Nine Ways to Experience Greenland’s Unique Culture and Icy Landscapes

The first-ever direct flights from the United States to Greenland will give tourists easier access to the island’s history, culture and natural wonders

Katherine Alex Beaven - Freelance writer

May 21, 2025

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Few places are home to as many superlative natural features and contrasts as Greenland, an island 80 percent covered in ice, marked by near-pristine wilderness with a silence so absolute it feels infinite. It has icebergs up to 30 stories tall, dramatic hanging valleys formed over thousands of years and a culture that survives by blending modern technology with ancient traditions.

These distinctive attributes are precisely what draw travelers to the world’s largest island. And lucky for North Americans, getting to Greenland is about to get a lot easier.

As a semi-autonomous Danish territory, Greenland has relied economically on annual block grant subsidies from Denmark and local fishing exports. But, as the island takes gradual steps toward independence, it’s investing in tourism as a way to diversify its income. So far, numbers look promising.

The most recent tourism report from Visit Greenland shows a 36 percent jump from 2022 to 2023 in overall foreign visitors, resulting in a revenue of 1.9 billion Danish kroner (around $285 million) for the local economy. In 2023, cruise passengers set an all-time record, with a whopping 74 percent increase over the previous year. Small-ship expedition cruises accounted for around two-thirds of all sailings, and the United States stood out with nearly triple the number of passengers as the next most popular country of origin. These statistics are especially noteworthy since they were tallied before the Trump administration expressed interest in acquiring the territory for the U.S.—and before the November 2024 opening of Greenland’s new international airport hub in the capital city of Nuuk.

While cruises claimed over half of Greenland’s total tourism numbers in 2023, the future looks bright for air travel. Nuuk Airport is one of three airports that are part of the government’s hefty $800 million investment project tackling one of the island’s biggest tourism hurdles: accessibility. The project is focusing on expanding airports and flight options in the key tourist areas of Nuuk, Ilulissat and Qaqortoq. It’s a true boon for international travelers, who, for decades, have only had the option of flying into Kangerlussuaq, an old U.S. military base-turned-airport above the Arctic Circle in western Greenland.

Beginning on June 14, Greenland-bound travelers from the U.S. will be able to take advantage of the first-ever direct flights between Newark, New Jersey, and Nuuk, to be offered twice weekly from mid-June to late September. The new routes have the potential to cut ten or more hours of extra travel time each way—until recently, all international flights to Greenland were routed through Denmark or Iceland. Similar expansion plans are underway for Ilulissat Airport, while a brand-new airport in Qaqortoq, located within 12 miles of the famous Viking ruins of Hvalsey, will provide more options for domestic connections—a key component for a destination with limited infrastructure, where no two towns or settlements are connected by road and people rely on boats, dog sleds, snowmobiles, helicopters and planes as primary transportation.

“As Greenland becomes more accessible, we have a unique opportunity to shape tourism in a way that reflects who we are—and what we want for our communities,” says Anne Nivíka Grødem, CEO of Visit Greenland, adding the focus is not on rapid growth but creating lasting value. “That means working closely with local actors, prioritizing quality over quantity and ensuring that tourism actively supports the things that matter most to us—our nature, our culture and our people.”

Here are nine ways to immerse yourself in Greenland’s rugged landscapes and rich cultural heritage—before the crowds take over.

Dog sledding in East Greenland

“Dog sledding is a big part of the culture here,” says Rasmus Poulsen, owner of Tasiilaq Tours, a local tour company on East Greenland’s remote Ammassalik Island. When the Thule people migrated from Siberia and Canada around 1200 C.E., they brought their indispensable sled dogs with them. Nearly a thousand years later, many communities, specifically those north of the Arctic Circle and within East Greenland, still rely on sled dogs for survival, as a primary source of transportation and for hunting.

