Ilulissat – Summertime in the Arctic

Our hotel accommodation in Ilulissat was the Hotel Arctic. It's a nice hotel that sits on a hill located about a mile from the center of town. The hotel provides an hourly complimentary shuttle to transport guests to/from town.

Our modern room consisted of a queen-sized bed, iron, and small snack bar (expensive!) among other things. From our room, we could see the harbor, the colorful town, and the iceberg-filled Disko Bay. The curtains were not very good at blocking out the 24-hour sunlight. I always felt we were just laying down for an afternoon nap when we turned in for the day.

We needed to insert our key into a slot near the entrance of the room to turn on the electricity. Doing this prevents wasting energy while not occupying the room. On the other hand, you run the risk of locking the key in the room if you forget to remove it from the slot when you exit. This manner of conserving electricity also meant I had to reset the alarm clock every evening before going to sleep.

Our room had a flat screen television but there was not much of a channel selection. There was one Danish channel and a closed circuit channel on which the hotel showed two American or British movies per day over and over. There was one channel that showed a very informative program about Greenland culture and history over and over. It was very nicely done. The hotel has a free internet terminal in its lobby.

There is a boardwalk behind the hotel that leads to some metal igloos that overlook the bay. These cost a little more to stay in but we had no desire to stay there - especially after the hotel let us take a look inside one. For one, the sun shines into these metal pods all day. This makes the interior as hot as if you left your car windows closed during a hot summer day. Secondly, although there is a bed, bathroom, and television inside, there is no shower - only a hose attached to the sink. I was a little confused over the appeal of these metal igloos. Furthermore, Greenlanders never lived in igloos.

The hotel has two restaurants, the upscale Ulo Restaurant and the Brasserie Takanna which is more like a bar & grill. Our dinner at Brasserie Takanna turned out to be our best meal in Greenland. My wife had king crab legs for her first course and turkey kebabs for her second. I had baked halibut over cous cous. The place seems to attract a lot of smokers in late evening so plan on an early dinner if the smoke bothers you.

Our vacation package included a Scandinavian breakfast buffet, a welcome dinner, and a farewell Greenlandic buffet at Restaurant Ulo. Unlike the Brasserie Takanna, Restaurant Ulo normally does not have a menu – just the specialty of the day. In the case of our welcome dinner, our first course was a creamy seafood soup (very good) and roast duck for the second course (ok). The farewell dinner was a great opportunity to taste Greenlandic specialties. The restaurant also does a weekly Greenlandic barbeque but we missed it because we decided to try Restaurant Mamartut in town.

I found the staff to be very friendly and accommodating. They spoke English fluently. They even opened the breakfast buffet an hour early for those of us who had early flights on the morning of our departures. Our stay at Hotel Arctic was a great experience.

This was the first time I have been on a tour where there were more guides than clients. My wife and I were the only clients on this excursion that day. We were led by a Danish college student from World of Greenland and three of her tour guide trainees. During the 2-hour walk through the hilly town of Ilulissat, we were shown a variety of historical and cultural buildings such as the oldest house, the art museum, the elementary school, a 1970’s turf house, etc. but did not enter any of them. We were normally given an anecdote about the places we saw. One of the more memorable and unexpected stops was the video rental store. Since the store has existed, the petty crime rate has dropped significantly during the cold, dark winters in Ilulissat.

Fishing and shrimping are the main industries in Ilulissat. This was evident by the dead fish smell that filled the air as we were shown the harbor. This harbor is also important because it is here that the town of 5,000 residents receives supplies from Denmark to last them through the winter when the bay remains frozen for several months. There have been times when the town has run out of basics like toilet paper and baby formula. In the case of the latter, special flights had to be arranged to refresh the town's supplies.

As we were led through the harbor area, we were advised to be careful since the workers are not likely to slow down production because tourists are in the way. However, on the day we were there, everyone was gathered around a crane that was trying to pull a sunken boat to the surface. I don't think anyone was injured since there were no emergency vehicles in the area. Although we don't know how the boat sank, the sight of an iceberg floating in the harbor did make me briefly question my decision to sign up for a midnight boat trip among the icebergs.

