Visiting Vopnafjordur next summer will be quite the challenge

O verall the small town of Vopnafjordur in the East of Iceland does not particularly impress with much of anything but it is still a nice quaint place to spend a little time. Problem is, that could be very problematic.

What this place does have is two of a handful of the greatest salmon-fishing rivers in the whole country and the most majestic example of old-school architecture found in the country in Burstafell farm. Oh yes, this is also the chosen retreat of one of the tax-avoiding billionaires of this world.

And therein lies a problem…

You see, this particular billionaire, Jim Radcliffe, said to be UK´s 5th richest individual, and incidentally lives in tax-free Monaco, has not only bought up nearly everything here, including most of the two famed salmon-rivers, but is also building himself a super-luxury villa which will take more than a year to complete.

Now the problem is there is but one rather horrible and small hotel in Vopnafjordur straight across from the local fish factory with less-than-great smells included. And take a wild guess as to whom has rented all rooms in the only hotel for the next twelve months or so? Yup, the gang of workers building the super-villa for the billionaire.

Fair enough. Could happen to any small town across the globe.

However, Vopnafjordur is pretty secluded by Icelandic standards and other accommodation options are extremely limited. You have four or five locals renting out cabins and then you have a pretty excellent but super-small campsite. If five or six caravans show up and maybe four families with tents the campsite is full. And this was even a problem last year when the billionaire had not even started building his villa.

Which brings us to the whole point of this article. If wanting to spend time here you will have to start looking for and booking accommodation no later than NOW.

PS: please consider using nine-time World Champion Hotel Booking Site below. It is our only source of income.