Kangerlussuaq: More than a gateway to greenland
Many visitors arrive in Greenland dreaming of icebergs, glaciers and remote Arctic landscapes. Kangerlussuaq offers something different: a vast inland world of open tundra, rolling hills and wildlife, where the Greenland Ice Sheet is within reach and the relationship between people and the land remains part of everyday life.
At DeSalvio Travel and Sarasota Cruise Agency, we believe that understanding a destination means looking beyond its most famous sights. It means learning about the people who live there, the traditions that have shaped their lives and the history that gives a landscape its deeper meaning. In the Arctic, where nature has always influenced how people travel, find food and live with the seasons, this perspective is particularly important.
Our conversation with Paninnguaq from Arctic Circle Business explores why Kangerlussuaq deserves to be understood as more than an airport or a convenient starting point for excursions onto the ice. The region has supported human life for thousands of years, long before the American air base established in 1941 shaped the modern settlement. Today, its landscape continues to connect Greenlandic communities with hunting traditions, local knowledge and a changing tourism industry.
We discuss what visitors can discover beyond the ice sheet, how local guides help bring the landscape to life and why responsible tourism must benefit the community as well as its visitors. The conversation also explores how Kangerlussuaq is adapting to changes in Greenland’s international travel connections.
We invite you to discover Kangerlussuaq, and its surrounding nature, through the perspective of the people who know it best, and to explore a side of Greenland that many travellers pass by without fully appreciating.
What makes Kangerlussuaq different from other places in Greenland, and what do you think first-time visitors often misunderstand about the destination?
Kangerlussuaq offers a different perspective on Greenland from the coastal towns that many visitors picture. Here, the landscape opens into wide tundra, broad valleys and gently rolling hills, contrasting with the steeper mountains and rugged terrain found along much of the coast. There are spectacular views, abundant wildlife and relatively easy access to the Greenland Ice Sheet.
The present-day settlement’s buildings and layout are strongly influenced by the American air base established in 1941. But that is only one chapter in a much longer history. People of the Saqqaq, Dorset and Thule cultures used the wider Kangerlussuaq landscape over thousands of years. The area was also used during the early colonial trading period, and today we continue our relationship with it through hunting, travel and everyday life.
First-time visitors sometimes see Kangerlussuaq simply as an airport or a stop on the way to the ice sheet. What they may not immediately see is a landscape that has sustained people for generations and remains important to us today. With around 500 residents, Kangerlussuaq is both a welcoming community and a place where visitors can discover the deep connections between Greenlandic people, culture and the land.
Kangerlussuaq is one of the few places where visitors can reach the Greenland Ice Sheet relatively easily. What does that accessibility mean for the local community and for the way visitors experience the ice?
Access to the ice sheet creates opportunities for local guides, transport providers, accommodation businesses and other services. It also gives visitors the chance to experience an extraordinary environment without having to organise a major expedition.
The journey to the ice is part of that experience. Travelling through the vast inland landscape gives you a sense of the distances people once covered during seasonal journeys between the coast and inland hunting grounds. Imagine travelling with your family, belongings and provisions, without modern transport. It helps you appreciate the physical demands of those journeys and the knowledge people needed to live well in this environment.
Along the way, the past meets the present. You may notice boats on the lakes that local people use to reach hunting grounds. During the hunting seasons, people still travel into the landscape for caribou, musk oxen and ptarmigan. The land remains a source of food, shared experiences and knowledge passed between generations.
Then comes the experience of stepping onto the ice sheet with a guide. You hear your footsteps crunching on the ice, feel the cold air on your face and look out across ice stretching towards the horizon. During the melt season, blue pools and streams of icy meltwater bring colour and movement to the landscape. Its scale can make you feel very small, while the sounds, colours and cold make the experience immediate and personal.
For us, the value of this accessibility is the opportunity to connect visitors with both the ice and the living landscape around it. Local guides help bring these stories together while ensuring that visitors understand and respect the changing conditions.
How has Kangerlussuaq changed as a tourism destination over the years, and what changes are you seeing now as Greenland’s tourism infrastructure and travel patterns evolve?
For many years, Kangerlussuaq was Greenland’s main international aviation gateway. Many travellers passed through on their way elsewhere, while others stayed to experience the ice sheet, wildlife and inland landscape.