While we did learn some facts about Ilulissat during our tour, the real advantage was that it helped us determine which places we wanted to explore further on our own. We checked out the town's other two souvenir shops (in addition to the one in the World of Greenland tourist office).

Within an hour after our tour, we had visited the souvenir shops and most of the practical stores in town such as clothing stores, a bookstore, and the Pisifik grocery store. We then headed to the home of Knud Rasmussen. He was Greenland's famous arctic explorer and writer who lived from 1879 to 1933. His house is now a museum where exhibits display his life, traditional Greenlandic lifestyles, and art depicting arctic scenes. We walked through the three floors of the museum in about 45 minutes.

By early afternoon, we felt we had seen all we wanted to see in downtown Ilulissat so we shared a Hawaiian pizza at Cafe Iluliaq. I admit this meal did not fit the Greenlandic cultural experience we were seeking but sometimes you just got to go for what you know. Overall, the city tour was good for orientation and for gaining cultural and historical knowledge of Ilulissat.

There are three versions of this hike (2-hour, 4-hour, and 5-hour); all of which are well-marked and can be done on your own. However, we decided to pay for the 2-hour guided tour. There were about 10 of us doing this excursion. Other than my wife and me, two guys from London with whom we clicked instantly, were the only other English-speakers on this tour. The rest spoke Danish. Therefore, our guide narrated in both languages.

A bus drove us a short distance outside of town to a surprisingly grassy field. The mosquitoes in the area were absolutely menacing. I was wearing smelly Deep Woods OFF containing 98% DEET. This seemed to keep the mosquitoes from landing on me but it didn't stop them from hovering around me. My wife wore her mosquito head net but still got jumpy from the sound of the insects buzzing past her ears.

The guide led us to a cemetery containing wooden crosses. Some crosses had flowers in front of them but the flowers were plastic since there are not many species of plants that can survive this far north. Each autumn, the town estimates how many people will die and then digs that amount of graves. It is important that they do this because the sub-zero temperatures, snow, and ice make it very difficult to dig graves in the winter. Our guide explained that the cemeteries are normally quite a distance outside the town because back when there were no leash laws for sled dogs, there were problems with dogs digging up the bodies and eating them!

From the cemetery, we headed back towards the grassy field which turned out to be quite marshy and muddy. We were stepping on rocks to avoid sinking our feet into the moist ground. I kind of felt like I was part of video game as we went along trying to avoid the mud pits. Suddenly…Squish! I missed a rock and sunk my left foot into the marshy ground, much to the amusement of our London friends. I managed to catch my balance before taking a total mud bath.

We arrived at a grassy area where it looked liked the land had been wrinkled into trenches. We were told this used to the settlement of the Saqqaq people who lived here about 4,500 years ago. This explained the odd terrain but we really had to use our imaginations to visualize anything beyond that.

From this area we had our first close-up view of the Ice Fjord Ilulissat Kangerlua. Fifty tons of ice calves (breaks off) from the glacier every day - enough to supply New York with fresh water for a year. The ice fjord is a UNESCO World Heritage site. There was a sign draped by a dead bird covered in flies warning visitors to stay away from the water's edge because a rolling iceberg or calving ice can cause a sudden tidal wave capable of dragging a person into the icy depths.

We continued up a hill to a point known as Suicide Gorge. This was where the sick and elderly Inuit used to jump to their death when they thought they were too much of a burden for their family.

From dogs eating corpses to fly-infested dead birds to suicides, I thought to myself, this is becoming a morbid hike. Our guide finally took a break from all the tales of gore and served coffee and tea as we stood on the rocks at Suicide Gorge admiring the gleaming white icebergs in the ice fjord. The still, blue water mirrored the sky and icebergs perfectly. It was such a postcard moment. Despite the morbid stories and mosquitoes, it had been a very enjoyable hike.

