The black sand beach of Budardalur village is a nice place for a walk but overall there is not much to recommend the village to foreigners. PIC anroi
I f some superficial Icelandic tourist sites are to believed the village of Budardalur in Hvammsfjordur is an “ideal place for hikers and nature lovers.” Which is total crap.
The village itself is rather downbeat in most respects. Services are limited and any traveler would have a hell of a time finding nice sights, museums or entertainment of any kind within the village. Indeed, a group of tourists would even have trouble finding accommodation here.
But don´t take our word for it. Visit the town and make up your own mind after you´ve spent six minutes or so. That should give you ample time to see the sights and a few minutes to get bored as well. Unless you meet some of the 250 locals making this place their home. You can also tune into the local web cam here located by the main road of town.
Bluntly put there is little to see or experience. The village lies right between the Snaefellsnes peninsula and the Western fjords of Iceland and is at best a pit stop on the way to either place. There is some industry and a few make their living off fishing and the place is the administrative center of Dalasysla municipality.
Within village borders there is a campsite and one small guesthouse, Guesthouse Bjarg at Dalbraut road, although it must be said there are more staying options in the neighboring areas.
Some will undoubtedly find the area around town quite attractive and some spots are nice indeed as nature everywhere in Iceland is both unique and inviting. Especially recommended is watching the sunset from the beach on a warm summer day. But on the whole the beauty of this area lies in local history. It was around these parts that a big chunk of the history of Iceland took place.
It was close to here, for example, that the legendary Leifur Eriksson, Leif the Lucky, was born and made his home before venturing to sea to discover America by accident ages before a certain Colombus took the honors. His birthplace was in Haukadalur valley close to the village. In Budardalur you will find a cultural house, Leifsbud, partly dedicated to the exploits of Leif which is credited by scholars for „discovering“ America long before the Italian Colombus.
Surely there are some fine places around here for hiking and exploring nature but compared to thousands of really stunning natural areas of Iceland this is not it.
» Budardalur is best known nowadays for a large dairy production and its production of a number of Icelandic cheeses. Some of which are quite decent.
» The village is 155 kilometres from Reykjavik. Shortest route to here is from the Ring Road in Borgarfjordur along route 60. The route itself is very scenic and nice
» You can probably tell we do not like Budardalur very much. Nothing personal but time spent here is time wasted for travellers and that is the truth Ruth. Folks are nice but surrounding nature is flat and uninteresting for miles around.
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