The opening of Nuuk’s new international airport has changed travel patterns and Kangerlussuaq’s role. It continues to have direct flights from Copenhagen during the operating season and domestic connections, but there is a greater need to show why visitors should choose Kangerlussuaq as a destination in its own right.
There is already a variety of experiences and accommodation, from hotels and hostels to guided overnight camping on the ice sheet. Visitors can explore on foot, by bicycle or with local guides, and enjoy Greenlandic food, including the Greenlandic buffet at Restaurant Roklubben, overlooking Lake Ferguson and Northern light in the evening since Kangerlussuaq has the best weather to experience Nothern lights.
The Arctic Circle Track also opens opportunities for overland journeys towards Sisimiut by ATV or mountain bike. These are demanding journeys through remote terrain that require suitable equipment and planning. In winter, the landscape can be experienced through dog sledding, snowmobiling/ATV with tracks and fat-biking, with longer journeys towards Sisimiut depending on conditions and arrangements. Local dogsledging also a big thing locally.
For us, the opportunity is to connect these experiences into a stronger regional story, while ensuring that tourism supports local businesses and community life.
Kangerlussuaq sits between the ice sheet, the fjord and the vast inland landscape. How important is it for visitors to understand the relationship between the natural environment and the people who have lived and worked here?
It is essential. At Arctic Circle business, our starting point is that nature and culture belong together. The landscape has shaped how people travel, find food, share knowledge and live with the seasons.
The nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site, Aasivissuit–Nipisat, preserves evidence of more than 4,000 years of human history, connecting inland hunting grounds with the coast. Seasonal journeys across this landscape depended on detailed knowledge of animals, weather, routes and resources. These relationships continue through hunting, family activities and knowledge passed between generations.
Kangerlussuaq Museum is a good place to explore these different layers of history. Visitors can learn about the American air base, the cultural landscape of Aasivissuit–Nipisat and the Greenlandic sled dog through the Qimmeq exhibition. Qimmeq is a research project exploring the Greenlandic sled dog’s origins, genetic history and cultural importance. This Arctic working dog has played an essential role in Inuit transport and hunting, and remains part of Greenland’s living heritage.
What may look like an empty landscape to a visitor can hold place names, stories, memories and practical knowledge for local people. Understanding this gives the whole visit greater depth.
What do you think responsible tourism should look like in Kangerlussuaq, particularly as more travellers become interested in the Arctic and in visiting the ice sheet?
Kangerlussuaq has a long history of welcoming visitors. People are accustomed to guests, and in a community this small, visitors often become part of everyday life. Encounters can feel informal and personal, and that closeness is part of the destination’s character.
Responsible tourism should build on this relationship. We want visitors to feel welcome, take an interest in the community and support local businesses. At the same time, that welcome comes with mutual respect: ask before photographing people, respect homes and private spaces, and take time to listen.
In the landscape, responsibility means following local guidance, keeping a respectful distance from wildlife, protecting vegetation and archaeological remains, and leaving no litter. At the ice sheet, it means respecting changing conditions and the knowledge of experienced guides.
Local people should also have a meaningful voice in how tourism develops. Tourism should strengthen livelihoods and community life, with infrastructure and services able to support it. The quality of the relationship between guests, residents and the environment matters as much as the number of visitors.
If someone arrives in Kangerlussuaq with only a short amount of time, what would you most want them to understand, notice or take away from their experience of the place?
I would encourage them to slow down and notice the space and quiet around them. From parts of the settlement, it takes only a few minutes to step into the surrounding landscape. You can find yourself hearing little more than the wind, birds, your footsteps and your own breathing. For someone used to city life, that silence can feel almost unfamiliar.
There are opportunities to experience this independently on suitable local routes, or with a guide who can help you see and understand more. Even a short walk, a visit to the museum or a conversation with someone who lives here can change your impression of the place.
The ice sheet is extraordinary, but I would also want visitors to remember the land they travelled through, the people they met and the connections between them. Kangerlussuaq offers a chance to feel close to nature while discovering how deeply human life is woven into it.
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Photo: Chmee2/Valtameri Wikimedia Commons, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Photograph taken August 30, 2016. Photo: Sebastian We - Kangerlussuaq/ Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
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