What’s it really like to travel to Greenland?

Are you looking to travel to Greenland? Do I ever have the post for you! I recently traveled to Greenland as a solo female traveler to find out what life is like in this cold and unforgiving corner of the Arctic.



Greenland is not a common travel destination. Most of the time when you tell people you’re going to Greenland, they respond with, “You can go there?” But travelers have long known that travel to Greenland is not only possible, but incredible.



I found Greenland to be a stunning and challenging destination, with spectacular natural wonders and a haunting history, all set in one of the most remote corners of the globe.



In this post, I’m collecting all of the vital information I learned from my time in Greenland — because I want you to know the truth about what to expect in Greenland.



Let’s take a look at Greenland!



This post was published in October 2023.




Table of Contents
Toggle Yes, you can travel to Greenland. Yes, people live there. Why should people travel to Greenland? Best Things to Do in Greenland Yes, you can travel to Greenland independently. You should be prepared for delays and cancellations when traveling in Greenland. You do not need to explore Greenland by cruise ship. In fact, you shouldn’t. Greenland is an Indigenous destination, but Indigenous people are rarely profiting from tourism here. And yet I learned so much about Greenlandic people. Greenland Travel FAQ “Greenland has lots of ice, and Iceland has lots of green?” Not exactly. You may be traveling with lots of Danes. There are LOTS of cool places to visit in Greenland. Kangerlussuaq Aasiaat Qeqertarsuaq and Disko Island Ilulissat Oqaatsut Eqi Glacier Other Places Suggested Greenland Itinerary for First-Timers Best Time to Visit Greenland What are hotels like in Greenland? The internet isn’t great in Greenland. Greenland is very expensive. The food in Greenland is not great. Get ready for Greenland wildlife — just not polar bears. But don’t approach the huskies in Greenland. Is Greenland safe for solo female travelers? You’ll inevitably compare Greenland to Iceland. Add time in Copenhagen before and after your Greenland trip. Greenland Packing List Is Greenland Worth It?








Yes, you can travel to Greenland. Yes, people live there.



A lot of people have the belief that Greenland is nothing but a sheet of ice. While the Greenland Ice Sheet covers the vast majority of the country, Greenland is inhabited along its green coastline.



Greenland has a population of about 56,000, of whom roughly 89% are Greenlandic Inuit (including mixed race Inuit). That makes Greenland one of the most sparsely populated places in the world.



Yes, Greenlandic people are Inuit — same as the Indigenous people in Alaska and northern Canada. But they haven’t been here for thousands of years. The Inuit migrated from North America to Greenland in the 14th century.



Most of the population is concentrated on the southern and central west coast — the most populated city is the capital, Nuuk, with a population of about 19,000.



Yes, you can fly to Greenland. Air Greenland is a real airline flying from Copenhagen, Denmark. Icelandair flies to Greenland from Reykjavík, Iceland.



However, while there are roads within Greenlandic cities and towns, there are no roads connecting these towns. The only way to get from town to town is by plane or by boat. Air Greenland has small planes connecting these cities; the various boat lines are much smaller than you’d guess.



Me enjoying a hike at Eqi Glacier, Greenland



Why should people travel to Greenland?



What drew me to Greenland was the chance to visit a remote, beautiful, cold part of the world. I’m drawn to what I call “the edges of the world” — not just the polar regions, but far-north or far-south places with cold weather and quirky residents, like Newfoundland , Tierra del Fuego , Iceland , and Shetland .



Antarctica is still the most meaningful place I’ve visited , and it shattered my ego with its beauty and starkness. Since that trip, I’ve been longing to experience the Arctic as well.



The major difference is that unlike Antarctica, the Arctic is inhabited, and I’ve been curious about the Inuit people who have made their lives here for centuries. How do they live their lives, in face of harsh living conditions, colonialism, cruelty, and being on the front lines of climate change?



