same all year round.
When the first flight was cancelled I tried to call the operator. After 21 minutes in queue the line was cut because the entire credit I had on my Faroese SIM card was used up while waiting. I also have never received a response to the email I had sent to the operator.

One more thing to be aware of if you're from the EU: while the Faroe Islands are somewhat connected to Denmark and the EU, the roaming policy does not apply there. So you have to get a local SIM card, otherwise using data e.g. for navigation is going to get expensive.

The best things that happened during the trip were:
I ran into a couple that had booked a Kayak tour and there was one spot left. They gave it to me for free. The tour was nice as the weather, while foggy, was good enough and the sea still enough to do the trip and also visit 2 extra locations (a cave and a small secluded beach).
My Airbnb host allowed me to wash some clothes.
I was able to hitch a ride 4 times.
I didn't make use of this, but you should know that there are only 4-5 dark/twilight hours a day. So this allows you to be very flexible with your activities and you can actually take pictures very early in the morning and late at night.

There is not a lot of variety in terms of landscape. If you've seen a few places you've seen most of what the Faroe Islands have to offer. Torshavn, Gjogv and Tjornuvik stood out a bit from other places. Other than that wherever I went I felt I had already seen the scenery before.

To sum it up, this was by far the worst trip of my life. Maybe in 8-10 years the Faroe Islands will turn into a place where tourists can travel mostly free of worries and (hopefully) get their money's worth. Though the weather and risk of cancelled activities will remain.
If you haven't been to e.g. Iceland, Scotland or Switzerland yet, you should consider that. There you can count on getting your money's worth. With the money I had to spend on 11 days on the Faroe Islands I could've gone to those countries for 2,5 weeks (including a rental car throughout the entire trip!).

Too bad you had these experiences.

We went for four days last September and had a great time. We rented a car for our entire trip and covered many areas. I think that rental car prices were probably much less then because there weren't many other tourists. We stayed in an AirBnB in Torshavn, did a Vestmanna Bird Cliff tour, and drove to Gjogv and Saksun. We very much enjoyed the Faroe Islands!

Wow.

I'm very sorry to hear you had such a dismal time in the Faroes. I spent a week there in 2019 and it was one of the best trips of my life.

Now, the Faroes is certainly not for everyone. Visiting there successfully requires a not-insignificant amount of money, planning, maybe some luck (with the weather), but IME was awesome.

You may have underestimated some things and failed to grasp the importance of some others. Yes, everything is expensive (except for the helicopters, they're not expensive but using them effectively is quite challenging...but they are not there for us). Cars and housing especially are in very short supply -- the Faroes have been experiencing a travel boom which has exacerbated this. We rented a car for our week and while it wasn't super cheap, it was no more than I've paid in some other places; it's worth viewing car prices there in context of recent history and current car rental prices everywhere. This is a place where you pretty much need a car IMHO, or you need weeks to get around by the admittedly limited public transit system (the system is actually fine for the areas it serves).

It's hard for me to imagine why one would choose Sandavagur as a base (or a place to spend any time); with your own car, it might be an OK place just to sleep, but lacking a car would make this is really difficult to enjoy; I think that combination (isolated, tiny settlement without a lot going for it, no way to easily get to/from everyplace else) was not a great choice. Yes, costs for accommodations are generally high, it's part of the bargain you make when you go to such a remote place. We stayed at an AirBnB in Tórshavn (perfectly nice and comfy, reasonable price) and another in Árnafjøuður (near Klaksvík) which was funky and weird but functional (I think it is used as a bunkhouse for fishing crews). Of course, we had a car, which made all the difference (I can't imagine being there without a car). There's a major shortage of accommodation, made worse by the recent boom in tourism, (the tourism boom is not universally appreciated BTW).

Yes, the fees (sometimes shockingly high) for hikes are an unpleasant surprise, but the locals are (understandably) sick and tired of foreign tourists descending on their lands, ignoring polite requests to behave, going where they are told not to go, and (as they see it) acting like irresponsible, spoiled children (I can't argue with that). The high fees to hike some places are one of their tools to try and manage that. It's their country, their rules.

