Understanding Greenland
Greenland recognises the devastating effects of climate change and continues to push for responsible and sustainable tourism.
Important commentary on Covid-19
For all travellers joining an Odyssey small group tour we ask for respect for all member of the group and yourself and the communities we are visiting and that:
- If requested by Odyssey Traveller you will undertake to take a Covid-19 test and share the result with Odyssey no more than 72 hours before a tour commences.
- You respect the communities you are visiting and the Covid-19 directions issued including social distancing.
- You will advise your program leader/Odyssey of any underlying change in your health whilst on tour and up to 14 days after the tour.
- Odyssey and its suppliers will observe as a minimum the WTTC guidelines and those of the region you are visiting their Covid-19 requirements, the higher standard of the two instructions will be applied for a small group tour.
- We remain aware, vigilant and empathetic to the need to change arrangements in response to the challenges of managing Covid-19 before and during a small group tour for the benefit of all in the internal and external Odyssey Traveller community.
Travellers should also familiarise themselves with our Peace of mind travel policy for Covid-19 as well as the terms and conditions applicable at the time of booking.
Discover Greenland | Greenland Small Group Tour
Our Discover Greenland small group tour lets travellers experience one of the world's most picturesque landscape. Greenland is the largest island in the world, with the vast majority of its landmass lying above the Arctic Circle. Few places are quite so difficult to reach. Our Discover Greenland is a short tour. We have been at great pains to ensure that our travellers get to experience this breathtaking island.
On this short tour, travellers receive the most comprehensive overview of this vast landmass, an autonomous region of Denmark. To maximise the learning experience and to Discover Greenland’s history and culture, the tour includes a visit to the astonishingly picturesque capital of Nuuk. From there, we experience amazing views from a fjord adventure of Nuup Kangerlua (Godthaab Fjord); a full day of beautiful nature, fascinating stories and delicious food in one of the worlds most remote restaurants. The next day we will explore and learn about the capital with it's colonial harbour. This tour is perfect introduction to Nuuk and will help you understand more of the people and the history of Greenland.
We visit during the summer months and can thus experience the burst of seasonal flora that caused the early voyagers to name it Greenland.
You can learn more about Greenland with our profile. For more details about how you might like to Discover Greenland’s history and culture then please click the ‘Top 5’ or ‘Itinerary’ buttons above! If you’re keen to experience this tour, please call or send an email. Or, to book, simply fill in the form on the right hand side of this page.
There is also the possibility of adding an additional Extension to Iceland on to this tour. This article shares a commentary with you about Iceland as destination.
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Northern Lights
The science of the Northern Lights Although many are more familiar with the Northern Lights, the natural phenomenon is not exclusive to the Northern Hemisphere. The polar lights are caused by solar activity. When there…
Nuuk, Greenland
Nuuk is an incredible city to visit, a small but cosmopolitan city with modern conveniences–gourmet dining, beautiful boutique fashion shops, apartment blocks–that still also retains its centuries-old indigenous roots.
- Group size limited to 8.
- Itineraries may change if flight schedules, site availability, and other inclusions have to be amended prior to departure.
Overview: Overview: We take the evening Air Iceland flight from Reykjavik (domestic airport) to Nuuk. From here, we will be picked up and transferred to our accommodation. Our standard rooms will be of smaller sizes, but comfortable and clean. We enjoy a late dinner at a nearby restaurant.
(D)
Accommodation: Hotel Seamans Home or similar
Overview: Overview: We enjoy breakfast in the hotel. We are picked up for a guided boat tour and whale watching trip in Nuup Kangerlua, where you can see icebergs and waterfalls. There is the possibility of visiting the abandoned settlement of Qoornoq where people can stretch their legs and look at the old abandoned buildings. We then head via the opening of the Icefjord and past a mythical cliff called Pisissarfik and past a small island, where a stone has been marked by both the Inuit and viking culture.
15:30 Arrival Timmiannguit
We throw lines to catch our own dinner. The lines will sink to around 100 meters depth, where we will be catching cod or redfish.