Sled dogs used today in Greenland are direct descendants of the Thule’s dogs, but their pedigree can be traced even further back; in 2020, scientists officially tied their lineage to a 9,500-year-old Siberian sled dog, crowning the Greenlandic sled dog as the world’s oldest existing dog breed. As one of the last remaining breeds bred for the specific purposes of sledding and hunting, its genetic purity is fiercely protected. Purebred Greenlandic sled dogs are the only type of dog legally allowed north of the Arctic Circle and throughout East Greenland, and they aren’t allowed to re-enter if they leave these areas. Most recently, the biggest threat to the Greenlandic sled dog isn’t dilution of the breed—it’s their rapidly dwindling population. Warmer winters, increased costs of keeping sled dogs and the convenience of modern transportation vehicles like snowmobiles have put the island’s dog-sledding culture in jeopardy. In just 20 years, the Greenlandic sled dog population has been cut in half, down from 25,000 to only 13,000.

Tasiilaq Tours keeps a team of 13 dogs, though Poulsen estimates there are between 20 and 30 dog-sled teams on the nearly 300-square-mile Ammassalik Island. “Dog-sled tours are a way to keep the culture alive,” he says. Tasiilaq’s single- and multi-day dog-sledding tours whisk sledders across the crackling frozen fjords, rock-solid icy lakes and untamed landscapes of Ammassalik Island. The tour operator offers a two-hour trip inland to a stunning viewpoint at Qorlortoq Lake; a five-hour round-trip journey into the hills of the backcountry with a lunch break at a collection of local wilderness huts; and multi-day tours that visit remote settlements, overnight in heated huts and offer additional activities, from northern lights viewing to ice fishing or snowshoeing. Tasiilaq Tours is also launching a summertime dog-carting tour with stops to forage for berries, taste fresh water and sample dried fish (panertut).

Iceberg and glacier kayaking

Icebergs are a fundamental part of the Greenland experience—and there’s arguably no better way to get up close and personal than paddling around the ice on a kayak. Taking in floating icebergs and immense glaciers from the water level puts the size and magnitude of these incredible ice features into sharp perspective. “The kayak—or qajaq—is an Inuit invention—and what better way to experience Greenland than the traditional way,” says Nuuk-born ice enthusiast Aviaaja Schlüter.

West Greenland’s Ilulissat Icefjord, located more than 150 miles above the Arctic Circle, received designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 for its sheer number of icebergs. “The fjord is a liquid conveyor belt that transports the endless supply of ice produced by the Jakobshavn Glacier. The amount of ice coming down the fjord is a mind-boggling sight,” says Edward Shaw, a zoologist-turned-naturalist and polar guide. “At the mouth of the fjord, a shallow area traps the largest bergs and keeps even the smaller bits from escaping. As a result, the fjord is tightly packed with a jumble of ice.”

Also referred to as the Ilulissat Glacier and, in Greenlandic, Sermeq Kujalleq, the Jakobshavn Glacier sheds nearly 40 million tons worth of icebergs each year, releasing a total of 10 percent of all icebergs in Greenland into Ilulissat Icefjord. The Jakobshavn Glacier is one of the world’s fastest-moving, most productive and fastest-melting glaciers. Its meltwater contributes to roughly 4 percent of the overall rise in global sea levels.

Local operators offer iceberg kayaking excursions suitable for all levels, including day trips or multi-day adventures. When it comes to cruises, larger ships don’t have the same access as smaller, more nimble expedition-type ships, and they generally aren’t able to offer iceberg kayaking from the ship. Small and nimble expedition-type cruise ships with operators such as National Geographic-Lindblad Expeditions, Aurora Expeditions and Quark Expeditions almost always include conditions-permitting kayaking experiences, launching directly into the water from the ship, on their itineraries

Stepping foot on the Greenland ice sheet

Travelers still flying from Europe will have their first introduction to the magnificent expanse of the Greenland ice sheet from 30,000 feet. Most of the present-day ice sheet formed around 150,000 years ago, though deep-sea core samples suggest it has existed continuously for at least 18 million years, surviving two suspected periods of near ice-free warming. The 660,000-square-mile single ice mass is second in size only to the Antarctic ice sheet, which measures a staggering 5.4 million square miles. As the only two remaining ice sheets on the planet, they provide invaluable geological and climate data. Together, they hold over 68 percent of Earth’s freshwater.