We boarded the small boat at 10 PM with approximately 15 other passengers. As we pulled out of the harbor, my wife and I were happy to see our London friends from the hike earlier that day were onboard. We also met a young couple from New York. We all talked and laughed as we sailed among the icebergs in Disko Bay. The destination was the mouth of the Ilulissat Kangerlua ice fjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sailing in the bay is like floating through a museum of ice sculptures. There were so many shapes and sizes of icebergs. There were some that were as big as cruise ships - and that's just the part above the surface. We were told only 1/7 of an iceberg is seen above the surface. Some icebergs were pristine white. Some were grey from silt like the dirty snow that clings to the bottom of a car after riding on a treated road.

It started to get quite cold as the captain picked up speed. We put on our hats, gloves, and scarves. When the cold really got to us, we retreated inside the boat where there were tables and chairs.

Around 11:30 PM (sun still shining), the captain turned off the engine and had us gather around a table inside the boat where he gave us a lecture about the icebergs all around us. He also touched on global warming which is often associated with Greenland these days. He told us that since moving to Greenland over 25 years ago, he has definitely noticed the climate getting warmer and a reduction in ice. He told us that ten years ago, Disko Bay stopped freezing over. The exception was this past winter (2008) when we heard from several people, including the captain, that it was the coldest they'd experienced in a long time. The bay completely froze over.

After his very informative lecture, the captain turned on the boat headed back to Ilulissat. By 12:30 AM, we had arrived back at the harbor where a World of Greenland van was waiting to shuttle us back to our hotel.

The purpose of doing this boat trip this late at night is because the sun sinks close enough to the horizon to cast a pink and lavender hue on the icebergs. Although this was quite scenic, my wife and I began to question whether seeing the icebergs in this manner was worth the cost since we would be doing a full-day boat trip the next day where we'd also see plenty of icebergs. In hindsight, we should have skipped this excursion and only done the Eqi Glacier boat trip which turned out to be our favorite excursion during our stay in Ilulissat. If the 12-hour Eqi Glacier boat trip does not fit into your schedule or budget (3 times more expensive), then I definitely recommend the 2.5-hour Midnight Boat Trip to the Ice Fjord. There is also a daytime version of this excursion.

Since the 6:45 AM boarding time occurred before the hotel shuttle’s operating hours, our only options were to take a taxi or walk. We decided to hit the breakfast buffet at 6 and then make the 20-minute walk to town.

As the 25-passenger boat accelerated out of the harbor, the air started to get a bit nippy. Therefore, we went inside where we joined our two friends from London at a table. During the 5-hour boat ride, we talked, played games on the iPod, or went on deck to photograph oddly-shaped icebergs.

A few hours into the trip, the guide set up a small lunch buffet. This was quite an adventure for me. The buffet contained mainly seafood such as shrimp, halibut, and some other type of fish. All of the seafood had been cooked; however, it was served cold. Although the food was tasty, I just had a hard time eating cold fish. One of the other items initially caused me some hesitation. Our guide told us the plate of brown ovals was musk ox balls. Thinking male musk ox anatomy, I inquisitively replied, "Musk ox balls?"

She elaborated by saying it was minced musk ox meat shaped into balls and cooked. I was relieved to realize she was describing what I would call musk ox meatballs. It was my first time eating musk ox. It tasted like a cross between beef and lamb. Like the fish, it too was served cold.

We finally reached Eqi Glacier and what a magnificent wall of ice it is. The captain drifted us to a safe distance and then cut off the engine. We all had our cameras out trying to capture the ice breaking away (calving) from the glacier and crashing into the water with a loud, thunderous explosion. This became like a game. Most of the time, by the time we heard the thunder, the ice had already hit the water. Sometimes we would just hear a loud ripping sound. My wife was quite good at this game. She captured some amazing calving shots with her camera.

As a result of all the calving that goes on, our boat was surrounded by small pieces of ice. These chunks snapped, crackled, and popped like a bowl of Rice Krispies as thousands of years of oxygen were released. The air here was so crisp and clean that every breath seemed like a sweet, soothing massage for my lungs.

