Exploring The Ilulissat Icefjord In Greenland – Hand Luggage Only

After such an incredible day exploring Disko Island and Eqip Sermia, we woke up to views of the magnificent Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland.

It’s not too far (in terms of nautical miles), maybe around 150 miles from Eqip Sermia. This meant we had much more time to explore Ilulissat after anchoring up.

Now, the Ilulissat Icefjord is a UNESO-protected site, and with good reason. From what I remember, it’s an area for glacial runoff, contributing to 4% of the world’s water. So, as you can imagine, there’s lots of ice.

Now, what makes the area around Ilulissat even more special is that there’s a glacial ‘ledge’ or ‘deposit’ of sediment and rocks that traps lots of the calving glacial pieces from moving into the open ocean around Disko Bay.

To put it simply, colossal icebergs get trapped in the lagoon around Ilulissat, and you end up seeing vast icebergs the size of mountains, and that’s no exaggeration. It’s mindblowing and a sort of iceberg traffic jam. 

So, with all this information in hand, we hopped on a trusted zodiac to take us to the jetty in Ilulissat town itself.

Ilulissat is a town that, by Greenlandic standards, is pretty large. By UK or US standards, you’d consider it a large village or small town.

You can spend an hour or so wandering Ilulissat, checking out the iconic red church and visiting the local stores. These sell tupilak (see picture below) or soapstone figures, both of which are great souvenirs from Greenland.

However, Ilulissat’s main drawer is the Icefjord.

We had planned to book a boat tour through the icebergs in Disko Bay via Albatros Expeditions. However, we’d left it too late to book, and all the spaces had been filled. So, after arriving in Ilulissat, we took a stroll through the town and headed to Ilulissat Adventure.

These guys organise tours in and around Ilulissat and Disko Bay, and they have heaps to choose from. We popped in, and they were immediately available for a private RIB tour of the Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland.

We jumped at the change, and we were so thankful they had last-minute availability. 

The RIB tour, by the way, was incredible.

We spent the next hour weaving between the colossal icebergs, and it was so severe. In fact, we had the whole lagoon to ourselves; it was magical, and the views were just spectacular.

As you can see, the icebergs are absolutely massive, so naturally, you don’t…