“Tourists can access the Greenland ice sheet in a way that’s nearly impossible in Antarctica,” says Schlüter. “Most guests in Antarctica will be visiting the Antarctic Peninsula from expedition ships and won’t get the opportunity to set foot on the Antarctic ice sheet.” Drive-up access from Kangerlussuaq offers intrepid travelers the extremely rare chance to place foot to ground on a unique piece of living natural history. Visitors can walk around the deep crevasses, hike through a kaleidoscope of vivid green and blue ice, or even camp within the seemingly endless landscape of silence and ice.

Another option, near Ilulissat, is joining Glacier Lodge Eqi’s fairly demanding ten-hour hike to the ice sheet, which follows so closely in the footsteps of the French expeditions led by Paul-Émile Victor in the mid-1900s that it’s still possible to see some of the old equipment these explorers left behind. For the best of both worlds, Quark Expeditions raises the bar even higher, giving tourists a chance to appreciate the ice sheet’s full expanse from both the ground and the sky via a guided walk and a helicopter journey.

Visiting ancient Viking and Inuit settlement ruins

In Greenland, landscape and human history are deeply intertwined. “This is a very extreme environment, very much at the periphery of the habitable world, with roughly 80 percent of the island covered in ice,” says Peter Wilson, an archaeozoologist and polar guide. “And yet we have somewhere in the region of 4,500 years of human occupation—that we know of.”

Sermermiut is one of the most significant ancient Inuit settlements in Greenland. Excavations in the 20th century here helped trace Greenland’s cultural history back to the Saqqaq, proving the island had been settled 3,000 years earlier than originally thought. With its reliably prosperous location on the edge of the Ilulissat Icefjord, it was also one of the island’s longest continually inhabited Inuit settlements, standing out as one of the few known places occupied by all three of West Greenland’s Inuit cultures, until its abandonment around 1850.

Just behind the Ilulissat Icefjord Center, a wooden boardwalk leads into the Ilulissat World Heritage Site to Sermermiut. Less than a mile long, the wheelchair-accessible walk over the tundra ends with a dramatic view from the icefjord cliff edge, where it’s possible to spot the geological stratification of the area in a nearby low-lying cliff. Following the wooden stairs down leads to Nakkaavik, or “the place where you fall.” According to some Inuit oral traditions, this was a site where elderly or ill community members, particularly women, would sacrifice themselves during times of famine.

Finds at Sermermiut also show its Thule-era inhabitants had contact with the Vikings, who, led by exiled Norse explorer Erik the Red, first arrived in Greenland around 985 C.E. The Vikings were known to occupy areas in the west and southwest for around 350 years—until they mysteriously vanished. The last known communication from the settlements was received in 1408 and detailed a wedding that took place at a church in Hvalsey, in the Eastern Settlement. At the time, Hvalsey was the largest Norse settlement and a political and cultural hub.

Today, Hvalsey Church—very likely the same stone church mentioned in the letters—is famous for being the best-preserved Norse ruins in Greenland. Being able to walk around and touch the stone walls of the church is a thrilling and profound experience that directly ties visitors to the last records of Norse Greenlandic existence.

Observing adaptations of life in modern settlements

“All around the coast, even in the far north, you find evidence of hunting going from thousands of years ago up until recent times,” says Wilson. “Even today, in the modern settlements, you’ll often see hunters coming and going, with things like skins being dried on shore and people heading out to catch both terrestrial and marine mammals.”

In Ittoqqortoormiit, East Greenland’s northernmost settlement, locals still primarily survive by hunting seals, walrus and even polar bears for food and income. For a century, its few hundred residents have existed as a pinpoint surrounded by untamed wilderness and extreme conditions. The closest inhabited area is the town of Tasiilaq, over 500 miles away, and, for decades, the only way in or out of town was via a dog sled. (Now, it is also accessible by helicopter and expedition cruise.) This isolation has helped preserve the traditional Inuit culture and way of life, though, as is the case in many present-day settlements, technology is changing the approach.

“One thing I love about the towns is seeing very traditional ways of life blending with an otherwise modern existence,” Wilson says. In Ittoqqortoormiit, technology is often used as a tool to support traditional practices rather than replace them, and it’s common to see people using both dog sleds and snowmobiles, GPS navigation tools and electric freezers for storing catch and game. “It’s the very visible tradition of people surviving in a place that superficially seems so hostile to life.”

