CNN – A few weeks ago, Greenland was quietly passing through winter as the territory slipped into the darkness that envelops the world’s northernmost regions at this time of year.
But President-elect Donald Trump’s musings about the possibility of the United States taking over this island of 56,000 mostly Inuit inhabitants, halfway between New York and Moscow, have brought Greenland out of its icy Arctic anonymity.
Denmark, for which Greenland is an autonomous crown dependency, has protested that the island is not for sale. Meanwhile, Greenland authorities have sought to assert the territory’s right to independence.
The conversation intensified on January 7, when Donald Trump Jr. made a fleeting visit.
If Trump Jr. Had I stayed longer than just an opportunity to take a photo, I would have discovered a wild and immaculate territory, full of rich indigenous culture.
An inhospitable ice cap several kilometers deep covers 80% of Greenland, forcing the Inuit to live along the shores in brightly painted communities. Here, they spend brutally cold winters hunting seals on the ice, under the northern lights, in near-perpetual darkness. Although, currently, they can also rely on community stores.
The problem for travelers over the years has been getting to Greenland via time-consuming indirect flights. This is changing. In late 2024, the capital Nuuk opened a long-delayed international airport. From June 2025, United Airlines will operate a twice-weekly direct service from Newark to Nuuk.
By 2026, two more international airports should be opened – Qaqortoq, in South Greenland, and, more significantly, Ilulissat, the island’s only real tourist attraction.
Iceberg flotillas
Visitors stroll along the promenade at the Icefjord Center (Kangiata Illorsua) in Ilulissat on June 29, 2022. Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images
Situated on the west coast, Ilulissat is a beautiful halibut and shrimp fishing port in a dark rock bay, where visitors can sit at bars drinking craft beers filtered through 100,000-year-old glacial ice.
It’s a place to marvel at the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Icefjord, where icebergs the size of Manhattan skyscrapers calve from the Greenland ice cap to float like ghostly ships in the surrounding Disko Bay.
Small boats take visitors up close among the bay’s magnificent flotilla of icebergs. But not too close.
“One time I was on my boat and I saw one of these icebergs break in two. The pieces fell backwards into the sea and created a giant wave,” said David Karlsen, captain of the pleasure boat Katak. “I didn’t stop here.”
The other giants of Disko Bay are whales. From June to September, humpback whales join plankton-feeding fin and minke whales. Whale watching is excellent along Greenland’s rugged coastline.
Whales are eaten here. Visitors should not be surprised to encounter Greenland’s traditional delicacy, mattak – whale skin and blubber that, when tasted, is similar to chewing rubber. Inuit communities have quotas to hunt not only whales like narwhals, but also polar bears, musk oxen and caribou – which can also appear on menus.
A humpback whale dives into Disko Bay. Stefan Huwiler/imageBROKER/Shutterstock
Ilulissat is also a coastal cruise hub. Greenland’s record 141,000 visitors in 2024 was driven by increased cruise tourism. The west coast is especially popular with travelers, typically coming from North America or Iceland.
From Ilulissat, cruise ships hug the coast south, calling at small communities of houses painted green, blue, yellow and purple, and at Qeqertarsuaq (Disko) island, where flat-topped mountains are capped by glaciers.
They also explore the stunning blue waters of the Fjord of Eternity near Maniitsoq and the ancient huts of South Greenland that represent pre-Inuit paleocultures and the remains of Viking longhouses dating back to their arrival in the 10th century.
Remote and rugged
An aerial photo taken in April 2024 shows the remote village of Ittoqqortoormiit in east Greenland. Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images
A more organic way to see this coast is via Arctic Umiaq Line’s multi-day coastal ferry Sarfaq Ittuk. It’s less corporate than modern cruise ships and travelers have the opportunity to meet Inuit commuting workers. Greenland is expensive. Lettuce at a local community store might cost $10, but this coastal trip won’t break the bank.
Currently, the best option to explore the wilder side of Greenland is to head to the east coast, towards Europe. It is a raw coast with much fewer tourists, with a coastline of very hard fjords, where icebergs move south. There are no roads and the scattered population of just over 3,500 people inhabits a coastline roughly from New York to Denver.
An increasing number of small expedition vessels ply this remote coastline for its icy landscapes and wildlife. Increasingly popular is the world’s largest fjord system, Scoresby Sound, with its sharp-toothed mountains and glacier-choked hanging valleys. Sailing north is the prosaically named Northeast Greenland National Park, fabulous for wildlife viewing in the tundra.
Travelers come to see polar bears, which, during the northern hemisphere summer, come closer to land as the sea ice melts. There are also musk oxen, large flocks of migratory geese, Arctic foxes and walruses.
Musk oxen are among the wild animals that visitors to Greenland can encounter. Olaf Krüger/imageBROKER/Shutterstock
Some of these animals are hunted by local communities. Perhaps the most interesting cultural visit in Greenland is to a village that will take longer to learn to pronounce than to walk through – Ittoqqortoormiit. Five hundred kilometers north of their neighboring settlement, the 345 local inhabitants are frozen for nine months of the year. Ships arrive to meet them during the brief summer thaw between June and August.
Enclosed by ice, they maintained their traditional habits.
“My parents hunt almost all of their food,” says Mette Barselajsen, owner of Ittoqqortoormiit’s only guest house. “They prefer the old methods, burying food in the ground to ferment and preserve it. A single muskox can yield 440 kilos of meat.”
arctic aurora
The northern lights, photographed here in Tiniteqilaq, in the district of Ammassalik, East Greenland, are the biggest tourist attraction in winter. Andia/Universal Images Group Editorial/Getty Images
To get around during the winter, the Inuit prefer snowmobiles today, although they continue to have their sled dogs. During the winter, they offer intrepid visitors, bundled up against sub-zero temperatures, dog sled rides. These tours can last an hour or be part of multi-day expeditions, sometimes with the added experience of learning how to build an igloo. Sisimiut on the west coast and Tasilaq in the southeast are active winter centers for dog sledding.
However, the biggest attraction of winter is watching the northern lights. With little urban light pollution, Greenland is a dark canvas for spectacular displays, and northern lights viewing holidays are becoming more popular.
If we want to get outdoors, Greenland is developing a reputation among adventure enthusiasts: from long-distance skiing and heliskiing expeditions on the ice cap to hiking the 100-mile-long Arctic Circle Trail from Kangerslussuaq, where It is necessary to carry firearms to fire warning shots in case of an encounter with polar bears.
Life is definitely changing here. The climate crisis is eroding the ice cap and Greenland could very well end up as a pawn in a game of geopolitical chess. But for now, the glow of international attention should shine a favorable light on one of the planet’s wildest tourist destinations.
Travel writer Mark Stratton is an Arctic expert who has traveled to Greenland six times and counting. He has marveled at the Northern Lights, sailed to Disko Island, gone dog sledding with the Inuit and once got stuck in an ice floe.
