Iceland & Greenland East Greenland
The empty side of Greenland: Scoresby Sund, the largest fjord system on Earth, and the mountain-ringed settlements of Tasiilaq and Kulusuk — expedition country.
West Greenland: things to see
Six reasons to go to Disko Bay, and one to pause in the capital.
1. Ilulissat Icefjord
Kangia, the icefjord, is packed from wall to wall with ice calved from Sermeq Kujalleq, a glacier that drains a significant share of the Greenland ice sheet. Bergs more than a hundred metres high above the water ground at the fjord mouth. Boat trips sail along this wall of ice in about two and a half hours; evening and midnight departures have the best light.
2. Sermermiut and the icefjord trails
A wooden boardwalk leads from the edge of town in about 1.5 km to Sermermiut, a grassy valley where Inuit peoples lived for some 4,000 years, and on to a rocky viewpoint over the ice. Three colour-coded trails continue along the fjord: yellow (short), blue (about 7 km) and red. They are free, well marked and unforgettable.
3. Ilulissat town and the Icefjord Centre
The Icefjord Centre, a curved timber building at the start of the boardwalk opened in 2021, explains the ice and the people who have lived beside it. In town, the birthplace of the polar explorer Knud Rasmussen is a museum, the black-timbered Zion Church faces the bay, and fishing boats unload halibut at the harbour.
4. Eqi glacier
About 80 km north of Ilulissat, Eqip Sermia ends in a calving front several kilometres wide. Boats stop at a safe distance and wait for ice to fall with a crack like thunder. It is a long day on the water through berg-filled channels; some travellers stay overnight in the lodge facing the glacier.
5. Disko Island
The big island across the bay is geologically different from the mainland: flat-topped basalt mountains, black sand, hot springs and, above the village of Qeqertarsuaq, a small ice cap where dog sledding is possible even in summer. It is reached by passenger boat in a couple of hours when ice allows.
6. Sled dogs and winter travel
North of the Arctic Circle the Greenland dog is still a working animal, kept in thousands on the outskirts of Ilulissat. From about February to April, when the land and sea ice are firm, mushers take visitors out for a few hours or on overnight trips. The dogs are not pets: never approach chained adults.
7. Nuuk
Greenland’s capital, with about 20,000 people, mixes coloured wooden houses, apartment blocks and striking modern buildings. See the colonial harbour, the Greenland National Museum with its fifteenth-century mummies from Qilakitsoq, the Katuaq cultural centre and the view to Sermitsiaq mountain; boat trips explore the vast fjord behind the city.
Destinations
Combine it with
Iceland & Greenland 
Iceland & Greenland North Iceland
Iceland’s Arctic coast: whale watching from Húsavík and Akureyri, Lake Mývatn’s volcanic landscapes, Dettifoss, and Grímsey, the island the Arctic Circle runs through.
Arctic North America Arctic Canada
Nunavut, the Northwest Passage and the road to Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea: Inuit homelands, narwhals and polar bears across a third of the Arctic coastline.
Plan your trip
Book tours in Nuuk, Greenland’s gateway
Compare real-time prices and availability on GetYourGuide. Most tours can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours ahead.