Must-See Tourist Sites in Greenland

Published on April 26, 2026 and written by Cyril Jarnias

For a long time a “white hole” on travelers’ maps, Greenland has now established itself as one of the last great wilderness areas on the planet. This immense Arctic island, more than 80% covered by an ice cap, combines monumental fjords, cathedral-like icebergs, tundra landscapes, colorful Inuit villages, and UNESCO-listed Viking heritage. Visiting this country with no roads between towns, where you travel by plane, boat, helicopter, or dog sled, means stepping out of your comfort zone to experience one of the most spectacular journeys imaginable.

Understanding Greenland Before You Go

Before diving into the destinations, it’s essential to grasp a few realities that entirely shape any trip there. Greenland is the world’s largest non-continental island, with a land area comparable to Mexico but the lowest population density on the planet. About 56,000 people live clustered on a largely ice-free coastal strip, especially in the south and west.

Politically, the territory is part of the Kingdom of Denmark while enjoying extensive internal autonomy. The capital Nuuk concentrates a good share of the population and services, but each region retains a very strong identity: a southern region that is agricultural and dotted with Norse ruins, a lively and relatively “urban” west, an extremely isolated east, and a north dominated by the vast Northeast Greenland National Park.

Another key fact: there are no roads or railways between towns. Travel is by propeller plane, helicopter, coastal ferries, speedboats, snowmobiles, or dog sleds. Weather conditions, which are highly changeable, can delay flights and maritime connections, so it’s essential to build in buffer days and book key connections well in advance.

With these constraints and advantages established, let’s look at the places that define a trip to Greenland.

Ilulissat and Its Icefjord: The Beating Heart of the Ice Planet

It’s hard to discuss Greenland’s must-see tourist sites without starting with Ilulissat and its icefjord, described by some scientists as “Ground Zero” for climate change. Located on the west coast, 250 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle, this small town is sandwiched between Disko Bay and the Ilulissat Icefjord, a 40-km fjord choked with giant icebergs from one of the most active glaciers in the Northern Hemisphere, Sermeq Kujalleq (Jakobshavn Isbræ).

A World Heritage Site Under the Open Sky

Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage site since 2004, the area meets two major criteria: the extraordinary beauty of the iceberg landscape and its scientific importance for understanding Earth’s climatic history. The glacier that feeds it moves 20 to 40 meters per day—a record speed at this scale—and each year discharges several tens of cubic kilometers of ice into the fjord, roughly 10% of Greenland’s total iceberg production.

To grasp the scale of this phenomenon, here are some key figures.

Beyond the numbers, the experience is first and foremost sensory: the deep rumble of calving blocks, the cracking of ice, the feeling of being minuscule at the foot of those white walls streaked with blue, ash, or dust trapped for thousands of years.

Hikes and Viewpoints: Sermermiut and the Icefjord Centre

Ilulissat has the advantage of offering relatively easy access to this extraordinary setting. From town, several marked trails run along the coast to the cliffs overlooking the fjord. A boardwalk leads to the archaeological site of Sermermiut, a former Inuit village occupied for nearly 4,500 years by different Arctic cultures. Along the way, stone piles, house remains, and graves recall this ancient bond between humans and ice.

The paths are marked with colored dots on the rocks, allowing hikers to choose a route that matches their level. Some short trails lead to promontories where you look out over a field of stationary icebergs. In winter, the fjord may partially freeze, creating a different geometry in the landscape.

Starting in 2025, access to the land area between the town and the fjord will require a modest entry fee, intended to fund site management. Footfall sensors have already been installed to track visitor numbers, which are constantly rising.

By Boat, Kayak, or Helicopter Amid the Icebergs

From Ilulissat’s harbor, highly maneuverable boats depart several times a day in summer. They weave between the ice giants, though keeping a safe distance to avoid waves caused by falling blocks. At night, in the full midnight sun, the low light transforms the icebergs into sculptures of gold and copper—an experience many describe as one of the greatest moments of their travel life.

For the more adventurous, treat yourself to a helicopter flight over Eqip Sermia glacier, north of Ilulissat, famous for its frequent calving. You can land there to hike on bare rock facing the ice front, or stay in a remote lodge with a direct view of this moving wall.

Town Life, Museum, and Logistics

Despite its extreme setting, Ilulissat is a human-scale town with restaurants, cafés, a museum dedicated to explorer Knud Rasmussen, and local shops. There is no city bus, but everything is easily walkable.

For access, the town is connected to Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq by Air Greenland, and to Reykjavík via direct flights on certain days. It’s advisable to spend at least four to five days here to absorb what the fjord and region have to offer, while allowing a buffer for flight delays due to weather.

