Greenland: Nuuk, Ilulissat and the Icefjord

1. Day 1: Arrive in Nuuk

   Nuuk airport to your hotel, then on foot to the colonial harbour

   • Drive about 15 min
   • Welcome dinner
   • Stay in Nuuk
   Day 1 details

   Fly into Nuuk, Greenland's capital, usually through Copenhagen or Iceland; flight times vary by season and airline, so we check the schedule for your dates and confirm the latest arrival that still makes the evening walk. Nuuk's longer runway opened in late 2024, so jets now land a few minutes from the centre, and a driver meets you outside the small terminal. After check-in, your See Sight Tours guide walks the group down to Kolonihavnen, the colonial harbour where the town began in 1728: the red wooden cathedral, the Hans Egede House, the missionary's statue on the hill above and, if the tide is low, the Mother of the Sea sculpture at the water's edge. Nuuk is a city of just under 20,000 people, with apartment blocks, cafés and the Katuaq cultural centre, set against the peak of Sermitsiaq across the fjord. We finish with a short briefing on the week, the weather and the flights, then sit down together to a welcome dinner of local fish and lamb.

   Included

   • Pick-up at Nuuk airport (GOH)
   • Walk through old Nuuk with your guide: Kolonihavnen, the cathedral, the Hans Egede House and statue
   • Welcome briefing
   • Welcome dinner

   Free time: Free between check-in and the late-afternoon walk

   Activity: About 2 km on foot on pavement and gravel, with one short climb to the Hans Egede statue.

   

2. Day 2: The National Museum and Nuuk fjord by boat

   Nuuk, then by boat into Nuup Kangerlua and back

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Nuuk
   Day 2 details

   A gentle morning on foot. The Greenland National Museum sits by the old harbour, and its best-known room holds the Qilakitsoq mummies: six women and two children buried around 1475 near Uummannaq and discovered in 1972, their sealskin clothing still intact. Your guide takes you through the kayaks, hunting tools and Norse finds that tell the story of four thousand years of people on this coast. After a sit-down lunch in town we board a local boat for an afternoon on Nuup Kangerlua, the fjord system that reaches well over 100 km inland behind the city. Humpback whales feed here in summer, and seals haul out on the skerries. Where the skipper can land, we step ashore at an old settlement site and walk the tundra for a while. If the morning forecast is calmer than the afternoon, we swap the order. Back in Nuuk by early evening, with the light still high and dinner wherever you choose.

   Included

   • Greenland National Museum with your guide, including the Qilakitsoq mummies
   • Sit-down lunch in Nuuk
   • Afternoon boat trip on Nuuk fjord (Nuup Kangerlua), with a landing where conditions allow

   Optional experiences

   • Nuuk Art Museum on your own (small entry fee)

   Free time: Evening free in Nuuk

   Activity: About 3 to 4 hours on the water; the boat has a covered cabin. Whales are likely in summer but never certain.

   

3. Day 3: Fly north to Ilulissat and a kaffemik

   Nuuk to Ilulissat by domestic flight, then on foot through town

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Breakfast
   • Stay in Ilulissat
   Day 3 details

   A late-morning flight north: about 1.5 hours when nonstop, longer when the schedule routes it through Kangerlussuaq. The planes are small turboprops, so take a window seat: you cross the Arctic Circle over a coast of fjords and the edge of the ice sheet, and the last minutes come in over Disko Bay with icebergs below. Ilulissat lies about 300 km north of the Arctic Circle; its name means icebergs in Greenlandic. After check-in your guide walks the group through town: the harbour, crowded with fishing boats and drifting ice, Zion's Church from 1779, and the house where the polar explorer Knud Rasmussen was born, now the town museum. Sled dogs rest on the rocks at the edge of town in summer. In the late afternoon a local family welcomes us into their home for a kaffemik, the Greenlandic open house, with coffee, cake and conversation. If weather delays the flight, we wait with you, and the Ilulissat days are reordered so nothing is lost.

