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Greenland

North America

The world's largest island and a self-governing part of the Kingdom of Denmark, Greenland is a vast Arctic land of ice sheet, fjords and Inuit culture. Its draws include the UNESCO-listed Ilulissat Icefjord and its calving glacier, Disko Bay humpback whales, the aurora over Kangerlussuaq, the Arctic Circle Trail, and the museums and national-day traditions of the capital, Nuuk.

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What you can do in Greenland

Museums & Galleries

Nuukyear-roundNuuk holds the two collections that make sense of Greenland, and you can see both in an afternoon between fjord and mountains. At the Greenland National Museum you stand before the Qilakitsoq mummies, four Thule-culture people preserved almost intact since around 1475 AD and returned from Denmark in 1982, alongside kayaks, hunting gear and national dress that trace four and a half thousand years of Inuit life. A short walk away, Nuuk Art Museum sets Greenlandic soapstone carving, painting and tupilak figures against foreign artists' views of the Arctic, in a converted church built around one family's private collection. Together they read the country's story from the Thule migrations to living Kalaallit art, all indoors and open whatever the weather does outside.

Photography Expeditions

Trekking / Hiking

SisimiutJul Aug SepThe Arctic Circle Trail between Kangerlussuaq and Sisimiut is the great long hike of Greenland, roughly 160 kilometres of unmarked tundra, lakes and low fells across the largest ice-free stretch of the country. There are no roads, no villages and no resupply along the way, only a chain of simple huts and your tent, so for a week or more you walk through pure Arctic wilderness carrying everything you need. The route ends in Sisimiut, a lively west-coast town just north of the Arctic Circle where sled dogs still outnumber cars in winter. Musk oxen, reindeer and Arctic fox share the valleys, and the light stays up almost all night in high summer. Going with a local guide turns a serious self-sufficient trek into a story of the land, its plants, its myths and the people who live at each end.

Wildlife Safaris

IlulissatJun Jul Aug SepDisko Bay off Ilulissat is one of the best places in the Arctic to watch great whales feed, and doing it with icebergs the size of cathedrals in the background is unique to Greenland. Through the summer, humpback whales gather in the bay's nutrient-rich water to feed, breaching and slapping their flukes, joined by smaller minke whales and, less often, the giant fin whale and the occasional blue whale. Small boats out of Ilulissat take you among them, close enough to hear the blows, then weave back through the drifting ice at the fjord mouth. Beluga and narwhal pass the region in the colder months, and seals haul out year-round. You go out with local skippers who grew up fishing these waters and know where the whales are working.

Witness / Attend

Ullortuneq (Greenland National Day)NuukJunUllortuneq, Greenland National Day, is the country's proudest gathering, and Nuuk stages the biggest of it. Held every 21 June on the summer solstice, the longest day, it marks Greenlandic identity and the long road toward self-government. In the capital the day opens with flag-raising ceremonies and marching bands, then fills the town centre with Inuit drum dances, choral and hymn singing, and people of every age wearing the national costume with its beadwork collars and sealskin. Families hold kaffemik, open-house gatherings over coffee and cake, and the celebration runs late under a sun that never sets. There is no ticket and no organiser to book. You turn up in central Nuuk, follow the flags and drums, and stand with the crowd as a whole nation marks its day in the round-the-clock light.

Best months at a glance

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Museums
Photography
Trekking
Wildlife Safaris
Witness / Attend

Upcoming events in Greenland