Nuuk: A Showcase of Modern, Cultural, and Maritime Greenland

As the political and cultural capital, Nuuk presents a very different face from Ilulissat. More “urban,” with about 18,000 residents, buses, traffic lights, trendy cafés, and a cultural center, it serves as an ideal gateway to contemporary Greenland, while still being surrounded by steep mountains and deep fjord arms.

Museums, Art, and History Along the Fjord

Nuuk’s old harbor concentrates several major institutions. The Greenland National Museum, housed in former colonial buildings, traces 4,500 years of history through tools, cult objects, Viking artifacts, and especially the famous Qilakitsoq mummies—bodies of women and an infant perfectly preserved by the dry cold for five centuries. Walking through its rooms, you grasp the continuity and breaks of the various Inuit and Norse cultures that have succeeded each other on the island.

Alongside it, the statue of missionary Hans Egede recalls the introduction of Christianity in the 18th century, while a more recent bronze sculpture, “The Mother of the Sea” by artist Aka Høegh, rises from the water like a bridge between Inuit legends and contemporary art.

Description of Nuuk’s waterfront

Nuuk Art Museum brings together several hundred works—paintings, sculptures, installations—that provide insight into Greenlandic and Danish creativity. Katuaq Cultural Centre, with a design inspired by the Northern Lights and icebergs, serves as a lively venue for concerts, exhibitions, debates, and film screenings. It’s here that you best grasp the mix of Inuit roots, Nordic influences, and digital modernity running through society.

Fjords, Hiking, and Aurora at the Capital’s Doorstep

Nuuk is more than just an administrative capital. The city opens directly onto one of the country’s largest fjord systems. In just a few tens of minutes by boat with a local operator, you find yourself in near-virgin landscapes, where only a few small communities like Kapisillit—a village of about thirty people lost between mountains and deep waters—remain.

The mountains framing Nuuk, such as Quassussuaq or Lille Malene, are ideal for summer hiking and for snowshoeing or ski touring in winter. The trails offer spectacular viewpoints over the fjord, the city, and the distant ice cap. Nearby, some agencies even offer nights in a glass igloo to sleep “under” the aurora.

A Hub in Rapid Transformation

Since 2024, Nuuk Airport has become the country’s main international hub, gradually overtaking Kangerlussuaq. Starting in 2025, a direct summer route even connects Newark (USA) to the capital, greatly easing access for North American visitors. The expanded airport is meant to support a tourism boom that is already well underway: in 2023, Greenland welcomed about 36% more foreign visitors than in 2022, with tourism now playing a major role in the economy.

Nuuk is also an important embarkation port for numerous expedition cruises operated by specialized companies (HX/Hurtigruten, Quark, Ponant, among others), which sail along the coast or push into the remote fjords of the east and north.

Disko Bay, Disko Island, and Sisimiut: The Great Greenlandic West

Around Disko Bay on the west coast, you’ll find a true concentration of “postcard” landscapes: painted wooden houses set on rocks, sled dogs tied up outside homes, cod drying in the cold air, icebergs drifting slowly offshore. Several towns here rank among Greenland’s must-see tourist sites.

Disko Bay and Disko Island: Volcanoes, Whales, and Ice

Disko Bay is a vast marine basin fed by ice from the Ilulissat Icefjord, but also from glaciers further north. Here lies the small town of Qeqertarsuaq on Disko Island, once named “Godhavn” by the Danes for its excellent natural harbor.

The bay’s waters are among the richest in Greenland. Many cetaceans find food there in summer and early autumn: humpback whales, fin whales, minke whales, and further north and in winter, bowhead whales and belugas. The period from July to September is particularly favorable for boat-based whale watching.

Sisimiut: A Hub for Hiking and Adventure

The country’s second-largest town, Sisimiut lies just north of the Arctic Circle. It’s a former fishing village that has become an outdoor activities hub. Its museum traces 4,500 years of human occupation in the area. The surroundings are great for summer hiking on the heights overlooking the sea, and in winter for snowmobile or dog sled expeditions.

The Sisimiut region also hosts in April a festival like Arctic Sounds, focused on contemporary music, attracting local and Nordic artists.

Kangerlussuaq: Gateway to the Ice Cap and the Aurora

A former U.S. military base turned major airport, Kangerlussuaq penetrates more than 160 km inland. Its advantage for travelers: a more stable climate than the coast and a unique proximity to the edge of the ice cap. A drivable road leads to a spot called “Point 660,” at 660 meters elevation, where you can literally set foot on the inland ice—an ice sheet covering more than 80% of the country.

The area around Kangerlussuaq is a vast tundra dotted with lakes, where musk oxen, reindeer, Arctic hares graze and where foxes and sea eagles hunt. In winter, the region is regularly illuminated by the Northern Lights: the purity of the air and the frequency of clear nights make it one of the most reliable spots to observe this phenomenon.