16:30 Arrival Qooqqut Nuan
The freshly caught fish will be handed over to the chefs of Qooqqut Nuan, who will prepare the fish and serve it in a 3 course gourmet experience.
18:30 Departure from Qooqqut Nuan
(B,L,D)
Accommodation: Hotel Seamans Home or similar
Overview: Overview: After breakfast, you will be taken on a little bus with an English and Danish speaking guide. The tour will visit the modern part of Nuuk, Qinngorput, as well as the old colonial harbour. In between we will go back through history, starting in the modern suburb of Qinngor-put going through Nuussuaq and the 1970’s roug-houses and apartments, then going through the older but also modern downtown, the Herenhut history, hospital and finally the old colonial harbour with Hans Egede’s house.
This tour is perfect as an introduction to Nuuk and will help you understand more of the people and the history of Nu-uk and Greenland. Nuuk was the first place of the modern colonization.
We will stop for a light lunch, before continuing on foot to the National Museum of Greenland.
The Museum was started in mid-1960’s as the first museum in Greenland. The collections have expanded ever since, from excavations and with repatriated material from the Danish National Museum. The museum works with archaeology, recent history, arts and crafts.
Dinner is not included tonight, but the program leader will make sure that you are taken to a restaurant of your choice.
(B,L)
Accommodation: Hotel Seamans Home or similar
Overview: Overview: After breakfast at our hotel, you have a couple of hours to pack or explore Nuuk. We transfer to the airport for our early afternoon flight back to Reykjavik. You arrive back in Reykjavik at 7:30pm, and Odyssey is happy to assist with arranging an airport hotel if you decide to fly out the next day.
(B)
1
Guided fjord boating trip in Nuup Kangerlua— see icebergs and waterfalls where you can drink the water and maybe even see a whale or two.
2
Catch your own dinner; throw a line which will sink to 100 meters depth and hope to catch a cod or redfish, which will later be prepared by a chef and served as 3 course gourmet experience.
3
Encounter people who live and work in the Northern Hemisphere’s starkest and least-populated land mass
4
Guided day-tour in a coach of Greenland’s Capital, Nuuk, learn about it’s history and people.
5
Visit the National Museum of Greenland.
What’s included in our Tour
- 3 nights of hotel accommodation in Nuuk
- 3 breakfasts, 2 lunches, and 2 dinners.
- Reykjavik – Nuuk return flights including taxes (economy class, luggage limits may apply)
- Airport transfers in Nuuk
- Transport in comfortable and modern coaches.
- Activities as per advertised in the itinerary.
- Services of a Tour Leader for the duration of tour.
- Service charges and gratuities.
What’s not included in our Tour
- International airfares and departure taxes.
- Comprehensive travel insurance.
- Items of a personal nature such as telephone calls and laundry.
Available at
Journal of a Greenland Voyage
William Scoresby junior (1789-1857), explorer, scientist, and later Church of England clergyman, first travelled to the Arctic when he was just ten years old. The son of Arctic whaler and navigator William Scoresby of Whitby, he spent nearly every summer for twenty years at a Greenland whale fishery. He made significant discoveries in Arctic geography, meteorology, oceanography, and magnetism, and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1824. First published in 1823, this book recounts Scoresby's voyage to Greenland in the summer of 1822 aboard the Baffin, a whaler of his own design. On this journey, his penultimate voyage to the north, he charted a large section of the coast of Greenland. His narrative also includes descriptions of scientific observations and geographical discoveries made during the voyage, and the appendices includes lists of rock specimens, plants and animal life, and notes on meteorological and other dataScoresby’s regular whaling voyages to the Greenland fishery gradually came to involve exploration and the study of the natural history of the Arctic regions; he was largely encouraged in the latter regard through his correspondence with Joseph Banks. This work is an account of his 1822 voyage, which combined several weeks whaling with the exploration of the Scoresby Sound region (on this voyage Scoresby named Scoresby land and Scoresby Sound) and approximately 800 miles of the East Greenland coast, searching for Esquimaux settlements and making scientific observations. He describes ice and weather conditions, optical phenomena, and ruins of Esquimaux dwellings and their burial places. Appended is a list of rock specimens by W.Jameson, an annotated list of 45 species of plants by Sir W.J.Hooker, a list of animals, a meteorological table and extracts from the journals of two other whalers
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The Greenlanders
This enthralling epic tale, written in the tradition of the old Norse sagas, takes us to fourteenth-century Greenland—a farflung place of glittering fjords, blasting winds, sun-warmed meadows, and high, dark mountains. This is the story of one family: proud landowner Asgeir Gunnarsson; his daughter Margret, whose willful independence leads her into passionate adultery and exile; and his son Gunnar, whose quest for knowledge is at the compelling center of this unforgettable book. Jane Smiley immerses us in this world of farmers, priests, and lawspeakers, of hunts and feasts and long-standing feuds, and by an act of literary magic, makes a remote time, place, and people not only real but dear to us.
