Vacation in Greenland: expedition cruising in the high Arctic
An expedition vacation in Greenland puts you face to face with the largest island on Earth. We sail small expedition vessels along a coastline shaped by fjords, calving glaciers, and drifting icebergs the size of buildings. This is not a destination you observe from a distance. It is one you enter, on foot, by Zodiac, and by kayak.
What makes a Greenland vacation different
A Greenland expedition vacation means travelling to a raw coastline. Our ships are ice-strengthened and built to push into waters larger vessels cannot reach, carrying you close to glacier fronts where the ice cracks and booms before it drops into the sea. Fewer travelers on board means more time ashore. You will step onto tundra where Arctic foxes patrol tundral plains, and where the silence is broken only by wind and shifting ice.
Our expedition staff, naturalists, historians, and polar guides, read the ice and the weather daily. They adjust the route as conditions shift. No two days follow the same script.
Picture by Michelle van Dijk
Wildlife, landscapes, and Inuit history along the coast
Greenland's east and west coasts each carry their own character. Along the way, you might spot humpback whales feeding near the surface, or watch a musk ox stand atop a slope of ancient granite. Seabirds crowd the cliffs in the summer months. Ashore, you can walk among the remains of Inuit settlements that stretch back thousands of years.
The scale here is difficult to describe in numbers. Icebergs calve from tidewater glaciers with a crack that carries for miles. Fjords cut deep into the interior, framed by peaks that rise straight from icy black water.
Activities that put you in the landscape
Kayaking through brash ice puts you at water level, gliding between floes with barely a sound. Hiking routes climb from the shoreline onto open plateaus with views across open water and distant ice sheets. Depending on conditions, you may also have opportunities for snowshoeing or mountaineering on steeper terrain. Photography workshops run alongside these outings, helping you capture the shifting Arctic light.
Our onboard lectures fill the gaps between landings, covering glaciology, wildlife behavior, and the region's Norse and Inuit past. It rounds out a program built around time outdoors, not time in a lounge.
Picture by Charlotte Taplin
Connecting Greenland with the wider Arctic
Many expedition cruises combine Greenland with neighboring Arctic regions. You can pair the fjords of Greenland with the glaciated coastline of Iceland or extend your route toward the polar bear territory of Svalbard. Both routes trace the same themes: drifting ice, seabird colonies, and coastlines rarely touched by large ships.
Greenland rewards those willing to trade comfort for access, and the reward is a coastline unlike anywhere else on the map. Explore our current expedition cruises and book your Greenland vacation online.
Main image by unknown photographer