Southern Greenland: Sheep Farms, Viking Heritage, and Green Fjords

The south is often called, not without humor, Greenland’s “Banana Coast.” Not because tropical fruits grow there, but because temperatures are the mildest in the country, with summers occasionally reaching 20°C. Glaciers recede enough to give way to meadows, sheep pastures, some crops, and above all an exceptional concentration of Norse remains. Part of this region, called “Kujataa Greenland,” is a UNESCO World Heritage site as a Norse-Inuit agropastoral landscape.

Qaqortoq, Narsaq, Narsarsuaq: Small Towns, Big Fjords

Qaqortoq, the largest town in the south with about 3,000 inhabitants, charms with its colorful houses scattered around a deep harbor and a human-scale center perfect for walking. An open-air museum features sculptures carved into the rocks, while the local museum and church recall colonial history.

Qassiarsuk, Igaliku, Hvalsey: In the Footsteps of the Vikings

Southern Greenland is where Erik the Red, exiled from Iceland, founded the settlement of Brattahlid (today’s Qassiarsuk) at the end of the 10th century. You can see a reconstruction of his farm and the church of his wife Thorhildur, considered one of the first Christian buildings on the American continent. Around it stretches a gentle landscape of hills, pastures, and fjords where sheep still graze.

From Qassiarsuk, a few-hour trail leads to Igaliku, the former Norse episcopal seat known as Gardar. Here you find the ruins of a medieval cathedral and the remains of an ingenious irrigation system a thousand years old. The village itself—a handful of houses by the water—is often cited as one of Greenland’s prettiest.

To summarize the main cultural sites of the south that have become must-sees, here is a table.

Uunartoq and the Ice Fjords: The Surprising Marriage of Hot and Cold

Between Qaqortoq and Nanortalik, the island of Uunartoq, literally “the warm place,” harbors natural hot springs where the water stays at 36–38°C year-round. Here you bathe outdoors in rudimentary pools while watching icebergs drift by in the neighboring fjord—a very unique experience in a country known for its extreme winters.

Nearby, other fjords like Qaleraliq or Tasermiut offer spectacular views of glacier fronts plunging into the sea. Semi-permanent camps allow you to immerse yourself for several days in these landscapes of jagged granite, popular with hikers and climbers.

East Greenland: Isolation, Great Walls of Ice, and Inuit Culture

East Greenland is one of the most isolated areas in the Northern Hemisphere, even by Greenlandic standards. Few villages, sharp reliefs, glaciers descending almost to the sea, a harsher climate, and an Inuit culture (Tunumiit) that has preserved distinct traits.

Tasiilaq, Kulusuk, and the Sermilik Fjords

Tasiilaq, on Ammassalik Island, is the main town of the east, with about 2,000 inhabitants. Squeezed into a bay surrounded by mountains, it serves as a base for numerous excursions: kayaking among icebergs, hiking in the “Valley of Flowers” behind town, stays in hunter’s cabins, and visits to neighboring villages.

The Sermilik fjord, one of the most famous in the region, accumulates an impressive density of icebergs from inland glaciers. Small hamlets like Tiniteqilaaq and Sermiliqaq, with at most a few hundred inhabitants, cling to its shores and still live mainly from fishing and hunting. Here you truly understand what it means to inhabit a space where sea ice and glacial movements determine everything.

Extreme Wilderness and Major Expeditions

Further north, Ittoqqortoormiit, a cluster of a few hundred people, marks practically the last permanent settlement before the vast Northeast Greenland National Park.

It’s also in this region that the Scoresby Sund fjord system unfolds, considered the largest in the world. Its water arms plunge deep into mountain massifs carved by glaciers, offering a landscape that few travelers have the chance to behold.

In this area as in the east generally, the presence of specialized operators and highly experienced guides is not a luxury but a necessity. Between polar bears, drifting ice, brutal weather, and isolation, adventure is not a metaphor.

The Far North and Uummannaq: Land of the Perpetual Midnight Sun

Heading north of Disko Bay, Greenland becomes harsher, more mineral, more sparsely populated. Here lie places like Uummannaq, Qaanaaq, and Siorapaluk, one of the northernmost communities in the world, located more than 700 nautical miles from the North Pole.

Uummannaq: Heart-Shaped Mountain and Christmas Legends

Uummannaq is known for its iconic mountain, a heart-shaped peak looming over a small string of houses and public buildings squeezed onto a rocky island. The surrounding landscape, sometimes described as an “Arctic desert,” is anything but empty: gigantic icebergs, seasonal sea ice, complex reliefs.