   Included

   • Domestic flight from Nuuk to Ilulissat, with transfers at both ends
   • Walk through Ilulissat with your guide: the harbour, Zion's Church and the Knud Rasmussen birthplace museum
   • Kaffemik with a local family

   Free time: Evening free in Ilulissat

   Activity: Flight times depend on the domestic schedule for your date and are confirmed with your final itinerary. About 2 km on foot, on paved and gravel streets with short hills.

   

4. Day 4: The Icefjord on foot and an evening among icebergs

   Ilulissat to the Icefjord Centre, Sermermiut and Holms Bakke, then an evening boat at the fjord mouth

   • Drive about 6 min
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ilulissat
   Day 4 details

   We set out early on the boardwalk that starts beside the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre at the edge of town. The trails are open at all hours, so we are at the fjord before cruise-ship shore parties arrive on the days a ship is in. The boardwalk runs through the Sermermiut valley to the edge of the Icefjord, UNESCO-listed since 2004, where icebergs calved from Sermeq Kujalleq, a glacier whose front moves tens of metres a day, jam the fjord mouth. Your guide shows you the turf-house hollows of Sermermiut, lived in on and off for some 4,000 years, then leads the yellow trail along the rocks to the Holms Bakke viewpoint, about 2.7 km. Back at the centre once it has opened, the exhibition explains how the glacier and the ice sheet work. Lunch is in town, and the afternoon is free to rest. In the evening we take a boat out among the icebergs at the mouth of the fjord, about two hours on the water in low, gold light; in June and July the sun does not set at all.

   Included

   • The boardwalk to Sermermiut and the Icefjord edge with your guide, early in the morning
   • Yellow trail to the Holms Bakke viewpoint
   • Ilulissat Icefjord Centre exhibition, after the walk
   • Sit-down lunch in Ilulissat
   • Evening iceberg cruise at the mouth of the Icefjord

   Optional experiences

   • Evening sea kayaking among the icebergs with a local outfitter (price shown at booking)

   Easier option: Walk the boardwalk to the Icefjord edge and back, about 1.5 km each way on wooden decking, and skip the rocky yellow trail.

   More active option: Take the longer blue trail, about 7 km over rock and tundra along the fjord, with a local hiking guide.

   Free time: Afternoon free

   Activity: The yellow trail crosses bare rock with painted markers and short steep sections; good walking shoes are needed. Expect cool wind at the fjord edge even in July.

   

5. Day 5: Eqi glacier by boat

   Ilulissat north by boat along Disko Bay to the Eqi glacier front and back

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ilulissat
   Day 5 details

   The long day of the trip, and the only early start: we board around 8 am for the boat north to Eqi, one of the most active calving glaciers in West Greenland, about three to three and a half hours each way. The route runs up the coast past headlands, small islands and drifting ice, and whales are often seen on the way. At the glacier the skipper stops at a safe distance from an ice front several kilometres wide, and we spend about two hours watching and listening: the ice cracks like gunshots, and pieces the size of houses fall into the sea and send a slow swell rolling past the boat. Lunch is served with the glacier in view. The boat has a heated cabin and an open deck, so you can move between the two all day. We are back in Ilulissat in the early evening, with dinner on your own and the rest of the light to enjoy.

   Included

   • Full-day boat trip to the Eqi glacier with lunch in view of the ice front

   Easier option: This day is mostly seated. If you would rather not spend 10 hours on a boat, or the forecast is rough and you are prone to seasickness, stay in Ilulissat for a free day. Tell us at booking and we will try to swap the seat for a shorter local outing; whether that is possible, or any refund, depends on the boat operator's terms, which we confirm before you pay.

   Free time: Evening free

   Activity: About 10 to 11 hours door to door, most of it seated. Open water can be choppy, so bring seasickness tablets if you need them, plus a warm hat, gloves and a windproof layer for the deck.

