Day Trips from Torshavn

Tiny Mykines is the one island every traveller has circled in their notes. The boat ride alone, cutting through jade water where fulmars skim the wake, sets the tone, then you step onto a path carpeted in soft cotton grass and surrounded by thousands of puffins that clack their orange beaks like castanets.

A gentle coastal walk from Tórshavn or a 20-minute bus ride drops you in Kirkjubøur, where the 13th-century Magnus Cathedral lies roofless and lichen-crusted beside a working farm that's been in the same family for 17 generations.

Often called the 'flute island' for its four tunnels, Kalsoy's northern tip delivers the Faroes' most dramatic cliff-top finale. After threading through pitch-black tunnels smelling of damp stone, you emerge to wind so fierce it whistles in your ears.

Fifteen minutes after leaving Tórshavn harbour you're in Nólsoy's only village, where red-and-white houses huddle against green slopes and the smell of smoked fish drifts from tiny workshops.

Vágar island feels like a greatest-hits album: the waterfall Múlafossur plunging straight into the Atlantic, turf-roof houses in Bøur, and the tidy fishing harbour of Sørvágur where gulls shriek over drying cod.

Sandoy gets skipped by most, which is why its meadows stay carpeted in buttercups and the local sheep outnumber people ten to one. Rolling hills, lapping turquoise bays, and almost no traffic give the island a drowsy, Sunday-morning feel.