"The hotel is fully booked for the 2026 solar eclipse"
There are still two years until the solar eclipse occurs, but hotel owners in the Westfjords are feeling the demand. Composite image
"We have really had a lot of bookings and now the hotel is completely booked for the 2026 solar eclipse. The booking status is just 100%,".
This is what Gísli Magnason at Hotel West in Patreksfjörður says in an interview with mbl.is. There are over two years until the next total eclipse will be visible from Iceland, but on August 12, 2026, it will pass over the western part of the country and reach its peak outside Látrabjarg.
"People are booking early, but orders started coming in at the beginning of the summer, and are still coming in." Therefore, there is also a considerable number of people on the waiting list to get in, but I could well believe that the situation is similar in other hotels in the vicinity," he says.
Magnason says that the interest mostly comes from abroad, but that national travel agencies have also contacted hotel operators in the area and requested available rooms.
Similar situation at Ísafjörður
Total solar eclipses are quite rare, but the last one happened here in 1954. The next eclipse will be seen in Iceland in 2196, so it is clear that this is a unique event.
Kristján Kristjánsson, a hotel operator in Ísafjörður, says that the booking status in Ísafjörður, around the solar eclipse, is similar to that in Patreksfjörður, but he also says that he feels a great demand among foreign tourists.
"We have opened bookings, and the situation in August 2026 is just pretty good. About 65% of the rooms are already booked, but travel agencies and others have been very efficient in booking with us," he says in an interview with mbl.is.
"Therefore, accommodation at this time are not going to last and will be booked up fast, but I could well believe that a considerable number will come here in connection with the solar eclipse, if this is anything to go by," Kristjánsson concludes.