6. Day 6: Ilimanaq, a settlement across the Icefjord

   Ilulissat to Ilimanaq by boat, past the icebergs grounded at the fjord mouth, and back

   • By boat
   • Breakfast and lunch
   • Stay in Ilulissat
   Day 6 details

   A mid-morning boat south to Ilimanaq, about 45 minutes to an hour, crossing the mouth of the Icefjord where the largest icebergs ground on the shallow bank before they break free into Disko Bay. Ilimanaq is a settlement of about 50 people, one of the oldest trading posts on this coast, with colonial-era houses that have been restored, a small church and a few dozen homes facing the ice. A local guide walks us through the village and talks about life in a place with no road, no car and a supply boat for a lifeline: fishing, hunting seal, and winters when the bay freezes. We have lunch in the settlement, then a short walk up onto the tundra above the village for the view back across to Ilulissat. The boat returns by mid-afternoon, leaving the rest of the day and your last Ilulissat evening free.

   Included

   • Boat trip to Ilimanaq and back, through the icebergs at the Icefjord mouth
   • Walk through the settlement with a local guide
   • Lunch in Ilimanaq

   Optional experiences

   • Flightseeing over the Icefjord and the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier front, by small plane or helicopter (price shown at booking)
   • Whale-watching boat from Ilulissat in the late afternoon (price shown at booking)
   • Sled dog kennel visit in Ilulissat

   Easier option: Stay in the village for the afternoon walk instead of climbing onto the tundra.

   More active option: A longer guided tundra walk above Ilimanaq, about 4 to 5 km, with views over the Icefjord mouth.

   Free time: Late afternoon and evening free

   Activity: About 2 to 4 km on foot on gravel paths and rough tundra.

7. Day 7: Back to Nuuk for the last night

   Ilulissat to Nuuk by domestic flight

   • Drive about 18 min
   • Breakfast and dinner
   • Stay in Nuuk
   Day 7 details

   A last walk to the water before breakfast if you are up early, then the flight back south to Nuuk, about an hour and a half nonstop. We fly back today rather than on the morning of your international flight for one reason: weather. Fog and wind can hold the small planes in Disko Bay for hours or, now and then, a day, and a night in Nuuk means a delay here costs you an afternoon, not your flight home. Once we land, the afternoon is free. You might visit the Nuuk Art Museum, walk the shore path past the colourful houses at the edge of town, or look for Greenlandic design and sealskin in the shops of the centre. In the evening the group meets for a farewell dinner, a last chance to taste Greenlandic dishes such as halibut, musk ox and snow crab and to swap photos of the week's ice.

   Included

   • Domestic flight from Ilulissat to Nuuk, with transfers at both ends
   • Farewell dinner in Nuuk

   Optional experiences

   • Nuuk Art Museum (small entry fee)

   Free time: Afternoon free in Nuuk

   Activity: If the flight is delayed, your guide stays with the group and rearranges the evening; the farewell dinner moves, the flight home does not.

   

8. Day 8: Fly home from Nuuk

   Your Nuuk hotel to Nuuk airport

   • Drive about 12 min
   • Breakfast
   Day 8 details

   Breakfast, a last look at Sermitsiaq across the water, and a transfer to Nuuk airport, a few minutes from the centre, for your flight to Copenhagen, Iceland or onward. Your guide sees the group off and checks that flights are on time. Because we returned from Ilulissat yesterday, there is no domestic connection to worry about today. Most travellers from North America connect through Copenhagen or Iceland; if you want to add time in either city, or continue on our Iceland Ring Road trip, ask us when you book and we can plan the dates around this one. Greenland in summer books up early, so extra hotel nights in Nuuk should be requested well ahead. Book an international flight leaving after about 11 am, or tell us your flight before you buy it and we will check the timing. The trip ends at the airport after breakfast.

   Included

   • Drop-off at Nuuk airport (GOH)

   Activity: Book a flight leaving Nuuk after about 11 am.

Wildlife and weather: Summer days run from about 5 to 12°C in Ilulissat and are often bright, but fog and wind change plans; the boat days are reordered around them. Humpback whales feed in Disko Bay and Nuuk fjord from about June to September, and midges are worst in July.

• Nuuk2 nights
• Ilulissat4 nights
• Nuuk1 night