Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland is a place with some impressive superlatives, being sandwiched between the world’s largest fjord system, Scoresby Sund, to the south and the world’s largest national park, Northeast Greenland National Park, to the north.
As you might imagine, it’s incredibly remote. In fact, it’s one of only a handful of settlements along the 6,200 mile coastline of eastern Greenland and the ONLY town in the Northeastern region of the country. For each of the 500 visitors that make it here each year, you’ll get to experience immense natural beauty and unique Indigenous culture. If you want to experience this mysterious place for yourself, here’s everything you need to know about visiting Ittoqqortoormiit.
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Where is Ittoqqortoormiit?
Ittoqqortoormiit is located here, way above the Arctic Circle along the Northeastern coastline of Greenland. The closest city, Tasiilaq, is about 500 miles south, as the crow flies, with nothing but fjords and wilderness to connect the two towns.
How to get to Ittoqqortoormiit
As you might imagine, it’s not exactly the easiest to reach Ittoqqortoormiit, but there are actually a few ways to get there.
By cruise ship
The most common way that travelers reach Ittoqqortoormiit is on small expedition cruise ships, typically while sailing around Northeastern Greenland.
My husband, Justin, and I visited Ittoqqortoormiit while doing a Greenland cruise with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic. It was actually the only town in Greenland we stopped at during our cruise—the rest of our time was spent looking for Arctic wildlife and taking in the spectacular scenery—and I’m so glad it was included in our itinerary! It was an incredibly unique experience to get an up close and personal look at how people live and thrive in such a remote, Arctic community.
By air
Alternatively, you can fly into Nerlerit Inaat Airport (i.e., Constable Point) from Reykjavik or Akureyri in Iceland (there are no domestic flights that reach this area).
From here, you can either take a helicopter, snowmobile, or boat the last 40 kilometers to Ittoqqortoormiit, which can be booked through operators, like Nanu Travels.
When to visit Ittoqqortoormiit
Most travelers visit Ittoqqortoormiit from July through early September, when the Scoresby Sund is generally free of ice and the town is accessible by boat. This is a great time to visit if you’re interested in taking advantage of the Midnight Sun (i.e., where the sun doesn’t set for several weeks at a time) while kayaking, hiking, or spotting wildlife here.
Outside of this timeframe, the surrounding fjord freezes over, so the only way to reach Ittoqqortoormiit is by snowmobile or helicopter. During this timeframe, the best months to visit are February through May, while there are a few hours of daylight each day to enjoy dog sledding or snowmobiling but still incredibly long nights to enjoy the Northern Lights, dancing overhead.
Just be sure to pack LOTS of warm layers if you visit during this timeframe—the average high temperature in February and March is 13° F!
Things to do in Ittoqqortoormiit
This is a teeny and remote town of just 350 residents, so there’s honestly not a TON to things to do in Ittoqqortoormiit. Still, there’s plenty of ways that you can dive into this unique Arctic community.
Explore town
Most travelers, like us, only have a few hours to spend wandering around Ittoqqortoormiit. There are several interesting buildings to poke around, including a church, grocery store, and community center, where the locals were serving muskoxen and showing off their traditional clothing when we visited.
Visit the Ittoqqortoormiit Museum
There’s a small museum that houses photographs, artifacts, paintings, and traditional clothing items that tell the history and culture of living in such a remote and harsh environment.
Kayaking
There are outfitters, like Nanu Travel, that you can rent kayaks from for anywhere from a day or for weeks at a time that you can use to explore the Scoresby Sund. You can kayak past seals, massive mountains, and some of the largest icebergs in the world.
Boat tours
If you don’t feel like paddling yourself around the Scoresby Sund, you can always hire a guide to take you out in a boat. Not only is this an excellent way to take in the spectacular scenery of the surrounding fjord, but you’ll also have a better chance of spotting wildlife, like seals, walruses, whales, and narwhals.
Hiking
There are a variety of trails that start in Ittoqqortoormiit, which range from easy 4 kilometer hiking trails to more challenging 18 kilometer trails. You can pick up a map of the area’s hikes from the tourism office in town.
It’s popular to hike to the nearby settlement of Ûnarteq, where hikers are invited to camp overnight. There’s actually even a service building here with a shower, toilet, and cooking facilities.
Just remember that conditions in Greenland are pretty unpredictable, including extremely foggy weather and dangerous wildlife (including polar bears!). So, you’ll either need to be knowledgeable on how to use a rifle (which are available to rent in town) to scare away polar bears, if needed, or hire an armed guide to hike with you. You should also bring along a satellite communication device, just in case.
Northern Lights viewing
The best months to view the Northern Lights are January, February, and March, when the nights are long and dark and the skies tend to be clear.
There are tour packages offered through Nanu Travel that combine dog sledding during the day and Northern Lights viewing in the evening—what could be a more magical Arctic experience than that!
Dog sledding
Dog sledding has been an important part of Inuit survival and culture in Greenland for thousands of years. While snowmobiling has become an increasingly important means of transportation during the wintertime, dog sledding remains an important cultural practice in Greenland, especially in more remote areas, like Ittoqqortoormiit.
You can book tours that range from one day to expeditions that last for multiple weeks across Northeastern Greenland. You can even design trips that are designed to follow in the steps of great Arctic explorers, like Lauge Koch, Ejnar Mikkelsen, or Mylius-Erichsen.
Tips for Ittoqqortoormiit
Hire a guide
There’s a small hotel here, the Ittoqqortoormiit Guesthouse, but, given the town’s extremely remote location, this isn’t exactly a place I’d just recommend showing up at.
If you want to spend a few days exploring this unique corner of the world, I’d suggest hiring a local guide, like Nanu Travel, who can help arrange your transportation from the airport and with other outings, like kayaking or hiking, during your trip.
Be polar bear aware
As noted above, polar bears can and do wander into or close to town. Most species of bears won’t really bother humans unless they’re threatened or sick in some way, but this is decidedly not the case with polar bears.
While it’s generally perfectly safe to walk around Ittoqqortoormiit by yourself, you shouldn’t wander outside of town, unless you are armed with a rifle you know how to use to scare away polar bears or with an armed guard.
Consider bringing your own food
There is one restaurant in Ittoqqortoormiit, called the Orormersiarderdarpi Grill Café, which primarily serves burgers and hot dogs for hungry tourists.
Generally, though, food here is EXTREMELY limited. The Scoresby Sund is only navigable by boat about three months of the year, so the town receives just two grocery shipments per year. Most of their food is actually produced through locals’ hunting efforts, including polar bear, narwhal, seal, and muskoxen meat.
Accordingly, I’d suggest bringing as much of your own food as you can (unless you’re specifically signing up for a tour package that includes your meals while you’re here).
Given the limited grocery supplies here, I wouldn’t recommend shopping here, as it may negatively impact the locals. Additionally, if you have any kind of dietary restrictions (like vegetarian or gluten-free), you’d likely be extremely hard-pressed to find what you’re looking for here. Luckily, the Ittoqqortoormiit Guesthouse has a self catering kitchen where you can whip up whatever dishes you’d like!
I hope you have an amazing time in Ittoqqortoormiit—it’s such a special corner of our planet! Do you have any questions about visiting this unique place? Let us know in the comments below!
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