Icelandic Horse Riding and Whale Watching Tour from Reykjavik

While our plane was on time, there were others in front of us at customs in the airport and it took 1.5 hours to get through customs and security, and to the bus. That caused me to miss the pickup for the horse riding portion of the tour. The staff called me while I was in transport. I expected to be told sorry you missed the pickup, too bad/so sad. But instead, the staff were very accommodating, asking where I was on the road with the bus, and tried to determine best way to let me get the horse riding in. The staff efforts were very kind and appreciated. I expected the tour to be a wash and not to be able to make it, but I took a cab and made it to the stable just in time. The horse riding experience was great! Staff clearly cared about the horses and the people riding them; attentive and aware. They were knowledgeable about the horses and wanted to share that. They treated the horses and the guests both with respect. While it was a bit confusing dealing with two different entities for the pickup, transfer to whale watching then transfer back to the hotel, it worked out. One pickup has you pay when you are picked up, the return ride they wanted confirmed and paid ahead. I had not paid the return ride because I thought it was also paid at the time it occurred, but was able to do so at the desk and they accommodated it thankfully. Very sweet staff as well. The whale watching was great! The captain of the boat tried very hard to find whales and dolphins. The first hour there was a distant siting of dolphins, but no whales. But then the jackpot. The 2nd hour had 3-4 juvenile humpback whales swimming near the boat, in front of the boat, flapping their flippers, diving deep, swimming near each other, swimming near the boats, etc. It was spectacular and amazing. The captain was also excited and took his own pictures which he posted to their website. After an hour of cavorting with these whales, on the ride back to Reykjavik, the Captain gave a talk about whales, their size, that he had seen these whales before and noticed differences between them. He had skeletal parts on the boat to show the size of a whale vertebrae and other parts. It was very interesting. It was clear he cared about and was concerned for the whales as well. He said that if they flap their tails it's a sign to back off, but they didn't flap while we were there. It wasn't clear what the slapping of flippers while floating on their back meant but appeared to be playful and fun since the whale was floating on its back while doing so. You could hear the concern to not annoy the whales or cause them any stress in the Captain's words and tone. It was a great double tour and started my visit to Iceland out with a bang! Highly recommend.