Atli was born in a small fishing village in the East fjords of Iceland, a village with less than 1,000 inhabitants. As a young man, he worked as a deckhand on a trawler to finance his education. He has a degree from the University of Iceland in business management and economics but found himself in guiding as he loves people and telling them about the history, nature, geology, culture, and social structure of Iceland. Atli has finished his education in a professional guiding school.

Throughout his life he has been going camping in the wonderful nature of Iceland as his lifestyle is being outdoors, hiking, camping, and exploring. Being the arctic person he is, with direct ancestry from the first settler of Iceland, Ingólfur Arnarson, he loves the winter equally to the summer. Atli does not believe in elves but thinks that when he can’t find his keys or phone it might be the teasing nature of the elves.