Qaanaaq, Siorapaluk, and the Deep Thule Region

Even further north, in the Thule region, Qaanaaq and Siorapaluk represent the last outposts of settlement. A handful of inhabitants maintain a culture of seal and walrus hunting, in an environment where the polar night lasts several months and where the midnight sun in summer never sets for a long period.

These places are not for a first-time visitor to Greenland, but they will fascinate those seeking contact with the margins of the inhabited world and who accept the logistical and physical challenges that entails.

Cruises and Coastal Exploration: Another Way to See Greenland

Given the lack of roads between towns and the difficulty of reaching certain areas, expedition cruises play a central role in discovering Greenland’s must-see tourist sites. Many specialized companies, including historical polar operators, have developed itineraries on relatively small ships (often between 100 and 200 passengers) capable of navigating narrow fjords and making zodiac landings.

Varied Itineraries, from West to East

Many cruises start or end at Reykjavík, Kangerlussuaq, or Nuuk, and explore the west coast from Disko Bay down to the south, or even continue east through straits like the Prins Christian Sund, a spectacular corridor lined with rock walls and glaciers. Others focus on the wilder eastern side, targeting Scoresby Sund, the Blosseville Coast, or the Ammassalik fjords.

Advantages and Limitations of Cruising

On a practical level, these trips allow you to reach sites that would be nearly impossible to combine in a single land-based journey. They also add the dimension of continuous movement through the landscape, which in Greenland is almost as spectacular as the stops themselves.

When and How to Best Enjoy the Must-See Sites

All these places are not discovered under the same conditions or in the same seasons. To get your bearings, it’s helpful to cross-reference season, region, and featured activities.

For the most popular sites—Ilulissat, Nuuk, Disko Bay, Qaqortoq, and the Viking South—it is strongly recommended to book flights, accommodations, and excursions well in advance, especially for summer. Greenland is an expensive country due to import costs, wages, and limited infrastructure; choosing “shoulder season” periods (June or late August–September) can lighten the bill a bit without sacrificing too much of the experience.

Beyond the Landscapes: Inuit Culture, Sled Dogs, and Daily Life

Marveling at an iceberg-filled fjord is one thing; understanding how people live, work, and pass on their traditions in these landscapes is another. Greenland’s must-see tourist sites are not just dots on a map: they are also the villages, markets, small churches, artisan workshops, and dog sled kennels you discover along the way.

Sled Dogs, a Tradition to Preserve

North of the Arctic Circle and in the east, the sled dog remains a pillar of local identity, even though snowmobiles have largely taken over. The Greenland dog, a pure breed protected by law (no other breed can be introduced north of the Arctic Circle or in the east), is adapted to temperatures that can drop to -57°C. It is a working pack animal, more prone to howling than barking.

Museums, Cafés, and Kaffemik: Meeting Greenlanders

Almost every medium-sized town has its own museum, often housed in an old colonial building. In Qasigiannguit, for instance, one of the country’s oldest wooden buildings houses a history and archaeology museum. In Aasiaat, the former residence of a Danish administrator was turned into a museum, with the added bonus of paintings donated by artist Per Kirkeby during his stay.

With a bit of luck or through a local guide, you might be invited to a kaffemik, a home reception where people come for coffee, cakes, and homemade dishes to celebrate a birthday, confirmation, or family event. It’s here that the curious traveler best understands how Inuit traditions and modern life intertwine.

A Demanding Journey, but One of Rare Richness

Greenland’s must-see tourist sites—from the icy fjord of Ilulissat to the Viking ruins of the south, from the wild fjords of the east to the lively capital of Nuuk, from the ultimate northern villages to the white heart of the ice cap—all share the requirement of a certain preparation and real flexibility from the visitor. The climate does not bend to itineraries, logistics grow complicated with the first fog, and costs are higher than elsewhere.

Preparing your trip with local operators, accepting the idea of flexible itineraries, taking time in each place rather than trying to see everything in a few days, learning a few words of Greenlandic to say hello or thank you: these are keys to making Greenland’s great sites more than a simple checklist. For here, more than anywhere else, the essential lies in the long duration, the silence of the fjords, the breath of dogs on the snow, the crack of an iceberg turning over, or the green glow of an aurora reflecting on the black sea.

Cyril Jarnias

Cyril Jarnias is an independent expert in international wealth management with over 20 years of experience. As an expatriate himself, he is dedicated to helping individuals and business leaders build, protect, and pass on their wealth with complete peace of mind.

On his website, cyriljarnias.com, he shares his expertise on international real estate, offshore company formation, and expatriation.

Thanks to his expertise, he offers sound advice to optimize his clients' wealth management. Cyril Jarnias is also recognized for his appearances in many prestigious media outlets such as BFM Business, les Français de l’étranger, Le Figaro, Les Echos, and Mieux vivre votre argent, where he shares his knowledge and know-how in wealth management.

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