I didn’t get to experience Inuit culture firsthand as much as I had hoped, but I learned a lot secondhand — and the natural environment was intimidatingly beautiful. There’s something about being in isolated pockets of the world that strangely gives me comfort.



Overall, I’d say that this trip paid off very nicely — though not as astoundingly as Antarctica did.



Kayaking among the icebergs is one of the best things to do in Greenland.



Best Things to Do in Greenland



So many of my favorite activities in Greenland were hikes — especially the times I went solo hiking. I absolutely loved getting up at 5:00 AM to hike on Disko Island, seeing the waterfalls and black sand beaches lit up with the perfect early light.



Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is probably the most famous destination in all of Greenland. I absolutely loved taking a sunset cruise among the icebergs, and admiring the glacier lagoon while hiking near Sermermiut on the mainland.



Visiting the Greenland Ice Cap was another big highlight. It’s something you’ve seen on maps since you were a kid — and here you are, actually walking on it!



One thing that really surprised me was how few opportunities there were to explore Indigenous culture in Greenland. That’s something I really wanted to explore. (Much more on that below.)



For me, my favorite “cultural” activity was visiting Greenlandic grocery stores, local discount shops, and the occasional restaurant that doubles as a casino. The kinds of places where locals actually spend their time.



Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island was one of my favorite spots.



Yes, you can travel to Greenland independently.



A lot of travelers assume they need to book a tour in order to visit Greenland. That’s not true — plenty of independent travelers can and do travel in Greenland independently.



You can book flights with Air Greenland. You can book hotels on Booking or Airbnb, or independently through their websites. You can book activities through tour providers.



However — booking a package in Greenland could save you a lot of money. I actually booked a package, which is very unusual for me.



When I plan a trip, I travel independently 99% of the time. Packages aren’t my thing; to me, much of the fun comes from doing the research and finding the perfect places for me!



However, I started researching Greenland travel seven months ahead and realized that this was pretty late for planning a Greenland trip, especially in summer. Travel infrastructure in Greenland is limited and places book up quickly. Not a lot of hotels were left.



I ended up booking the Dream Trip in Disko Bay package with Greenland-Travel.com (which I paid for myself — nothing on this trip was sponsored). This tour included flights from Copenhagen and all ground transport; all hotel stays; some meals; and you could add on a package to include tours and activities (which you should). Unlike a tour, this package did not include a tour guide and gave full free time outside the scheduled activities.



It turns out that Greenland-Travel is part of a company that includes Air Greenland, the World of Greenland tour company, and the Hotel Arctic in Ilulissat. Because it’s all one company, you’re able to book these tours for less.



World of Greenland, for example, is the only company offering an Oqaatsut kayaking day trip! It’s not like Iceland, for example, where you have several different companies offering similar tours. There’s no real competition in Greenland.



An additional benefit to booking a package is having someone else be in charge of logistics if anything goes wrong. Which brings me to my next point…



This is a Disko Line ferry in Greenland — they are shockingly small. Which is why they can be cancelled in bad weather.



You should be prepared for delays and cancellations when traveling in Greenland.



Greenland has extremely limited travel infrastructure — and the natural environment here is challenging. I had read about lots of Greenland travelers having their trips interrupted with cancellations.



And unfortunately, it happened to me, too. Our boat to Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island was cancelled due to weather. We had to spend an extra day in Aasiaat — and I had pretty much exhausted the things to do in Aasiaat after 24 hours there, which was not ideal.



Greenland-Travel took care of everything. They extended our stay at the hotel, got us food vouchers, arranged for us to take the next available boat, and even refunded us for the cost of one day of the trip as soon as we sent our bank details (another good reason to have a bank account with Wise , as I sent them the details of my EUR account and converted them to USD and transferred to my regular bank account). That was impressive!



Compare that to a fellow traveler I met who was traveling independently in Greenland. He was supposed to be on our same boat that got cancelled. And he ended up having to hang out nearby for nine hours, going back to the port every now and then and asking if there were any updates.



That alone made booking a package so worth it for me. I was very happy with Greenland-Travel and would recommend them.