Exploring Greenland: Cold War Science and Technology on Ice
Using newly declassified documents, this book explores why U.S. military leaders after World War II sought to monitor the far north and understand the physical environment of Greenland, a crucial territory of Denmark. It reveals a fascinating yet little-known realm of Cold War intrigue and a delicate diplomatic duet between a smaller state and a superpower amid a time of intense global pressures. Written by scholars in Denmark and the United States, this book explores many compelling topics. What led to the creation of the U.S. Thule Air Base in Greenland, one of the world’s largest, and why did the U.S. build a nuclear-powered city under Greenland’s ice cap? How did Danish concern about sovereignty shape scientific research programs in Greenland? Also explored here: why did Denmark’s most famous scientist, Inge Lehmann, became involved in research in Greenland, and what international reverberations resulted from the crash of a U.S. B-52 bomber carrying four nuclear weapons near Thule in January 1968?
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Rethinking Greenland and the Arctic in the Era of Climate Change
This ground-breaking book investigates how Arctic indigenous communities deal with the challenges of climate change and how they strive to develop self-determination. Adopting an anthropological focus on Greenland’s vision to boost extractive industries and transform society, the book examines how indigenous communities engage with climate change and development discourses. It applies a critical and comparative approach, integrating both local perspectives and adaptation research from Canada and Greenland to make the case for recasting the way the Arctic and Inuit are approached conceptually and politically. The emphasis on indigenous peoples as future-makers and right-holders paves the way for a new understanding of the concept of indigenous knowledge and a more sensitive appreciation of predicaments and dynamics in the Arctic.This book will be of interest to post-graduate students and researchers in environmental studies, development studies and area studies.
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An African in Greenland
Tété-Michel Kpomassie was a teenager in Togo when he discovered a book about Greenland—and knew that he must go there. Working his way north over nearly a decade, Kpomassie finally arrived in the country of his dreams. This brilliantly observed and superbly entertaining record of his adventures among the Inuit is a testament both to the wonderful strangeness of the human species and to the surprising sympathies that bind us all.
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This Cold Heaven: Seven Seasons in Greenland
For the last decade, Gretel Ehrlich has been obsessed by an island, a terrain, a culture, and the treacherous beauty of a world that is defined by ice. In This Cold Heaven she combines the story of her travels with history and cultural anthropology to reveal a Greenland that few of us could otherwise imagine.Ehrlich unlocks the secrets of this severe land and those who live there; a hardy people who still travel by dogsled and kayak and prefer the mystical four months a year of endless darkness to the gentler summers without night. She discovers the twenty-three words the Inuit have for ice, befriends a polar bear hunter, and comes to agree with the great Danish-Inuit explorer Knud Rasmussen that “all true wisdom is only to be found far from the dwellings of man, in great solitudes.” This Cold Heaven is at once a thrilling adventure story and a meditation on the clarity of life at the extreme edge of the world.
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