Whale and wildlife watching in the fjords

Nutrient-rich fjord systems like West Greenland’s Disko Bay and Northeast Greenland’s Franz Joseph Fjord and Scoresby Sound (the largest fjord system in the world) are prime locations for spotting wildlife. Summer is peak viewing season. The island’s harsh environment is a challenging place for wildlife to survive; fjords act as natural corridors and shelter for several Arctic species. The naturally sheltered inlets also provide calmer conditions for observation from boats and zodiacs.

Seals tend to lounge on ice floes, while the Arctic’s most iconic land mammals are often spotted within the tundra landscape along the edges of the fjord valleys. “The sharp-eyed traveler might see musk ox, Arctic foxes or Arctic hares,” says Shaw. Polar bears are a rare sight, but they are most commonly seen along the coast or among the sea ice in more remote, high Arctic areas in the northeast. Greenland has a diverse array of seabirds, including kittiwakes, guillemots, glaucous gulls and Arctic terns, that break the stillness in the air as they fly overhead near the steep cliffside. “If one is fortunate, it may be possible to glimpse the magnificent gyrfalcon, one of the largest falcons on the planet,” he says.

Up to 15 different whale species can be spotted throughout the season, including humpback, minke, fin and bowhead. While humpbacks prefer the fjords of West Greenland, minke and fin whales seem to enjoy the ice-free waters of South Greenland—and all three are present in the icy waters of East Greenland. Rarer sightings include orca, narwhal, sperm, beluga and blue whales. In Disko Bay, practically any boat tour offered within the area will give high chances of spotting whales—and capturing great pictures to boot. “You get great whales everywhere in Greenland, but Ilulissat is the best spot,” says Wilson. “What really makes it is the backdrop. Ilulissat produces enormous icebergs—the largest outside of Antarctica—and the whales are right amongst them.”

Tasting the Greenlandic way of life

Greenland’s local cuisine is a direct representation of the harsh Arctic climate, limited farm land, and the population’s enduring dependence on the land and wildlife.

Foraging for wild berries, roots and herbs is a key part of Greenland’s culinary identity, and hand-picked crowberries, lingonberries, juniper berries and dandelions are often made into jams, sauces, spices or schnapps. Whale, walrus, Arctic char, redfish, seal, musk ox and caribou are staple proteins, and many dishes, such as kiviak (fermented seabird in seal skin) and mattak (dried whale skin and meat), are preserved using techniques handed down over generations.

Arctic foraging tours pair Greenland’s ancient gathering traditions with the exploration of the island’s greener and more bountiful summer landscapes. Nomad Greenland offers immersive all-season tours near Nuuk, including mushroom foraging hikes, a late-summer berry picking walk and a unique coastal foraging kayak trip with a traditional open-fire kuisat preparation of the day’s seafood haul. Their two-hour seagull egg gathering, available for one week in June, allows participants to live out a true Greenlandic culinary tradition by tasting the foraged eggs alongside other dishes.

At the other end of the spectrum, Greenland’s modern dining scene explores the boundaries of Greenlandic cuisine while staying true to local sourcing and traditional preparation techniques. A couple places to look into on land include Oqaatsut’s Restaurant H8 Explorer, where contemporary dishes with musk ox, reindeer and local fish are served inside of a historic 1890s Royal Greenlandic Trade building, and the newly opened Restaurant Ulo, in Ilulissat, which features an extensive modern tasting menu and cocktails served over ice from the Greenland ice sheet. At sea, Quark offers a one-of-a-kind Tundra to Table chef’s table experience, on select Ultramarine sailings, delivered in partnership with Igapall, a Greenlandic culinary nonprofit and Inuit chef collective.

Visiting the world’s largest national park

“East Greenland is wild and remote. The further north you go, the more wild it becomes,” says Schlüter. Greenland doesn’t get more wild than Northeast Greenland National Park. Spanning 375,291 square miles, it’s the world’s largest national park and takes up nearly a quarter of the island. This is nature in its rawest form, where impossible scale and a near-impenetrable silence take over.