Two cruise ships in one day? HELL NO.



You do not need to explore Greenland by cruise ship. In fact, you shouldn’t.



As someone who has worked in the travel industry for more than a decade, I’ve seen firsthand the damage that cruise ships inflict on local communities. But at first, I didn’t think it would be as bad in Greenland. Couldn’t they use the extra tourism?



Oh, was I ever wrong. Everyone I spoke to in Greenland who works in tourism HATES the cruises with a burning passion. Like everywhere else in the world, cruises dump enormous numbers of people into small spaces who crowd the streets, fill the sights to overflowing, spend little to no money, and leave.



In Ilulissat, locals told me that when cruise ships are in town, the wooden pathway to Sermermiut, a popular attraction, is so crowded that people walk on the ground, stomping on the delicate plants, despite being told repeatedly to stick to the path.



Originally I had been looking into Greenland cruises — probably with Quark Expeditions, as I had a great trip with them in Antarctica — but now that I know what I know, I would not recommend anyone do an expedition cruise to inhabited parts of Greenland.



Overall — please visit Greenland overland rather than taking a cruise. But if you are set on cruising, choose a small ship expedition that visits primarily uninhabited destinations.



Inuit art fills the streets of Aasiaat.



Greenland is an Indigenous destination, but Indigenous people are rarely profiting from tourism here.



If there’s any one thing I want you to take away from this piece, it’s this. I was shocked at how few Indigenous people are profiting from tourism — or even WORKING in tourism in Greenland. All of the higher-level tourism jobs are taken by Danes.



I didn’t have a single Greenlandic tour guide — every guide was Danish. (Though two people I met had an Indigenous guide once.) I want to be clear that they were wonderful guides, enthusiastic and caring, many of them university students here for the summer, but I really wish I had been hearing from and interacting with Greenlandic guides.



Greenlandic people, by contrast, were often working in tourism as hotel maids, servers, cooks, occasionally hotel front desk workers or assistants to the boat captain. While one boat captain I had was Greenlandic, the rest of the boat captains were Danish.



In some ways, this is similar to any colonized region — the colonizers are privileged with more education and experience, as well as the money to make more money.



But what floored me is that there are almost no Indigenous travel experiences or activities in the parts of Greenland I visited, including Ilulissat, the most touristy place in the country.



I’ve taken part in so many Indigenous travel experiences around the world. Experiencing a Zapotec temezcal in Oaxaca ; Indigenous gallery-hopping in Alice Springs, Australia; learning about Mi’kmaq life in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia . In places like the Yucatán, Indigenous culture is so intertwined with life that locals pepper their Spanish with Mayan slang.



But there was very little of this in Greenland — a place where 9 out of 10 residents are Greenlandic Inuit.



On a Greenland travel booking website, I found two Indigenous activities in Ilulissat: a kaffemik , or a traditional local party with lots of food and cakes served, and a learn to speak Greenlandic crash course. Both cool things! I SO wanted to do the kaffemik, but alas — it was only offered one day per month, and nobody at any of the hotels knew of any other kaffemiks taking place.



You know what there COULD be in Greenland? Off the top of my head — a kayaking demonstration. Learn how to craft Greenlandic textiles or carve reindeer antlers. Have a traditional Greenlandic meal with a family. Go fishing (or ice fishing in the winter) using traditional methods. A Greenlandic music session. Go foraging for plants, Greenlandic style.



These activities would put money in Inuit pockets — and that’s the way it should be.



But until these activities exist, if you want to have a peek at Indigenous culture in Greenland, one of your best bets is to hang out outside the local church on Sunday. If there’s a christening taking place (and there often is), there will be locals in traditional Greenlandic clothing.



Other than that, I highly recommend visiting the Inuit Artist Workshop in Ilulissat, where you can chat with Greenlandic artists and buy their work.







And yet I learned so much about Greenlandic people.



