Ilulissat
Ilulissat is a town of around 5,000 people on the west coast of Greenland, 250 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, and the gateway to the Ilulissat Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004. The name means icebergs in Greenlandic, and the description is apt: the town looks directly out over Disko Bay, where colossal icebergs calved from the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier drift slowly past on their way to the open sea. Sermeq Kujalleq is the most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere, calving over 46 cubic kilometres of ice annually, which accounts for around 10 percent of all calving ice from the Greenland ice sheet. The combination of scale, accessibility, and sheer spectacle makes Ilulissat one of the most visited destinations in Greenland.
A Town Built Among Icebergs, at the Mouth of the World's Most Productive Glacier
The Ilulissat Icefjord stretches 40 kilometres from the face of the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier to the open waters of Disko Bay. The glacier moves at up to 40 metres per day, one of the fastest rates of any glacier on Earth, and the icebergs it produces are so large that many ground in the shallow waters of the fjord before eventually breaking up and floating free. Some of these grounded bergs rise 30 to 40 metres above the waterline, with the greater part of their mass hidden below. The fjord was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2004 for its scientific importance in understanding glacial processes and climate change; scientists have been studying the glacier here for more than 250 years, making it one of the most continuously observed ice systems in the world. Evidence of human settlement along the fjord extends back to the Saqqaq culture around 2,500 BCE, through the Dorset and Thule peoples to the founding of the modern Danish colonial town in 1741.
The town of Ilulissat sits on a rocky headland above the bay, with colourful houses arranged across the hillside and the movement of icebergs visible from almost everywhere in town. The main trail network around the Icefjord provides walking routes of various lengths along the fjord rim, with the most popular path following the southern edge to a viewpoint directly overlooking the glacier front. In summer the midnight sun means the light on the ice changes continuously through the night, and the cracking and groaning of the glacier carries across the water. Boat tours from the town harbour cruise among the icebergs at close range, and whale watching trips are common in summer as humpback, fin, and minke whales feed on the nutrient-rich waters around the fjord mouth. Dog sledding is the traditional form of transport in the region and tours are available in winter when the sea ice forms.
Ilulissat is reached by air from Reykjavík with Air Iceland Connect and from Copenhagen with Air Greenland, with flights landing at Ilulissat Airport just north of the town centre. The town has a hotel, several guesthouses, restaurants, and a small supermarket. The Ilulissat Museum documents the town's history and the life of Knud Rasmussen, the famous Arctic explorer who was born here in 1879. The best time to visit for iceberg viewing and hiking is June to September; winter visits are possible and offer northern lights and dog sledding but require more preparation for extreme cold. From Narsarsuaq in South Greenland, Ilulissat is accessible by internal Air Greenland flights via Nuuk.