One thing you didn't mention, that I think anyone thinking about going there should be aware of, is the weather: First, take a good look at a map, note the Faroes' location. Then consider what kind of weather they get. Like you, we went in early July – the peak of high summer, when I figured we would have the best chance of decent weather. We had a couple sunny, clear days, which were glorious. Most of the week it was foggy, rainy, cold, windy, foggy, and VERY rainy. One bit of advice I'd offer anyone is to plan how much time you will need (logistically at least, it's a big place, quite spread-out), then double or triple that time, because there's a good chance that half or three-quarters of the time you are there, it's going to be rainy, foggy, cold, and with minimal visibility – low visibility means you won't see much other than the grass right in front of you (and all the sheep poop on your shoes).

Sorry your trip didn't work out as you had hoped. I think the Faroes are a place that really requires a LOT of research and advance planning, flexibility, some willingness to compromise on many of the comforts we are all used to, tolerance for high prices, and more than a little spirit of adventure. It's not a good choice for everyone, you have to work at it to have a great experience. Hope your next trip works out better.

Why Sandavagur? When you arrive at 9pm there are no other places to go. And there is a bus that can get you to a few places, but as I mentioned even being there 15 minutes earlier wasn't enough. I don't think it was such a bad choice.
I was aware of the weather. Wherever I go, if there is a hike I absolutely want to do I plan to be there 3 days to have a chance.
And I did take a lot of time to plan. But here were some things that never happened to me to this extreme extent. This was not my first trip and I fully understand that when going to remote places you can't expect the same level of convenience as in, say, Central Europe. I don't believe that I expected too much.
About the hiking fee: I have no trouble paying it, but as a rule of thumb you would expect to get something in return, right? ;-) If they don't use the fee to develop/maintain the trails as they claim, people are going off the trails, which is exactly what the Faroese don't want, isn't it?

They have experienced a rapid, unprecedented explosion in tourism. Life is changing rapidly for the locals, and not everyone is thrilled by the changes. Can't say I blame them.

Some of the tourists drawn to the place are not exactly behaving like well-mannered guests (not suggesting that's you, you probably observed some of the same negative impacts of tourism); even in my short time there, we witnessed plenty of idiots chasing Instagram shots, hopping fences, trampling private property, ignoring clear and polite requests, behaving like spoiled frat boys on spring break, and making me wish humanity wasn't so quick to abuse places they've just discovered (hard for us to point fingers, though, as we contribute to the problem, even if we try hard to follow all the rules and behave like the kind of guests that would be welcomed...still, try as we might to step lightly and politely, we are part of the huge number of people now going there, so we are part of the problem).

Here's one place we saw that seemed to have tried the polite requests to behave, and it seems those requests were being ignored:

"Virðing" - Showing Respect in Faroese

They are using the fees to try and get some control over the influx of hikers; I'm sure they are also using it, in part, to dissuade some people (hopefully those who are most problematic). It's far from perfect, but it's what they've got. I was annoyed about the fees, too -- and in fact, there were places we decided not to go because the fee was just too much for me to stomach. Like I said, their country, their rules.

It's a complicated place to visit, for sure, with plenty of ways for things to go wrong. We had a wonderful time there (although not every day was wonderful from start to finish) I'm glad we went and I'd go again. On that trip I had what is probably the worst meal I have ever been served (tip: avoid the Italian restaurant in Tórshavn; the only great meals we had in the capitol were all at the Japanese place, go there every chance you get, but expect crowds so be patient).

May your next trip be all the good things you hope it will be.

I visited the Faroes in 2016 and loved it. I'm going back for a week in September.

The Faroe Islands is not a place for the typical budget conscious tourist. The public transit system is not made for the tourist but for the locals. Two new hotels have opened in the last couple of years--including a Hilton--and the tourist board has hired a professional to come in to promote tourism.

But you have to do your homework.

Housing, both permanent and temporary, including for visitors, is sparse. The demand is going up. As demand goes up, so do the prices. Almost all consumables, including food, has to be brought in. That adds to the cost. (I remember going into the only fast food restaurant in the Faroes, a Burger King, just to see what it cost. They wanted $13 for a Whopper, fries and a drink. And that was 6 years ago.)

The weather can be iffy which is why I'm giving myself a three day window when I have to leave.

On the bright side, the Faroes are virtually crime free, the people are friendly, most speak some English, and the food can be great--especially the local fish and lamb.