After two hours of sitting in front of the glacier, the captain headed back to Ilulissat. During this 5-hour ride back to Ilulissat, most people found a seat inside the boat and dosed off. Some passengers even stretched out on the benches on deck for their nap.

The captain seemed to have us trained. Anytime he turned the engine off, we grabbed our cameras and ran to the deck. For we knew a whale had been spotted. On one spotting, the captain was able to drift the boat along side two humongous humpback whales. They floated on the surface blowing water out of their blowholes before arching their backs and gently slipping below the surface. One of the whales seemed to wave goodbye as its massive tail lifted above the water and slowly disappeared beneath the surface. There was a collective gasp from us passengers and then even some applause. Although a bit long, the 12-hour Eqi Glacier trip was our favorite excursion in Ilulissat.

On our second evening in Ilulissat, my wife and I took the advice of some of the World of Greenland tour guides and made a dinner reservation at Restaurant Mamartut for some Greenlandic cuisine. We had the coolest hotel shuttle driver that evening. As we were exiting the van with other passengers at the drop-off in the center of town, he asked my wife and me in broken English where we were going. He somehow understood my mangled pronunciation of the restaurant and motioned for us to stay in the van. He drove us several blocks up the hill to the entrance of the restaurant.

My wife and I were the first customers that evening at the restaurant. We were seated at a table near a large polar bear hide hanging on the wall. Gazing out the window, we had a great view of the colorful town with the icebergs of Disko Bay in the background. The food was pretty good. I had the fish soup and Greenlandic lamb for my first two courses while my wife had the shrimp dish and the fish plate for hers. We shared the dessert sampler which was excellent. It was a 3-hour dinner. The time between courses was very long.

Mamartut turned out to be our most expensive meal in Greenland. Its price converted to $144. However, this was not what bothered us the most since everything in Greenland is expensive. What really left a bad taste in our mouths was that the restaurant had charged us for tap water. This was the only restaurant we encountered during our trip that did this.

It was close to 10 PM when we left the restaurant and I was blown away by how bright it still was outside. During our walk to the shuttle pick-up point, we saw children riding bikes, a soccer game in progress at the field, and people out and about.

We had the same nice, shuttle driver who gave us door-to-door service earlier. He did not head directly back to the hotel. Instead, he drove through the neighborhood and dropped off two locals. When it was just my wife and me left, he continued driving through the residential areas where we saw more of the brightly-colored houses. I thought maybe this was a different route back to the hotel but I noticed the driver would slow down or stop anytime I took out my camcorder to record the scenery. I finally realized he was giving us a tour. The language barrier prevented any narration.

I noticed many of the houses had either a snowmobile or dog sled in the yard. These two modes of transportation are still common when the town freezes over in winter. The Greenlandic sled dogs are closely related to wolves. No other breed is allowed above the Arctic Circle in Greenland. There are approximately 5,000 dogs in Ilulissat (as many as people). During the summer, they are chained in large fields around the town. No matter where we were in Ilulissat, we always knew when it was feeding time by the sound that fills the air. These dogs don't do much barking. Instead, they howl, bow wow, and yelp. I had no idea what this strange chorus was during our first afternoon in Ilulissat because I had never heard anything like it. By the end of our stay, it was a sound I had come to associate with the town.

Our driver paused in front of a big dog field where hundreds of sled dogs were lazing in the sun. He then continued driving up into the hills past more Lego-like houses until we came to an endpoint with the most gorgeous view of the town and the bay. The driver motioned us to step out of the van for better pictures. We accepted his invitation but the photos just could not capture the beauty of this place.

After a short while, we got back in the van and were driven along the winding roads of the town back to our hotel. We were very appreciative of this driver. His marvelous, unexpected tour had etched a lasting memory of Ilulissat in our minds.

Sunday morning, we took the 8:45 hotel shuttle to town even though our hiking excursion wasn't scheduled to begin until 10:15. Although we don't speak Greenlandic, we were headed to the 9 AM church service. I’ll explain...

