Departure from Copenhagen in the morning and after approximately 4½ hours’ flight you set foot on the world’s largest island. Following a brief stop in Kangerlussuaq, we continue toward Ilulissat on a smaller plane. It is a beautiful 45-minute flight, which allows you to take in the magnificent icy landscape, the barren wilderness, and the magnitude of the Arctic. During our approach to Ilulissat, the town will seem to be located in the middle of nowhere. The colored houses stand in stark contrast to the snow-clad mountains, and you can look forward to the coming days filled with ice, winter, and dog sledding – combined with cultural elements from a modern, yet highly authentic, Greenlandic town.

Hotel Arctic’s shuttle bus will pick you up at the airport, and you will check in at the wonderfully situated four-star hotel. Here you will meet one of our guides, who will brief you about the town, the area, dining, and excursion possibilities. You can book excursions at the meeting, or have your pre-booked excursions confirmed.

Guided tour of the town (Included in excursion package)

The first excursion in the excursion package (should you have purchased it) is a guided tour of the town. You will learn about the history of the town and experience its many interesting aspects, including the many sled dogs that live here. Most of the dogs stay outside of the city in a large kennel if they are not roaming the terrain.

Ilulissat means icebergs, which is rather self-explanatory once you get to see the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage site of  Ilulissat Ice Fjord and the numerous icebergs majestically floating around in the fjord, lit up by an almost magical light caused by reflections of the sun.

At night, you will have a lovely welcome dinner in the hotel’s amazing restaurant (drinks not included).

Disko Bay is one of Greenland’s most popular tourist destinations. Primarily because of the ice, but also due to the beauty of the place, the many cultural attractions and the interaction between the traditional way of life and modern town life.

Ilulissat and the surrounding area offer excursion possibilities aplenty, and perhaps the initial briefing has inspired you to make the most of your day – or maybe you want to take in the fantastic views of Disko Bay and let time stand still for a few hours?

Sailing among icebergs (Included in excursion package)

Almost every visitor in Ilulissat chooses to go on this boat trip among the icebergs at least once. Every day, more than 40 million ton of ice flow out into the fjord. The icebergs are gigantic, sometimes measuring more than 100 meters wide – and with a height of more than 60 meters above the water surface as well. These giants gather at the end of the fjord, providing you with a great opportunity to sail among them. You should not miss out on this exceptional experience when visiting Ilulissat.

Remember to bring warm clothes, or you can rent sealskin clothing.

Polar Night Explorer (Driving in the Polar Night with a Snowcat) (Included in excursion package – not available in April)

This is an evening tour where you experience the beautiful polar night, which is always an exciting part of a winter tour to Greenland. We leave town in World of Greenland’s snowcat. It has a heated cabin, so it is a comfortable way to get out into nature and experience the harsh but beautiful polar night.

We drive up through a gorge, leaving the town’s light pollution behind as we enter the UNESCO World Heritage Site. You will hear legends and myths about Greenlandic supernatural beings along the way.

It takes about 40 minutes to reach our destination at the top of a mountain with a view of the polar sky.

It is time for a break, and we can keep warm with a lit burner. The Arctic darkness is a fascinating experience, and if we are lucky, the polar night will reveal itself with twinkling stars and dancing Northern Lights. If it’s cloudy, it’s still a fascinating trip with the magic of myths and the stay in the polar darkness. The tour takes about 2½ hours.

If you have purchased the excursion package, you can look forward to today’s 1 ½-hour dog sled ride:

Dog sled ride (Included in excursion package)

The dog sled is one of the most famous Greenlandic icons and a thousand-year-old tradition for the Inuit. Not many vehicles have survived such a long period without changes in appearance and technology: a pack of happy dogs in harnesses tied to a simply constructed wooden sled. The experience can not be explained – it must be tried.

This trip usually takes place in flat terrain on a plain near Ilulissat. In addition to the sled driver, you are two participants on each of the sleds, so if you have booked the excursion on your own, you may share a sled with another person. However, all dogs are different, so if you are out with family and friends, we can not guarantee that you will be riding together on the entire trip as some dogs are fast, and others are not. This trip is recommended for those with neck or back problems or if you are immobile. Participants must be 12 years and older.

Igloo Lodge (optional)

On days 3-4, you can experience a real igloo where you will spend the night and, from here, go on some unique excursions.

Our subsidiary in Ilulissat, World of Greenland, has been very successful with their summer lodges at the Eqi Glacier and in the settlement of Ilimanaq. Now, they also offer winter lodges in the shape of igloos. You will be taken on a snowmobile into the wonderful winter landscape where we hope to see the northern lights dance in the sky in the evening.

Here, at the foot of the mountains, you will spend the night in an igloo (with the possibility of staying in a heated cabin). Igloo Lodge consists of five spacious igloos, each of which accommodates two people. Reindeer pelts and warm winter sleeping bags are covering the beds. There are also candles on the bedside table, which means that the temperature is around the freezing point inside the igloo. It is comparatively warm compared to the minus 20 degrees Celcius/ minus 4 Fahrenheit outside. The wooden cabin by the lodge is where we will eat our meals. In the wooden cabin, there is also an outhouse type restroom.

While staying at the Igloo Lodge, you are going on two excursions. The first excursion is a snowshoe trip where we head to a vantage point, overlooking the Kangia Icefjord. The second is a snowmobile ride to the huts overlooking the winter fishing spots at Aattartoq in the Ilulissat hinterland.

The trip to Igloo Lodge itself is an adventure! You are driven in a snowcat for about an hour into the Ilulissat hinterland with amazing views along the way. You will be met at the cabin with coffee and lunch. Afterward, you will go on the excursions mentioned above, have an afternoon coffee with cake, dinner, and evening coffee followed by a look outside to see if the northern lights are out. Then you will stay overnight in an igloo, and, in the morning, breakfast is served and, finally, there’s the snowmobile trip back to civilization.

Please notice: If you are interested in our outdoor package, please contact us by phone or email, so we can check if there is space at the time you want to go. As mentioned, the other excursions are also included in the outdoor package. However, if you choose the outdoor package, some of these other excursions will be moved to other days than those mentioned in the day-to-day program.

Use the final day to experience the atmosphere and life in the town, go back in time and feel a sense of history at the cozy museum established in Knud Rasmussen’s birthplace. The fishermen at ‘Brættet,’ the local marketplace, provide you with an impression of the interesting food products of Greenland. They do not come any fresher than this.

When you have satisfied your appetite for visual experiences, it is time to treat your palate and fill your stomach. The restaurants in Ilulissat invite you on a journey through local specialties such as Greenlandic sushi, deep-fried ammassats (small fish), whale and seal – and in the cafés, freshly-baked cakes will tempt everyone with a sweet tooth. This is indeed a journey that will put all your senses to work.

And gazing at the Ice Fjord will never get tiresome, by the way.

If you purchased the outdoor excursion package, you will today return home from your Iglo overnight stay with the option of a 1½-hour dog sled ride. (see day 3)

After an intense, extended weekend, it is time to say your goodbyes to Ilulissat. Greenland is likely to have made quite an impression on you that will spark a special feeling and flash a series of indelible mental images whenever you hear the word Greenland mentioned in the future.

You will depart from Ilulissat via Kangerlussuaq, arriving in Copenhagen by evening.