Vopnafjordur is a wide fjord seperating the headlands of Digranes and Kollumuli. The fjord opens out into two large bays, Bakkafloi to the north and Heradsfloi to the south.

The village is on Route 85 and has an airstrip with flights from Akureyri. There are 700-800 people living in the village. In Vopnafjordur there is one school, Vopnafjardarskoli, with about 100 students in it.

The main industry in Vopnafjordur is fish processing. The company HB Grandi has set up a highly technical fish processing factory in the village in the past few years.

Vopnafjordur is known for its magnificent natural surroundings, and the three valleys named Selardalur, Vesturardalur and Hofsardalur run down into the bay. Vopnafjordur is also known for the fishing rivers running through those valleys.

The Hofsa and Sela are two of the most popular salmon rivers in Iceland. Every year a great number of foreign visitors as well as Icelanders come to fish in the rivers. In 2004, the famous golf champion Jack Nicklaus came to Sela to catch some fish, and in July 2006 former US president George H. W. Bush spent a few days fishing there.

 

The village of Vopnafjörður lies on a spit called Kolbeinstangi, forming Nýpsfjörður to the north and Vopnafjörður to the south.

On the south side of the fjord is a mountain range, with Krossavíkurfjöll most prominent at 1,079 meters high. In the area to the north, several mountains dominate the landscape, rising nearly 1,000 meters over the surrounding moors.

The inhabitants of Vopnafjörður area are around 700 and are settled in three valleys which run in a south-west north-east direction.