During our city walk tour the previous day, our guides took us by Zion Church. The construction of this Lutheran church was completed in 1779. We were told tourists are no longer taken inside during the tour because people had stolen hymnals in the past. How someone can have the conscience to steal from church is beyond me. One of our guides told us about how beautiful the singing is during the services. However, when she said that some of the songs are sang in Greenlandic and Danish at the same time, the curious musician in me would not let me miss this experience.

It was a little after 9 AM by the time we walked to the church from the shuttle drop-off. The church was packed; therefore, my wife and I decided to sit in the vestibule rather than trying to find a seat in the sanctuary. Additionally, being dressed for hiking, we would have felt really out of place.

Anyway, from what I could see, the interior of the church was simple but elegant. I loved all the lighted candles at the altar and at the end of each pew. However, what was unique about being at this service in Ilulissat was that many in the congregation were dressed in the national Greenlandic attire. The men wore loose white hooded shirts with a black bowtie, black pants, and white animal hide boots. The women's clothing was much more interesting. They wore pullover blouses adorned with colorful beads. They wore fur pants and tall animal hide boots. I wanted to take pictures as families entered the church but I thought that would have been tacky to do so at the time. Besides, there was a sign indicating no photography during service. This didn't seem to stop a handful of tourists hanging out in the back of the church from snapping away.

The only word I understood during the service was Amen. The congregation sang beautiful angelic hymns to the accompaniment of a small pipe organ. As for two languages being sung simultaneously, I couldn't tell. It all sounded foreign to me. We hung out in the church vestibule for about 45 minutes and then headed to the meeting point for our hike.

The Greenlandic Buffet Farewell Dinner was included in our stay at Hotel Arctic. The buffet contained seafood such as smoked whale, shrimp, scallops, halibut, trout, and other smoked and dried fish. I tried just about all the items. Just like the lunch we had on the Eqi Glacier boat trip earlier that day, all of the items were served cold. I prefer my seafood served hot but when in Greenland…

There were two types of smoked whale. One was black and the other was the color of cooked bacon. Both pieces tasted similar to soft, salty bacon but the black piece had a milder taste.

There were two fishes on the buffet I did not try. I can't remember if they were smoked or dried. In either case, it looked like they had been pulled out of the sea and placed on the buffet - eyes, fins, and all. Knowing they were cold and whole just messed with my mind too much.

There was a carving station and the meat there was served hot. Hurray! On that table was musk ox, reindeer (caribou), lamb, and fried whale. The musk ox and reindeer both tasted similar to roast beef; however, the reindeer was much more tender and flavorful. It was my favorite. The fried whale was rather tough to cut. It looked and tasted like steak but more salty.

My wife did not enjoy the buffet. She liked the shrimp but that was it. At this point in the vacation, she was really missing fruit and vegetables. Typical of our meals in Greenland, the closest thing to vegetables being served at this buffet was potatoes. Well, at least the potatoes were served hot.

After dinner, we were treated to a mini-concert from a Greenlandic choir. Some of the members were dressed in the national clothing. The choir sounded great. They sang hymn-like songs a cappella with tight harmony. I enjoyed their performance and the opportunity to taste some local food. The Greenlandic Buffet Farewell Dinner was a great way to end our stay in Ilulissat. Afterwards, we headed back to our room to pack for our early morning flight to our final Greenlandic town, Kangerlussuaq.

Ever since a long weekend trip to Iceland back in 2003, I became curious about its gigantic neighbor to the west, Greenland. With an area three times the size of Texas, Greenland is the largest island in the world. 80% of it is covered by an ice cap as much as 2 miles deep. As we flew over the ice cap during our return flight from Iceland, I wondered who the people are who live in a place as inhospitable as Greenland appears from the air. It turns out, Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants live in coastal towns and settlements – not on the ice cap.


During a phone conversation in 2007 with my mother, she mentioned that she saw on the local news that Air Greenland announced its first direct route from the U.S.. The 4-hour flight between Baltimore, MD and Kangerlussuaq, Greenland would occur twice weekly during the summer. I thought to myself, "Finally, an easy way to get to Greenland." Before this new route, a person would have had to do a transatlantic flight to Denmark before flying halfway back the way he/she came to Greenland.

