Faroe Islands

[Jdsk]

Discussion here from 2018:
topics merged by moderator

Jonathan

[st599_uk]

If I were going I'd try and get the MS Norrona https://www.smyrilline.com/ms-norroena

[Tom_B]

“ Perhaps because of this, there are more cars than you'd expect, driving faster than you'd expect”

Sounds like Shetland Mainland - still a great destination, tho

[pal]

So I'm thinking about future trips, not immediate, and the Faroe's came up. I've read articles where people have taken road bikes and got in a few rides but whilst they wax lyrical about the riding they've been a little light on some of the details.

Has anyone been?

What's the crack with the tunnels?

How did you find it?

Best way to get there?

I've been three times now, twice en route to Iceland, and once as a standalone trip. The MS Norrona is great, esp. if you like boat rides, but it does take quite a long time (esp. now that you have to go to Denmark to pick it up...); I've also flown with Atlantic (from Edinburgh), which was fine -- Vagar airport is very low-stress! (And the flight in is v. dramatic too...)

Tunnels: as far as I know, cycling is allowed in all tunnels (not sure about the brand new undersea one, actually?). I've cycled through the undersea tunnel from Vagar to Streymoy, and that was fine (insofar as any undersea tunnel is fine -- I always find them quite stressful, tbh!); it has an alert system which flashes if the carbon monoxide levels are too high, but otherwise its open to all. The tunnel from Klaksvik to Leirvik (the one with the cool light display) is busier, so I took a bus through that -- but I know that people have cycled it. Mountain tunnels: there is a long tunnel on the main road north from Torshavn which I think wouldn't be very much fun to cycle through, but it's easy to bypass that by taking the old mountain road (Route 10); all the other mountain tunnels which I've encountered have been fine -- though some of them are *very* dark: take good lights! Some of them are single-track, too, but all the drivers I encountered in them were very considerate and careful.

More generally: I really loved it (as you'll be able to tell from the fact that I keep going back). You can't cycle massive distances, because there isn't enough road! But it's great if you like a sort of pottering-around cycle holiday, and if you don't mind being prepared for extremely capricious weather. (I've had everything from baking sunshine to torrential rain/howling winds/thick fog -- sometimes all in one day). The bus service is really good, and the bigger buses are happy to take bikes, so it's fairly easy to skip bits where you'd have to ride busy roads (I agree with a previous poster that drivers can sometimes be a bit random -- not out of malice, I think, but because they see so few cyclists), or avoid struggling into a headwind. On my last trip I took the ferry down to Sudoroy, which I really liked: very quiet roads, amazing scenery, and camping on the football pitch!

[pq]

I rode on the Faro Islands quite a while ago. I travelled by boat to Iceland which in those days meant an unavoidable stay on the islands for a few days.

The scenery is amazing but I can't say I enjoyed it much. The weather was utterly appalling and is like that much of the time. Torrential rain and lots of wind. The drivers are unused to cyclists and the roads narrow so close passes are the norm. The undersea tunnels are off limits to cyclists, so you have to wait for a bus to take you through, but the buses are very infrequent so I never managed to do it, being unwilling to wait at the road side for 5 hours in the pouring rain. Food is terrible + expensive.

I completely get why it appeals to people, but photos only show the up side.

My write up, which is mostly about Iceland is here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Northatlanticdrift

[Jamesh]

I rode on the Faro Islands quite a while ago. I travelled by boat to Iceland which in those days meant an unavoidable stay on the islands for a few days.

The scenery is amazing but I can't say I enjoyed it much. The weather was utterly appalling and is like that much of the time. Torrential rain and lots of wind. The drivers are unused to cyclists and the roads narrow so close passes are the norm. The undersea tunnels are off limits to cyclists, so you have to wait for a bus to take you through, but the buses are very infrequent so I never managed to do it, being unwilling to wait at the road side for 5 hours in the pouring rain. Food is terrible + expensive.

I completely get why it appeals to people, but photos only show the up side.

My write up, which is mostly about Iceland is here: http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/Northatlanticdrift

An enjoyable read with my morning coffee!

Thanks

James