Greenland is currently making headlines, much to the chagrin of Greenlanders. U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambition to seize this island, an autonomous territory of Denmark, a NATO founding member, has turned global attention to a corner of the planet they probably hadn’t considered before, or to Wikipedia or AI tools, to find out who lives on that enormous white patch in a corner of the American continent, and how.
Greenland is one of the most unique tourist destinations in the Northern Hemisphere. A place that fascinates me, one I’ve visited countless times, and where I learned to love the white deserts, the vast, empty, icy spaces, and a way of life that remains deeply rooted in tradition and a harsh environment, which only the Inuit have managed to master and make their home.
Furthermore, although it might sound like a remote adventure, Greenland isn’t that far from Europe. It’s just a five-hour direct flight from Copenhagen, or two hours from Reykjavik with a layover in Iceland, which has daily flights from Spain at incredibly low prices. It’s an adventure, therefore, accessible to the general public without needing to be equipped like a polar explorer, especially on the south and west coasts, which are more populated and developed due to the climate. However, forget about traveling independently. There isn’t a single road connecting two towns, and the only way to get around is by helicopter, boat, or snowmobile in winter. It’s the kind of destination best explored through a specialized agency with local infrastructure for accommodation and transportation.
Until very recently, the gateway to this affordable Greenland was two airstrips built by the U.S. Army during World War II for its bombers, later converted into the island’s only two international airports: Narsarsuaq in the south and Kargelussuaq in the west. Then, on November 28, 2024, the new international airport in Nuuk, the capital, opened — a milestone in local history that marked a turning point because, for the first time, Nuuk could receive direct flights from large commercial aircraft (such as the Airbus A330-800neo operated by Air Greenland) from Europe and North America, without having to stop at the former military base in Kargelussuaq. The project cost five billion Danish kroner (roughly $790 million) and was financed primarily by Denmark.
I always arrive, and I still like to, through Narsasuaq airport, because it provides access to the vast south and because the moment you set foot on the ground, it immediately sets the scene: there’s nothing but the black ribbon of asphalt, some fuel depots, a hotel, a few old barracks, and a supermarket that sells everything from chocolate to rifles. All of this in the middle of a landscape with endless horizons, devoid of trees, and with the first icebergs floating in the neighboring fjord. Quite a statement of intent to begin the adventure.
From Narsarsuaq, you cross the Erik Fjord by inflatable boat to Qassiarsuk, a typical Greenlandic village. It’s nothing more than a handful of houses painted in the colors of a board game, scattered haphazardly at the foot of a bay, with barely a hundred inhabitants dedicated to fishing and livestock farming. They are Inuit, which in the local language means “the people.” Foreigners call them Eskimos, but for them it’s an offensive name because it translates as “eaters of raw meat.”
Qassiarsuk is an essential stop on any trip to Greenland because it bears the marks of the Vikings, the first Europeans to set foot on the island. They arrived around the year 1000 AD, following Erik the Red, the chief of a clan in Iceland who had been banished by the island’s parliament. Erik sailed his longship westward and encountered an island experiencing a period of warming, allowing pastureland to grow for livestock along its southern coasts. These Icelandic Vikings founded their first settlement here. They called it Brattahlíð and remained there for almost 400 years.
In 2000, to commemorate the millennium of the Vikings’ arrival in Greenland, the large black statue that overlooks Qassiarsuk from atop a rocky outcrop was erected. It depicts Leif Erikson, son of Erik, who, aboard sailing and rowing ships, reached the shores of Newfoundland, Canada, with his followers. He and his men were, in fact, the first Europeans to “discover” the American continent. One of their houses was also reconstructed and opened to the public as an Ethnographic Museum, along with the small church that Leif Erikson built for his wife. Since Greenland geographically belongs to the American continent, this church would be the first Christian church in the Americas, predating those built by the Spanish conquistadors in South America by 500 years.
Exploring the South
Qassiarsuk is a good base for exploring the south. Don’t miss Igaliku, the most picturesque village. It was here that the first Christian bishop of Viking Greenland resided, arriving in 1126 from Norway. This event is commemorated in the small museum housed in the church. Visitors can also see the ruins of what was the island’s first cathedral and the adjoining bishop’s residence.
Also worth visiting is Tasiusaq, a farm tucked away in a bend of the Sermilik Fjord, a two-hour walk from Qassiarsuk. The Eqalorutsit Glacier, one of the most active in the south of the island, flows into this fjord, calving hundreds of icebergs into the sea each spring, which drift past Tasiusaq. From here, you can take a kayak excursion, paddling among large blocks of ice that sometimes block even these small boats. Don’t miss the Qooroq Glacier, with its impressive ice front — though it is clearly retreating.
From Narsarsuaq, you can take a boat that serves as public transport to Narsaq, which, with about 1,700 inhabitants, is one of the largest towns in the far south. The village of small, single-story houses with gabled roofs, painted in vibrant colors and scattered unevenly across the plain at the foot of the great Kvanefjeld mountain, contrasts sharply with the white icebergs that are stranded in the fjord and sometimes even block access to the harbor. In spring, extensive green pastures grow on the plain where Narsaq is located, supporting several livestock farms. It is Greenland’s meat supplier.
Although the jewel of southern Greenland’s natural beauty is Tasermiut Fjord. A narrow, 70-kilometer-long inlet that was covered by a glacier thousands of years ago, with no trace of human life inside and flanked by enormous black rock towers and sheer vertical walls up to 1,500 meters high, it’s an almost surreal landscape of breathtaking natural beauty and some of the island’s most stunning scenery. It can be explored by boat and kayak. Tasermiut is accessed from Nanortalik, which is about a six-hour boat ride from Narsarsuaq or just 20 minutes by helicopter.
Nuuk, the capital, is on the west coast, the most-populated and most affordable part of the island. Despite being called the capital, it’s only slightly larger than other towns, with around 20,000 inhabitants (36% of the total population) and home to the only two sets of traffic lights on an island twice the size of Spain. A visit to the National Museum is highly recommended; it offers an excellent ethnographic display about the history of the island and the Inuit people.
The third-largest town (population 4,500) and the main tourist attraction on the west coast is Ilulissat, in Disko Bay, 560 kilometers north of Nuuk. Its colorful houses contrast with the bluish-white of the spectacular surrounding landscape: the Ilulissat Icefjord, a fjord blocked by gigantic icebergs through which the Jakobshavn Isbræ, the most active glacier in the entire Northern Hemisphere, flows — it alone releases between 20 and 25 billion tons of frozen water into the sea each year, a quantity surpassed only by Antarctica. It is believed that the iceberg that sank the Titanic calved from here. A trail starting from the town allows you to walk several kilometers along the banks of this impressive river of ice. Sailing along the Ilulissat Icefjord in a small boat operated by local fishermen is one of the best experiences you can have in Greenland.
Greenland is a very special place, whose inhabitants have survived for centuries in one of the most isolated and coldest regions on the planet, maintaining their own unique culture. It is not a blissful Arcadia, nor was the arrival of the Vikings, and later the Danes, a bed of roses. Greenland’s relationship with Copenhagen was and continues to be fraught, but the island has achieved a level of development, prosperity, and political autonomy unlike anything it has ever experienced. If Trump succeeds in his ambitions, as Rutger Hauer’s replicant in Blade Runner said: “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”
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