North Greenland
Beyond the Top of the Map
There is north, and then there is the far northwest of Greenland, where the scheduled flights thin to a handful a week and the sea stays frozen for most of the year. This is among the most remote inhabited country on Earth, and one of the most extraordinary places we know how to send anyone: villages where the sled dog is still working transport, skills passed down for a thousand years, waters where narwhals surface between ice floes, and a summer sun that simply refuses to set. Very few travelers reach it, and the ones we send tend to come home changed by the scale of the silence and the light.
Come and Discover North Greenland
Impressions of North Greenland
What to See and Do in North Greenland
Our top 5 reasons to visit this region
Ride a Dog Sled Across the Frozen Sea
Travel over the sea ice by dog sled with a local driver, wrapped in furs, listening to the runners hiss and the dogs breathe in rhythm. In the far north this is not a tourist activity bolted onto a trip; it is how people have moved across this country for a thousand years, and still do.
Bask in the Midnight Sun on the Pack Ice
Stand outside at midnight in June while the sun circles the horizon and refuses to set, repainting the icebergs hour by hour in colors that have no name. This far north the endless day is not a novelty but a season, and living inside it rearranges your sense of time.
Coffee at the Top of the World
Accept an invitation to a kaffemik in the far north, the Greenlandic open house of coffee, cake, and long conversation, where hospitality needs no shared language. It is the warmest counterpoint to the scale of the landscape outside.
Find True Polar Silence
Experience, on a still day, an acoustic emptiness so complete that the absence of sound becomes something you notice for the first time in your life. Travelers describe this more often than any single sight, and it stays with them longer.
Where the Explorers Set Out
Step inside Knud Rasmussen’s house, built in 1910 at the old Thule trading post and later carried north to Qaanaaq. Seven expeditions set out from these rooms, and the museum inside still holds the tools and finds brought back from crossing the High Arctic.
"The far north is unlike anywhere else I have been. It is remote in a way that is hard to describe until you are standing in it, with a silence and a scale that stay with you long after you leave. Travelers who make it this far tend to come back changed by it, and I understand exactly why."
Berenika Lenard
Itineraries for Inspiration
The far north is a journey for travelers who already love the Arctic and want its deepest chapter. Our itinerary inspirations below can reach Qaanaaq by air through Ilulissat and Upernavik, pairing the High Arctic with Disko Bay so the trip builds from icebergs to ice-covered ocean.
Day Tour Golden Circle Classic – Audio Guided in 10 languages
The City of Icebergs
The Painted Edge of Greenland
What our travelers find useful
Getting There Is the Expedition
Flights run via Ilulissat and Upernavik and are few each week, so the schedule, not your preferred dates, sets the shape of the trip. Let the flight timetable lead your planning rather than fighting it, and treat the journey in as part of the adventure.
Clothing Is Safety
This is the one destination where we ask guests to treat the packing list as instructions rather than suggestions, because the cold here is not forgiving. Local outfitters can supply the heavy polar outer layers, so you do not need to buy a full expedition wardrobe before you come.
Ask Before You Photograph
Villages here are homes, not sets, and the people in them are going about their lives. A smile and a gesture with the camera almost always gets a yes, and the pictures are better for the moment of contact that comes first.
Expect to Disconnect
Bandwidth is precious this far north, and a reliable connection is not something to count on. Download maps and books in advance, tell people at home you will be quiet, and treat the silence as part of what you came for.
One Road Out of Town
Qaanaaq has a few unpaved streets and exactly one road that leaves it, the five kilometers (three miles) to the airport. Everything else moves by dog sled, boat, or on foot, so rental cars are simply not a thing here, and you will not miss them.
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.
Capital region Nuuk
Nuuk, the capital, blends real city life with an Arctic setting: museums, murals, cafés, and a fjord at the end of the street, all now within one flight of Europe.
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.
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.