Fewer than 50 people live in the park (all conducting scientific or military business), and the closest inhabited area is over 400 miles away. Minimal human interference has preserved the park as a near-pristine example of Arctic wilderness. One of the largest protected natural areas in the world, it provides a refuge-like space for several land and marine Arctic wildlife species. It is home to Greenland’s highest populations of polar bears, walruses, muskoxen, seals and reindeer.

Intrepid travelers are welcomed with ice-choked fjords, gravel beaches, dramatic snow-streaked cliffs and mountains rising from sea to sky. On land, ice, rock, tundra and sky fill every inch of the frame. The inland ice sheet feeds rivers and steep valleys carved out over millions of years. “Lichens abound, as do a surprising variety of plants, all barely rising above the ground to eke out every ounce of protection from the harsh climate that is so predominant for much of the year,” says Shaw.

However, fewer than 500 people a year have the chance to experience this otherworldly place. A high Arctic location upwards of 76 degrees north, the park has nonexistent infrastructure and an extreme climate that make accessing it difficult. The only practical way for travelers to enter the park is as part of an expedition cruise on a polar-class ice-breaker ship and, even then, only in summer months when the fjord ice melts.

A 12-day cruise with National Geographic-Lindblad spends time exploring Northeast Greenland National Park. An Aurora Expeditions cruise sails down to the northeast Greenland coast from Svalbard, Norway, and attempts two zodiac landings per day, if possible. An 11-day cruise with Quark focuses on Scoresby Sound, a large fjord system in the Greenland Sea, plus opportunities to hike the park’s frozen tundra. Highlights of all three itineraries include conditions-permitting excursions, from wildlife and northern lights viewing on land and at sea to zodiac rides through the otherworldly landscapes of the fjords, and visits to Ittoqqortoormiit.

Experiencing modern city life and culture in Nuuk

Greenland’s capital city is home to over a third of the island’s total population. Nuuk’s approximately 20,000 residents are privy to infrastructure amenities not available elsewhere in Greenland, including traffic lights, some paved roads and a small public bus network. A robust coffee culture fuels the town, restaurants offer international cuisine, and an impressive collection of museums offer ways to experience culture in different forms.

Downtown Nuuk is easily walkable, and the two-hour Jewels of Nuuk guided walking tour is a good way to get acquainted with the city, while Tupilak Travel guides visitors to a local’s home to experience the local social tradition of kaffemik. For a self-guided option, the Nuuk art tour has stops at 19 of the city’s exhibitions and public artworks, including Mother of the Sea, a granite sculpture nestled in the rocks off Nuuk’s picturesque western coast. The piece by Greenlandic artist Aka Høegh depicts the Inuit goddess Sedna, who is crucial to the survival of the Inuit people as the creator and controller of the sea’s marine mammals.

The Katuaq cultural center keeps a finger on the pulse of Greenlandic culture with talks, film screenings, concerts and performances by local musicians, while the Nuuk Art Museum showcases over a thousand works from local and international artists. The art museum recently began offering a new on-request immersive experience called Tamassa, combining music, literature, visual art, food and dance. “The name translates to ‘Welcome’ and is an invitation to enter the artist’s universe,” says Hanne Kirkegaard, curator at the Nuuk Art Museum. “Over the course of three hours, guests are presented with three to five unique acts, each moment designed to stimulate the senses and enrich the appreciation of the culture of Greenland.”

Nuuk’s most famous residents can be found at the Greenland National Museum and Archives, where an engaging collection takes visitors on a deep dive through Greenland’s 4,500-year history—though the Qilakitsoq mummies are often the main draw. In 1972, the 500-year-old mummies were discovered in the Uummannaq region, over 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle, fully clothed with perfectly preserved features. Four of the eight mummies are on display, including a 6-month-old who is believed to have been buried alive. Viewing them puts a literal face on human history and offers a powerful, somber connection to the past.

Editors’ note, May 27, 2025: A previous version of this article misstated the area of the Greenland Ice Sheet; the error has been corrected.

Katherine Alex Beaven | Read More

Katherine Alex Beaven covers travel, culture and food and drink. Her work has appeared in Lonely Planet, Travel + Leisure, AFAR, Atlas Obscura, Fodor's Travel, Time Out, and more.