Why Travel to Greenland?
Updated: Oct 7
Greenland Is Much More Than Ice
Greenland is difficult to describe in one sentence.
Around 80 percent of the country is covered by ice, with an ice sheet covering more than 1.7 million square kilometres. Yet most people live along the coast, where the landscape changes completely.
This is one of the things that makes Greenland so interesting.
You have an enormous ice-covered interior, but along the coast there are communities, history and contemporary Greenlandic life. The result is a very different Arctic experience from somewhere like Svalbard.
The scale also means that we have to be specific. Saying “Greenland” does not tell us very much about where someone is actually going. It is simply too large.
For a traveler interested in both landscape and culture, that distinction matters.
A Living Arctic Society
The Inuit culture is an important part of Greenland's identity and history. If I were travelling there myself, I would want to spend a significant amount of time experiencing that side of the country because it gives another perspective on the relationship between people, climate and ice.
This is a modern society, and it is important not to reduce Greenland to traditional images. Hunting, fishing, dog sledding, kayaking, clothing, food and settlement patterns all reflect different ways people have adapted to Arctic conditions, but contemporary Greenland is much more complex than any one tradition.
In South Greenland, you can also encounter layers of history in the same landscape. Inuit history, Norse settlement and modern Greenlandic life overlap.
That gives the landscape more context.
A small settlement surrounded by mountains and ice is not simply an isolated Arctic village. It is a contemporary community whose location and way of life have developed in relation to the environment around it.
The Ice Sheet in Inuit Tradition during the 19th century
The inland ice also has a cultural meaning that predates European exploration. Inuit communities generally avoided the ice sheet where possible, and historical accounts describe it as a dangerous, almost forsaken landscape. Hinrich Johannes Rink, a Danish official who recorded Inuit oral traditions in the nineteenth century, wrote of a strong spiritual awe surrounding the icy interior. He recorded traditions in which the isolated nunataks were associated with people who had left human society, as well as stories of supernatural beings moving across the glaciers.
Rink was writing from a nineteenth-century European perspective, so his accounts should be read as historical records rather than as the final word on Inuit beliefs. They nevertheless show that Greenland’s ice sheet has long carried meanings that go far beyond its physical geography.
The Ice Sheet Changes Everything
The Greenland Ice Sheet is not simply frozen scenery.
It is an enormous body of moving ice. Snow accumulates at higher elevations and, over time, pressure transforms it into glacial ice. The ice then moves toward the coast, where glaciers can reach the ocean and calve, producing icebergs.
That connection between ice sheet, glacier and iceberg is part of understanding Greenland.
It also helps explain why the country's landscapes can feel so different from Svalbard. Svalbard has mountains, fjords, glaciers, sea ice and wildlife within a relatively concentrated archipelago. Greenland operates on an enormous glacial scale.
The ice also affects how we travel.
Greenland is too large to approach as a simple list of places. Depending on the itinerary, travel can involve ships, aircraft, helicopters or other forms of transport. Weather, sea conditions and ice can change what is possible.
This is where expedition travel becomes particularly interesting. A good itinerary has to respond to the conditions rather than assuming that everything will happen exactly as planned.
Greenland's ice sheet has challenged travelers for centuries, but one of the most important crossings came in 1888, when Fridtjof Nansen and his team crossed from the east coast to the west. Their experience showed just how difficult the interior could be. They travelled with sledges across the ice, dealing with crevasses, changing conditions and a landscape where progress could be surprisingly difficult to judge.
Nansen's crossing also gives us a useful historical reference for the Greenland we experience today. The ice sheet that once represented an almost inaccessible interior can now be approached with modern expedition logistics, while its scale and changing conditions remain very real.
Choosing Greenland for the Right Reasons
Greenland makes particular sense for someone who wants extraordinary ice and glaciers but also wants to understand the people who live alongside them.
For someone primarily interested in polar bears, sea ice and the compact landscapes of the High Arctic, Svalbard may point in a different direction. Greenland is especially relevant when enormous glaciers, icebergs, geographical scale and contemporary Inuit culture are part of the attraction. It also offers a different idea of luxury.
There can be a very comfortable cabin and excellent dining on board, followed by an afternoon in a Zodiac looking at an enormous glacier. The attraction is being somewhere extraordinary while the logistical complexity is handled professionally.
We also need to correct a few expectations. Greenland is not all ice. Every trip will not look like the photographs. Enormous icebergs are not guaranteed simply because you are in Greenland. For us, the most interesting Greenland journeys are the ones where the ice and the people are considered together. That is what gives the destination its particular character and unique angle for visitors.
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Planning Greenland
If Greenland appeals to you, the first step is deciding what you want from the journey. Is it the ice sheet, glaciers and icebergs? Is contemporary Greenlandic culture equally important? Are you interested in history, photography or the sheer scale of the landscape? Once we understand that, we can look at the regions and expedition options that fit.
Interested in exploring remote regions with the preparation and knowledge to understand them more deeply? Discover our approach to Expedition Travel.
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