The Faroe Islands are not for everyone. If you are looking for everything to be easy, it's not for you. But if you are looking for a place not yet spoiled by tourism, I suggest it.

Why am I getting these responses that suggest I have never travelled before or expect everything to be easy? If that's what I had expected I wouldn't have spent days on planning the trip. These responses are dismissive and useless.
I have pointed out a lot of things that can and might go wrong. And a lot of that doesn't have anything to do with unpredictable weather, lack of planning or wrong expectations.
If your experience was good, congratulations. The way things went here, I wouldn't recommend anyone risking this trip. There are just too many much better options out there, even if they also require lots of planning.

Interesting how your first posting on this forum is to tell us how bad your trip was. I have to wonder that had you come here before your trip, some of us may have been able to make your trip easier.

An example, for your arrival, we could have told you that a pre-arranged taxi from the airport to your lodging in Torshavn wouldn't have cost you much more than what you paid for a hailed taxi to your local accomodation.

Did you get in touch with Greengate travel? They could have helped arrange for you to get around the island.

Well, I find it interesting that seemingly 99%+ of travel reviews anywhere about any destination at any time are positive. I think that should strike you as more odd than my first posting being a negative experience. Funny how everybody's travels are always perfect, nobody has ever made a bad choice and nothing ever went wrong. To me it seems like a form of PC that people don't write anything "negative" about what they may consider criticism/judgement of another country.
Was I aware of all travel forums there are? No. But I tried to research as much as possible anyway.
To your point about accomodation and taxi: the first few activities were planned around Sandavagur (e.g. Gasadalur, Trælanípa). So the taxi to Torshavn may have cost the same, but I'd pay more for accomodation and lose time because I'd have to travel to Sandavagur.
If I travel to another destination that requires a lot of planning I will make sure to drop by here. But the next dozen or so destinations on the list are fairly well developed.

Was I aware of all travel forums there are? No.

Welcome to this one -
Unaware but still managed to find 4 of them in short order! Yes, shame that you didn't have a good time but I'll agree that it's also a shame for your very first posts on this forum, TripAdvisor, Travellerspoint and Fodor's to be a long, long narrative about how bad your trip was. As Frank mentioned, if you'd used them for research before your trip, people with prior experience probably could have saved you some of your troubles.

You mention prices for, say, cab fare being much more than at home, as well as car rental being much higher than at other places? Thing is, you weren't at home OR at those other places. I would expect things to cost much more in a remote location such as you were. BTW, we're seeing reports of car rental in not-so-remote Italy running 100€ a day so.... Regardless of what some former politician told you, inflation IS a world-wide issue right now, and petrol prices are much increased. I'd guess gas is VERY expensive in the Faroes.

I believe your hostel was this one?
https://www.booking.com/hotel/fo/giljanes-hostel.html

You would have to have booked the "Bunk Bed in Mixed Dormitory Bus" option if that's what you ended up in. The photos clearly shows the bus, the bunks and other amenities, such as the small kitchen, so I'm unsure why ending up there was a surprise? Scroll down to "The Fine Print" and it states, "Please note that bed linen are not included. You can rent them on site or bring your own." So booking.com didn't neglect to mention that fact.

That trail fee on Mykines? It's mentioned in the very first piece I googled out of interest (I'm a hiker):
https://guidetofaroeislands.fo/nature-in-faroe-islands/mykines/

"There is a 250 DKK fee to be paid in order to hike in the outfield. You can pay the fee at the trailhead."

I find it interesting that seemingly 99%+ of travel reviews anywhere
about any destination at any time are positive.

That's not exactly accurate. Spend some time browsing some of the many trip reports on this forum (and others) and you'll read about all sorts of things that didn't go according to plan, and experiences that weren't up to expectations. ZTL fines in Italy, just for starters? HA! A load of negativity just isn't usually the very FIRST contribution most people make.

Wishing you a better time on your next trip! :O)

At no point did I say that I expect everything to be the same as at home. I think I stated everything clearly and will not bother with responding to misrepresentations of what I said or expected.
I have checked the booking documents of booking.com and nowhere it says "Bunk Bed in Mixed Dormitory Bus", it only says "4 bed room".
I have travelled enough, also to remote places or places that require a lot of planning. I never needed any forums and always managed to have at least an OK experience. You want to put it all one me, fine. You won't convince me that I had any unreasonable expectations, though.
Lastly, the fact that I have posted something for the first time really does not allow you to conclude that I have never read anything on the travel forums you mentioned.

