We’d been to Iceland, we’d heard all the Faroe Islands hype, and still nothing prepared us for Mykines. The island is tiny — fewer than ten permanent residents — but from late April through August it hosts hundreds of thousands of Atlantic puffins, and the cliffs put you so close to them that you almost feel like an intruder in their world.

This guide covers everything: how to get the ferry, how long to stay, where to walk, and what season gives you the best odds of seeing puffins in the Faroe Islands without getting weathered out.

Puffin season in the Faroe Islands — when they actually arrive

Atlantic puffins (the ones with the cartoonish orange beaks) spend most of the year at sea. They only come ashore to breed, and the Faroe Islands — specifically Mykines, Vestmanna, and a handful of other cliff colonies — are among their most important nesting grounds in the North Atlantic.

The arrival window

• Late April: first scouts appear on Mykines. Numbers are still low. Worth visiting if you’re already in the Faroes, but don’t plan a dedicated trip yet.
• May: puffins return in increasing numbers. Burrow-digging begins. This is our pick for seeing them with fewer crowds and calmer Atlantic weather.
• June – early July: peak density. Chick-rearing is underway, adults are constantly ferrying sand eels to the burrows, and the cliffs are alive with activity. This is the classic window.
• Late July – August: chicks fledge and adults start to leave. Numbers drop noticeably after mid-August. The last puffins leave the Faroes by early September.

Our visit was in late June and we counted puffins nesting literally at our feet on the cliff path. No telephoto lens required — they are completely unbothered by people.

The Faroe Islands weather factor

This is the piece most guides skip. Faroe Islands weather is notoriously changeable — we saw four seasons in a single afternoon on Mykines. Fog rolls in off the Atlantic without warning and the Mykines ferry is cancelled whenever wind or swell makes the approach unsafe. This happens frequently. Build at least two nights around your Mykines day to absorb a cancellation.

How to get to Mykines — ferry, helicopter, and what to book first

Mykines is the westernmost of the Faroe Islands, reachable only by ferry or helicopter from Vágar island. Both options are operated by Strandfaraskip Landsins (the Faroese national ferry company).

The ferry from Vágar

The ferry departs from Søldarfjørður on Vágar (roughly 15 km from Vágar airport and Tórshavn). Crossing time is about 45 minutes but feel like an adventure — the Atlantic swell can make it genuinely exciting even on a “calm” day.

The Mykines puffin checklist — 6 things to do on the island

Mykines is small enough to cover on foot in a full day, but there are specific spots that make the difference between a good puffin sighting and an unforgettable one.

• Walk the lighthouse trail (2–3 hours return): the path from the village to the lighthouse is the main event. It crosses a suspension bridge over a chasm and passes through puffin colonies so dense you almost have to step around the birds. This is where we saw hundreds in a single glance.
• Sit at the cliff edge near the lighthouse: the puffins nest in burrows along the grassy cliff tops. Find a patch of grass, sit down quietly, and they will return within minutes. Do not approach burrows, and keep dogs well away.
• Watch the sand eel flights: in June and July, adult puffins fly in from the sea with beakfuls of sand eels, sometimes five or six fish fanned out like a bouquet. It’s the shot every wildlife photographer goes to Mykines for.
• Explore the village: Mykines village has about eight to ten inhabited houses, a tiny church, and a café that serves coffee and w&aaffles. After the trail, it feels earned.
• Check the sea-stack colonies: the sea stack just west of the lighthouse bridge has a dense gannet colony below the puffins. Bring binoculars for the lower ledges.
• Stay for the evening light: if you can catch the 8–10 pm light in June (the Faroes have near-midnight sun at this latitude), the golden-hour glow on the cliffs and the puffins coming in to land is extraordinary.