Here are some things I learned:



In Aasiaat, my guide shared that Greenlandic women often have their first child at 18 or 19, they stay home with the baby a few years, and then go back to school for vocational training. Young men often work as fishermen.



The only university in Greenland is in capital city Nuuk, and there are only two fields of study: teaching and nursing. For everything else, you’ll need to study in Denmark or internationally.



There are only three police boats in all of Greenland. I saw one of them in Aasiaat. (Also, the police in that town sure do love driving the same streets over and over. Maybe they thought I looked like a criminal.)



You see purple wildflowers every now and then in Greenland, my kayaking guide in Oqaatsut told me. They’re called nivi, and Nivi is a popular name for Greenlandic women.



In the winter, some settlements (including as big as Ilulissat) can go for months without a grocery delivery due to the water freezing. When the grocery boat finally shows up, people go and line up, cheer the unloading of packages, and buy out everything in the store until the shelves are bare.



This was told to me with a smile, but it made my stomach clench. These people were starving. These people regularly starve during the winter.



Again, all of these guides were Danish, and I wish I had learned more directly from Greenlandic people.



I fell down a Wikipedia rabbit hole in Greenland and learned about the cruelties Danes inflicted on Greenlanders. Like the spiral case , where women and girls were sterilized without their knowledge or consent between 1966 and 1975. Guess when the investigation began? May 2023.



And then the “legally fatherless” case between 1914 and 1974, where the children of Greenlandic women and Danish men were legally made unable to inherit from their fathers.



And the Little Danes experiment in 1951, when 22 Greenlandic children were stolen from their families, sent to Danish families, and attempted to be reeducated as Danes. Half the children died in young adulthood. The Danish government didn’t apologize until 2020.



It’s infuriating how common these stories are around the world — how marginalized communities, from Black Americans to Indigenous Australians, are so often abused in similar ways.



Come to Greenland to see some of the best ice of your life.



Greenland Travel FAQ



Here are a few nitty-gritty things about travel to Greenland that you should know:



Is Greenland a country? Technically Greenland is part of Denmark, but it’s an autonomous territory, and many people consider it a country.



How do you get to Greenland? There are direct flights to Greenland from Copenhagen, Denmark, and Reykjavík, Iceland. Bigger airports are being built in Greenland so they can serve direct flights from North America soon. There are no public ferries to Greenland, but many cruises to Greenland depart from Iceland.



How long does it take to get to Greenland? The flight from Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq takes 4.5 hours and you cross four time zones, so you arrive 30 minutes after you departed! The time zone is two hours later than the east coast of the United States.



Can you do a day trip to Greenland from Iceland? Technically, yes, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DO NOT DO THAT.



What currency does Greenland use? Greenland uses the Danish kroner (DKK), and almost everywhere accepts credit cards. I only brought a small amount of DKK with me and used credit cards for everything else. ATMs can be scarce outside the major cities.



Is the water safe to drink in Greenland? Yes, you can drink the tap water in Greenland.



Are there special requirements to visit Greenland? Visiting Greenland is the same as visiting Denmark. You won’t need any additional documentation if you’re able to visit the Schengen Area without a visa.



Greenland looks pretty green here, near Kangerlussuaq in August!



“Greenland has lots of ice, and Iceland has lots of green?” Not exactly.



You may have heard this saying before, but as soon as you say you’ve been to Greenland, EVERYONE will parrot this back at you. (It’s almost as bad as everyone saying, “It’s good luck, you know!” on our rainy wedding day in Boston, thinking they were the only ones saying this, but EVERYONE WAS SAYING THIS.)



Greenland is home to the Greenland Ice Sheet, which covers 80% of Greenland’s surface. Considering that Greenland is the world’s largest island, that’s a LOT of ice.



But there’s the other 20% that is NOT covered with ice — which includes the inhabited parts of Greenland. It gets pretty green here, and there are lots of lovely wildflowers, too!



Fun fact: all six of these people are Danish.



You may be traveling with lots of Danes.