After reading you post, I felt that I had to reply because there are so few postings here about Faroe Islands. It's still a remote place, and not many people even know that country exists (although more and more are finding it). I guess I was lucky that our trip went smoothly and everything was as expected. I had one problem with an invoice from a hotel, but we got it straightened out so no need to complain about it.

I do not agree that most people only post positive things. A lot of people try to give a "heads up" on things to expect that are out of the ordinary. If I'm reviewing a lodging or a restaurant or a tour, which I do on TripAdvisor, I do give the positives and negatives so future users will be forewarned. We recently stayed at an AirBnB in Oregon, and I posted about the twelve rough and uneven steps to get to the front door. Some people would have trouble with those stairs.

At least you can be assured that you've put others on notice of potential issues if they are planning to go to the Faroe Islands.

We were in the Faroe Islands for four days in June as part of a larger trip to Denmark. It was absolutely wonderful, and I can’t wait to go back. However, I can’t imagine trying to do it without a car of your own. While that is technically doable, the OP’s experience demonstrates what a challenge it is. Coming directly from mainland Denmark, we found the prices expensive but not ridiculously so. We knew going in that this would be an expensive trip - all that money we didn’t spend during the lockdown got put to good use.

I hope that rather than turning people away from the Faroe Islands, this thread helps raise some of the cautions to be considered in planning a trip. But for our group it was an extremely worthwhile trip, and we are eager to go back to explore the more remote islands with more time.

@Kathy: What point were you trying to make when you pointed me to the Mykines link? When you already know that there is a fee, then of course it's easy to find that information. When you just want to get there and research the ferry schedule on ssl.fo there is no reason to assume that walking on Mykines costs something.
Pointing to info after the fact does not prove that the info was easy to find or that there was a mistake on my part. And does anyone plan their travels assuming the worst every step of the way? You don't call your airline and ask them whether the pilots are sober, do you? Just to make sure it's the right decision to choose this airline/flight.

The fact that there are fees for hiking some places in the Faroes seems well documented and highly visible to me, and I think anyone who has done even a little research (guide books, websites, travel forums) would notice them pretty quickly; it's discussed at length or at least mentioned, virtually everywhere I've looked; it's certainly not hidden.

I'm not sure what the OP's agenda was, or now is...they posted the exact same "trip report" (copy-pasted word-for-word) on multiple travel forums. On each forum, it was their very first and only post. Not surprisingly, on those others forums (just like on this one), other people who have been to the Faroes responded, pointing out how the OP's experience was not what they experienced, suggesting that with a little effort in research and planning, they could have easily avoided many of the things they complained about, or at least would have known about them going in, so they should not have come as a shock. Then the OP becomes defensive, claims they are being dismissed, and argues that others are unfairly putting words in their mouth:

Why am I getting these responses that suggest I have never travelled before or expect everything to be easy? If that's what I had expected I wouldn't have spent days on planning the trip. These responses are dismissive and useless.

At no point did I say that I expect everything to be the same as at home. I think I stated everything clearly and will not bother with responding to misrepresentations of what I said or expected.

I'll just point out that nobody ever claimed that the OP said they expected everything to be the same as at home, and I've seen no "misrepresentation" of what the OP has said, so the outrage seems a little misplaced (not to mention ironic) to me. Here, and elsewhere, I see honest, rational responses, most expressing sympathy for the OP's experience, offering some basic suggestions for better experiences in the future, and wishing them well on their travels. (The exact same accusations of "misrepresentation" and contrary responses being "pointless" are posted in the OP's replies to their threads on other forums.)

At this point, I think the OP has made their points, others have responded. OP seems to feel the Faroe Islands (and every person who disagreed with something in their "review") has done them an injustice. OK, you've made your point. Others have disagreed. Maybe it's time to leave it at that. Future readers of this thread will make their own judgements based on input from those who contributed.

Good luck and happy travels, wherever you choose to go.

I'm afraid you didn't get my point either, seeing that you as well suggest that I have done no research.
This has indeed become pointless.

David gave a good summation. 'Nuff said!

Right. It just seems good and correct are entirely unrelated around these parts.