Our story goes back to 1965 when five farms were chosen to rent out rooms to curious explorers who wanted to experience farm holidays in Iceland. Slowly, more farmers joined the trend and in 1980 the Icelandic Farm Holidays Association was formed by farmers to define service values and quality standards with the overall aim of developing a sustainable tourism industry in rural areas of Iceland.
The Icelandic Farm Holidays Association founded a travel agency by the same name in 1991 to handle the growing number of bookings and promote the members’ services as the official booking office. The travel agency is still majority-owned by the farmers themselves, meaning that profits stay local!
In 2016 the name of the travel agency was changed to Hey Iceland to reflect better our diverse range of tours, activities, and services that we now provide as well as our vast network of accommodations that represent more than 5.000 beds and form the base of operation. Despite the name change, everything else has stayed the same, and we promise to remain true to our history and roots as well as our reputation for high-quality standards in all our operations.
Quality assurance
Hey Iceland is a membership-based operation, all our members need to fulfill strict quality standards to become part of the Icelandic Farm Holidays Association and to be included in Hey Iceland portfolio of accommodation and tours as well as marketing and sales efforts.
All our members are inspected on a regular basis by our Quality Manager and other staff to make sure quality standards are met, and so our team has first-hand knowledge of the properties and service providers for the benefit of our customers.
Our office is licensed by the Icelandic Tourist Board as are all of our individual members and other partners. We are certified by Vakinn, the official quality and environmental system in Iceland and we are active in our sustainability efforts. Our car rental partner Europcar is also certified by Vakinn.
We have won several awards throughout the years including the Icelandic Tourist Board’s Environmental Award in 2004, the President of Iceland’s Export Award in 2011 and The Strongest in Iceland acknowledgement in 2010 - 2015.
Our customers’ experiences are, however, our best recommendation.