Greenland might not be an obvious travel destination — but it is a major bucket list destination for many Danish people, similar to how Alaska is a major bucket list destination for many Americans.



It turned out that eight Danes had booked the same Disko Bay package as me. At 39, I was the youngest; most were 50+. While we weren’t glued to each other’s sides all day, we did go to all of our activities together, stay in the same accommodation, and share many meals together.



My fellow travelers were interesting people, who made me feel welcome. That said, there will always be a bit of awkwardness when it’s a big group dinner and you’re the only person who doesn’t speak everyone else’s language! They always switched to English when including me, which was lovely of them, but I didn’t want them to feel like they couldn’t speak Danish together.



It made me extra happy I had read The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell, a memoir about a British expat in Denmark trying to figure out what made Danish people tick. I put that knowledge to use and asked none of them what they did for a living!



One thing that surprised me was that the Danes, while well traveled, weren’t the extreme travelers I had expected. None of them had been to Iceland, for example.



But other nationalities traveling in Greenland were extreme travelers! The American and Swiss travelers I befriended in Greenland and I would have long, rapid-fire conversations veering from Indonesia to Uzbekistan, Guatemala to Moldova, and around and back again.



Kangerlussuaq: not the prettiest, but you’ll probably stop by.



There are LOTS of cool places to visit in Greenland.



Here are some of the places I visited in Greenland:



Kangerlussuaq



Kangerlussuaq is the town where the jets from Copenhagen land. From here, smaller planes take off to other parts of Greenland. So chances are high that you will spend at least a day here.



You won’t find much traditional Greenlandic culture in Kangerlussuaq — it was originally a US military base, which the Americans sold back to Greenland for a dollar in 1992. It still has the feel of a military base today, and now has a population of about 500.



The major activity in Kangerlussuaq is visiting the Greenland Ice Sheet, which is about a two-hour drive from the town. Walking on that ice is pretty cool, and the surrounding scenery is a great introduction to the country.



If you have a chance, be sure to eat at Restaurant Roklubben on Lake Ferguson, 5 kilometers south of town. This is probably the best single restaurant that I ate at in Greenland, and everything was spectacular.



Aasiaat gives you a taste of Greenlandic life, far from the tourism industry.



Aasiaat



Aasiaat, Greenland’s fifth-largest city, is not an obvious tourism draw — but I appreciated visiting it because it’s a modern Inuit city. Aasiaat has a population of about 3,000.



Aasiaat has a small museum — unfortunately closed for both of the days I was there — and a beautiful church worth visiting. You can also take a boat tour to see icebergs, the whale graveyard, and the abandoned settlement of Manermiut.



Beyond that, I found Aasiaat to be a fantastic place to photograph. So many brightly colored cottages on jagged, rocky hills, long steel pipes connecting all of them.



I recommend staying at Hotel SØMA Aasiaat , which has simple but comfortable rooms and has a great little canteen popular with locals. The view from the front is lovely.



Disko Island looks so much like Iceland.



Qeqertarsuaq and Disko Island



Disko Island is Greenland’s one and only volcanic island. It’s located across Disko Bay with direct boat journeys from Ilulissat and Aasiaat, making it a fairly easy destination to add on if you’re flying into either of those cities.



Right away, the volcanic landscape makes it feel so different — it looks so much like Iceland! Because of the geothermal activity, there are hot springs everywhere, and that draws whales to the island’s shores.



There are two major hikes you can do from Qeqertarsuaq: the hike to the waterfall, and the hike to Kuannit. Unfortunately I had awful weather the first day, but I woke up at 5:00 AM to do the waterfall hike before our 8:30 AM departure!



Qeqertarsuaq is a small town (population: 800) with lots of colorful homes and a lovely black sand beach with views of icebergs. I really enjoyed staying at the Hotel Disko Island , which served a fantastic dinner of snow crab.



Disko Island was my favorite place in Greenland. I only wish I had time to do the full Kuannit hike!



