VGF

Hi All,

We took an amazing trip to Greenland in July. We've traveled extensively to developed and developing countries all over the world and Greenland ranks near the top in terms of unspoiled nature and spectacular scenery. Highly recommended for outdoorsy types.

The trip was arranged by greenland-travel, which has a variety of choices of trip length and style. This trip was not a guided trip. Instead, they arranged all the hotels and transportation, and a few optional excursions. Then, we would meet up with particular guides for particular excursions wherever we went. It worked out really well. Lots of enthusiastic young guides.

Be warned that it's very expensive to visit Greenland, as it's part of Denmark which has a very high cost of living to start with, and because little besides fish is produced locally, which means everything must be imported.

We spent most of our time around Ilulissat, but also visited Eqi (a huge calving glacier), and Oqatsut (a village of only 35 people). We took a late-evening plane ride over the Ilulissat icefjord with Air Zafari, which was as spectacular as it sounds. To see the large photos and detailed description of the icecap, icefjord, and icebergs, visit the link below:

http://fisherphotocraft.blogspot.com...reenlands.html

This is only the first of several articles/photo galleries I'll do about the trip. Lots more amazing photos to come!

Hope you enjoy,
Vick

Adelaidean

Just incredible, Vick.

RM67

Great photos. My brother used to be an oceanographer working in the southern antarctic ocean. We have many pictures of icebergs, abandoned whaling stations and ship graveyards that he took whilst down there. They are places not many of us will get to see and so evocative. Your photos remind me of his exploits.

VGF

Thanks Adelaidean!

To RM67 - sounds like your brother must have seen a lot of amazing things. What an interesting and unusual job!

Upcoming articles will include some of my favorite iceberg photos.

MarthaT

Loved the photos. Amazing scenery.

VGF

Thanks Martha! BTW, it's funny - I had to tag this with Iceland, because Fodor's doesn't have a Greenland tag on the list. Not enough people get to see this amazing place!

xyz99

Amazing scenery, thanks for sharing.
You're right, few get to see this...but it's so cold there
Hope you'll post more about your trip there, logistics, length, etc. Would like to visit someday...

VGF

Thanks xyz99! It was 12 days - have to fly most places because there are no roads between villages - well, fly some and take boats a lot more. Excursions cost hundreds of dollars each, so not for the faint of budget! Good weather all the time for us - cool and clear every day but one. Greenland is part of Denmark, so most flights go from Copenhagen. There are only a few flights each day - period.

lauren_s_kahn

I went to Kulusk, Greenland, on a day trip from Reykjavik recently. My blog and photos on my day in Greenland can be found here:

http://altecockertravels.weebly.com/...y-31-2016.html

xyz99

VGF,
Will you post more details on your blog? Which places you stopped/stayed in these 12 days? There is not a lot of information about Greenland, so what resources did you use to plan the trip?

We flew over Greenland in July on our way back from Iceland. I saw some BIG glaciers, but I think I would like a closer look

VGF

We concentrated on Ilulissat, with a side trip to Eqi. Ilulissat has the icefjord near it and the icebergs at the mouth of the icefjord. Eqi is a huge glacier that calves into the water much of the time, with the sound of thunder echoing through the hills almost all the time. I think these are the two top sights in Greenland that have any facilities for visitors.

I would have liked to go deep onto the icecap, but I didnt' find any guided trips up there. It's quite far, and there are no roads or places to stay up there, so it's all camping on your own. Possibly dangerous since there are deep crevasses and shifting seracs everywhere up there.

VGF

There is a nearly $1000 per person sight-seeing flight to go out deep over the icecap, but that was more than we could stomach, and I think there is a minimum number that have to sign up, so I don't think it goes all that often. Air Zafari offers that as an option. They are the ones we went with for the flight over the icefjord.

Nelson

Fantastic and unusual photos! Thanks for sharing. Loved the blue water river on top of the glacier and the close ups of the seracs, but they are all great.

I've twice seen southern Greenland from 30,000 feet or so, thought it was amazing, and wanted to get closer. This was good!

xyz99

VGF, great info, I will save it for hopefully a future trip. It really looks amazing. Any wildlife there? Polar bears, walruses, birds?

VGF

Good question about wildlife - it took a while for it to sink in that there's a lot of wildlife, though spread out over a vast area. We were seeing humpback whales everywhere we went, even from land. We saw arctic fox at the Eqi Ice Camp, and we saw about twenty reindeer on the excursion from Kangerlussuaq. I think we saw a couple of arctic hawks also.

There are lots of seals, but I think they hide from people to avoid being shot for food.

There are polar bears, but they mainly stay hundreds of miles north of Ilulissat. The last time they saw a polar bear here was 8 years ago.

Of course, the greenlandic dogs are a key cultural icon, and they are everywhere. But, you can't touch them or play with them, since they're not pets - some may be aggressive. Ones younger than six months are allowed to go around unchained, so we did see a lot of cute puppies. All this will be on the blog eventually.