I somehow managed to convince my wife to postpone the Caribbean cruise we were considering in favor of a trip to the arctic. In February 2008, I made reservations for the 8-day Ilulissat/Kangerlussuaq, Greenland vacation package offered by Borton Overseas travel agency. However, by March 2008, Air Greenland announced they were canceling their U.S. route mainly due to a projected profit loss and rising fuel costs. In April, I got a message from our travel agent indicating that Air Greenland and IcelandAir had worked out new arrangements for those who had signed up for the trip. Instead of flying Air Greenland from Baltimore, IcelandAir would fly us from one of their North American hubs to Keflavik, Iceland. From there, IcelandAir would fly us to Nuuk, Greenland where Air Greenland would fly us to Ilulissat to begin the Ilulissat/Kangerlussuaq package. I was pleased when I found out about this new plan because there was no extra charge; yet, two days were added and we were given overnights in two additional towns – Nuuk, Greenland and Keflavik, Iceland. We decided to leave from New York JFK International Airport since it is the closest IcelandAir hub to Philadelphia. Despite all the changes and complex itinerary, the whole trip went smoothly.

Mosquitoes: The arctic is plagued by these pesky, biting insects in July and August. They are almost enough to drive a person insane. Bring a mosquito head net and insect repellent containing DEET. These items are sold in Greenland but I'm glad we bought them at home and not at the outrages Greenlandic prices. I paid $1.68 per mosquito head net at the Wal-Mart up the street from my house. Mosquito head nets were being sold at the equivalent of $14 in Greenland.

Sled Dogs: Greenlandic sled dogs are still used in winter but during the summer they are chained in large fields around town. They are the only breed allowed above the Arctic Circle in Greenland. These dogs are beasts of burden - not house pets. They are closely related to wolves and may bite if you come too close.

CITES Requirement: Common souvenir items in Ilulissat are rugs and clothing made from furs such as seal, fox, reindeer, and polar bear. There were also carvings (tupilak) and jewelry made from animal bones and tusk. Some of these items such as those made from walrus, polar bear, and whales are prohibited from being brought into the U.S. unless you show proof that the animal was not poached. Therefore, if you are considering purchasing these items, ask for a CITES certificate at the shops to verify the product will pass U.S. customs. There are some items made from certain species of whale that are flat out banned. The CITES documentation can help you determine which ones.

Dress in Layers: We visited Ilulissat in early July. I never needed more than a light jacket when walking around town; however, when out on boat trips, the wind coming off the icebergs and glaciers is near freezing. At those times, a fleece layer covered by a windbreaker is recommended along with gloves and a cap.

Language: The official language of Greenland is Greenlandic; however, since Greenland is a territory of Denmark, Danish is also widely spoken. Fortunately for us anglophones, most of the people I met either on the streets or at tourist locations spoke English fluently. In addition to Greenlandic and Danish, English is a required language in the Greenlandic school system.

Currency: The local currency is the Danish Kroner (DKK). There is an ATM machine at the bank in town that will dispense this currency but the ATM is only available during banking hours.

Credit Card Usage: I used my credit card for most purchases but I normally had to warn the merchants that my purchases require a signature as opposed to a PIN required by European credit cards. Although this caused confusion in many cases, most of the vendors eventually figured out the correct series of keystrokes to process my card. There was only one case where the vendor couldn't figure it out. I just used cash in that situation.

Seeing The Ice Fjord: The Ilulissat Kangerlua Ice Fjord is the main tourist attraction in Ilulissat. The local tour companies offer excursions that allow tourists to see this UNESCO World Heritage Site by land, water, and air. We saw it by hiking and by boat. It is quite spectacular. We didn’t do the helicopter ride because it was more expensive than we were willing to pay. However, we got a glimpse of the fjord from the air during our flight to Ilulissat. You can too if you get a seat on the right-hand side of the airplane when approaching Ilulissat from the south. Air Greenland flights do not have assigned seats, so make sure you are near the front of the line when boarding the plane to increase your chances of getting a good seat.