Hiking to Sermermiut is one of the best things to do in Ilulissat.



Ilulissat



Ilulissat is Greenland’s biggest tourism draw and has the best tourism infrastructure in the country — plenty of hotels, tours, and activities. Ilulissat is the third-largest city in Greenland (population: 4,600) and is home to the Ilulissat Icefjord, one of Greenland’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.



Here in Ilulissat, a glacier meets the sea, splintering off into thousands of icebergs. (Interestingly, some scientists believe the Titanic iceberg may have originated here.) You can see the icebergs up close, taking a sunset cruise through the glacier lagoon or kayaking close by. You can go fishing or whale watching here.



There is also nice hiking in Ilulissat. Sermermiut has a wooden pathway leading to views of the ice fjord (1.3 km or 0.8 miles), and from here you can split off and do the yellow hike back to town along the coastline (2.7 km or 1.7 miles) or the blue hike to the quarry (6.9 km or 4.3 miles). I did the yellow hike solo and loved it.



In general, I found it difficult to find quality souvenirs in Greenland — but Ilulissat is home to the Inuit Artist Workshop, where you can buy artwork directly from local artists. They’re open seven days a week and they take cash only.



I enjoyed getting to chat with an artist and take home an Inuit figure he carved from a reindeer bone. That’s where to spend your cash — into the pockets of locals.



In Ilulissat I stayed at the Hotel Arctic , an upscale hotel that is located a 20-minute walk from the main town but has a frequent shuttle. I loved my room, but they were a bit rough around the edges (like the restaurant would be half-empty but they couldn’t accommodate anyone for dinner — annoying for people who had just been offline for three days at Eqi Glacier and couldn’t call ahead!).



You think you know rural, then you get to Oqaatsut.



Oqaatsut



Oqaatsut is a small settlement an hour’s boat ride north of Ilulissat. I came here on a kayaking trip, and there is a lauded restaurant here called H8 Explorer.



The bay surrounding Oqaatsut is called Rodebay (red bay), which got its name from the blood of the whales that filled the bay. This was a popular spot for whale butchering in the past.



There’s not much to see in the town (population: 29!), but I did find it interesting to see a place like this and get some photos. I didn’t find the lunch from H8 Explorer to be that impressive (it was mostly cured lamb, whale steak, pickled halibut, and shrimp), but perhaps they’re a better option for dinner.



There’s also a hotel, Hotel Nordlys, if you’d like to stay overnight.



Glacier Camp Eqi is absolutely worth a visit.



Eqi Glacier



Eqi Glacier is a massive, incredibly active glacier a few hours’ boat ride north of Ilulissat. The glacier is five kilometers wide (3.1 miles) and brilliant shades of white streaked with bright blues. The glacier groans and cracks continuously, and this is the most reliable places to see live calving in Greenland.



Climate change is constantly on your mind while in Greenland, and Eqi Glacier is where you see it visually, the rocky landscape streaked with where the glacier used to extend before it began receding in the 1910s.



Eqi Glacier can be visited as a day trip from Ilulissat — it’s about a three-hour boat journey each way — but for something REALLY special, stay for two nights at Glacier Lodge Eqi . This is the most unusual place I stayed in Greenland. There are tiny red huts perched on a rocky hillside overlooking the glacier.



You should know that there is zero phone signal or wifi here; the power may randomly go off; and the basic huts and glamping tents have shared bathrooms. I upgraded to a hut with an ensuite bathroom and was so glad I did.



The big daytime activity here is hiking. I joined a group for a hike to the moraine, overlooking the glacier, which took about five hours; you can also do a full-day hike to the ice cap and back (that was a hard no for me). And the food is really, really good for being in the middle of nowhere!



The one issue here was the mosquitos. At certain times of day, the mosquitos and flies were NONSTOP, making it essential to wear a net. But that was mainly when the sun was shining. When it was rainy or cloudy, there were very few bugs or no bugs at all!



A sunny day in Nuuk, via Shutterstock



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