Capital region Nuuk
A Capital Between Fjord and Ice
Nuuk gathers a parliament, a university, an art museum, a lively food scene, and a wall of street art within a short stroll of a fjord that runs off toward the horizon. What we love is the run of pleasant contrasts: order a coffee from a serious barista, then watch an iceberg drift past the end of the street. Roughly one in four Greenlanders lives here, so Nuuk is at once a small town and an entire nation’s front room, and since 2024 it has been reachable by direct flights from Europe and North America. That mix of easy access and true Arctic setting makes it, in our experience, the natural starting point for a Greenland journey.
Come and Discover Nuuk
Impressions of Nuuk
What to See and Do in Nuuk
Our top 5 reasons to visit this region
Red Houses, Big Mountain
Wander Kolonihavnen, Nuuk’s colonial harbor, where red wooden houses and the little cathedral pose against Sermitsiaq mountain across the water. This is the oldest corner of the capital and its most photographed.
4,500 Years in a Few Rooms
Give the Greenland National Museum a full morning, where kayaks, costume, and craft compress four and a half thousand years of Greenlandic life into a few rooms. The Qilakitsoq mummies alone, preserved five centuries and still eloquent, are worth the journey.
Cruise the Nuuk Fjord System
Sail a labyrinth of arms and islands so vast that day trips only sketch its outline, past waterfalls, abandoned settlements, and feeding humpbacks. One of the largest fjord systems in the world begins at the edge of the city, and a day on it recalibrates your sense of scale.
A Modern Arctic Table
Eat your way through Nuuk’s new Greenlandic kitchen, where musk ox, sea urchin, and mountain herbs meet Nordic technique. Its cooks are building a modern Arctic cuisine from ingredients found nowhere else, and it is one of the most exciting food scenes in the North right now.
The Mother of the Sea
Find Sassuma Arnaa, the sculpture set among the rocks below Nuuk’s colonial harbor, submerged at high water and only fully visible when the tide drops. Half the visitors who go looking never see her, which makes catching her at low tide feel like a reward.
"What I love about Nuuk is how naturally it holds old and new together. You can trace centuries of Greenlandic history in the colonial harbor one moment, then sit down to a modern Arctic kitchen or pass a wall of new street art the next. The city is growing fast, and watching tradition and modern life move forward side by side is what makes it such a rewarding place to spend time."
Berenika Lenard
Itineraries for Inspiration
Nuuk has become the natural gateway to the whole country, and a rewarding destination in itself. Our itinerary inspirations below can give the capital days of its own, then connect onward to the south's farm fjords or north to Disko Bay, using the new flight network to keep the journey smooth.
Day Tour Golden Circle Classic – Audio Guided in 10 languages
The City of Icebergs
The Painted Edge of Greenland
What our travelers find useful
From Plane to Promenade
A shuttle meets international arrivals and taxis wait outside, so you can be at your hotel before your ears finish popping. The new airport sits close to the city, which makes arriving in Nuuk far smoother than the old journeys into Greenland ever were.
Cards Over Cash
Greenland uses the Danish krone, but Nuuk runs almost entirely on cards, accepted by taxis, cafés, and shops alike. A little cash is handy only for the smallest settlements beyond the city, so there is no need to arrive with a thick wallet.
The Fjord Trips Are Limited
Whale-watching and fjord cruises leave from the old colonial harbor and are run by just a handful of operators, so summer trips fill quickly. Tell us you want them and we will secure your places in advance, rather than leaving it to chance on the day.
Summer Brings the Whales
From roughly June to September, humpbacks return to feed in Nuuk fjord and boats go out from the harbor to meet them. Winter trades the whales for northern lights, often visible from the edge of town on a clear night, so each season has its own reason to come.
Sermitsiaq Is Everywhere
The saddle-shaped mountain across the fjord is visible from almost every street, appears on the city’s flag and coat of arms, and even lends its name to one of Greenland’s national newspapers. You will know it by the end of your first day, and orient yourself by it after that.
Greenland stories to inform & inspire
Why Ilulissat Is the Perfect First Chapter of Your Greenland Story
Spring in Greenland Still Looks Like Winter, and That Is the Point
Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland: Which One Is Right for You?
Discover More of Greenland
South Greenland
South Greenland is the green, welcoming introduction: sheep farms above turquoise water, Norse ruins a thousand years old, and an island hot spring reachable only by boat.
West Greenland
West Greenland is the easiest way in: a road that carries you right up to the great ice sheet, musk oxen roaming the tundra, and the harborside streets of Sisimiut.
Ilulissat & Disko Bay
Ilulissat and Disko Bay center on a UNESCO icefjord where the ice sheet lets go of its ice, with humpbacks in the bay and boats that sail past midnight.
North Greenland
North Greenland is the far top of the map, where dogs still pull the sleds that carry people and their catch, narwhals rise between the ice floes, and the summer sun simply will not go down.
East Greenland
East Greenland is the Arctic without any softening, reached easily from Iceland, home to the greatest network of fjords on the planet, painted villages on bare rock, and a soapstone carving tradition all its own.