Greenland! As the name rolls off the tongue, images of lush green meadows, flower gardens and hay growing in fields comes to mind with many people around the world. Looking at a world map, though, Greenland is anything but green. In fact it seems mostly white and with hardly any land at all, only ice, miles and miles of it, and it covers the country. Nobody can live on something like that, right? Or can they?
We certainly can. And we are fiercely patriotic on a very local level. Everyone feels their city or town is the best one in Greenland and local guides will be more than happy to share their knowledge with you of their town, its history, its people stories, its out-of the-way places, its quirks and other things only locals know about.
“The guide we had was just wonderful. She took us to see her dogs, and we played with the puppies!”
Guided town tours in Greenland
In some cities and towns you walk around, in others they offer rides in cars or on buses, and in most towns throughout the country historical walks, town highlights, visits with local families, museum exhibitions, everyday street life are central local tour elements.
And if more serious hiking and a trip outside the limits appeals to you, then we have hills and mountains in abundance. After some huffing, puffing and sweating going up a mountainside, you will most likely end up agreeing with your guide that the view from the top is second-to-none and well worth the effort.
Guided tours by air and sea
From a mountain top you will most certainly see fjords and the sea, and local boat owners offer a number of ways to experience Greenland from the water once you are back at sea level.
Whale watching is a popular experience, with humpback whales as the most frequent guests near a boat, and your guide usually knows about hot spots for finding whales. But boat tours are also a great way to access the vast backcountry neighboring every town in the country.
With no roads linking up any of our cities or towns, the waters along our shorelines are our highways, and for centuries this is how people travelled in order to get from one place to another.
With a place as big as Greenland there is really no better substitute for a full perspective than flightseeing in either helicopters or small fixed wing planes with pilots who know every valley and peak in the area.
To hover right over mountain peaks, to dive down through valleys and fjords, flying over glaciers and along the rim of the mighty Greenland Ice Sheet, and to even spot herds of musk oxen in a few select locations, is a worthy way to experience Greenland.
Ice and winter guides in Greenland
If ice and snow is what you came for, then a place like Kangerlussuaq offers tours right out onto the Ice Cap itself. Layers of snow, falling every winter as it has for thousands of years, press down on each other to form the immense expanse of ice that nearly covers the country.
And the ice is not a static “dead” thing, but quite active – moaning and groaning as huge chunks come crashing down along its sides. Out there you are best served by the experienced local ice guides who can put ice movements and global warming into context while taking you safely out onto the Ice Sheet itself.
The same kind of activity-shaped experts are part of the dogsledding and snowmobiling communities in both East and West Greenland, and local dogsledding guides are often seasoned hunters, while snowmobiling drivers have extensive knowledge and experience from thousands of miles of exploring the backcountry.
