CNN
—
Greenland may be in the dark of winter right now, but President Donald Trump has once again lifted the arctic island of 56,000 mostly Inuit people halfway between New York and Moscow from frozen anonymity, reviving talk of American control.
“We need Greenland. … It’s very strategic right now,” Trump told reporters aboard an Air Force plane Sunday, a day after the U.S. attacked Venezuela and captured President Nicolas Maduro.
He added: “We need Greenland from a national security perspective, but Denmark will not be able to do that.”
The comments drew alarm from Greenlandic officials, who have repeatedly asserted their right to independence, and from the Danish government, which governs Greenland as an independent crown dependency. European allies, including France, Britain, Germany and Italy, also expressed opposition to America’s expansionist ambitions in the resource-rich Arctic.
Even before President Trump and geopolitics thrust Greenland into the global spotlight, it was already emerging as a travel destination, with travelers discovering the island behind the headlines, a rugged, pristine landscape steeped in rich indigenous culture.
A harsh ice sheet several miles deep covers 80% of Greenland, forcing Inuit to live in colorful communities along the coastline. Here they spend the bitterly cold winters hunting seals on the ice under the northern lights in near-permanent darkness. These days, you can also make use of community stores.
A long-standing problem for travelers has been the time-consuming transit flights to Greenland. That is changing. In late 2024, the long-delayed international airport in the capital Nuuk will open. In June 2025, United Airlines began nonstop flights from Newark to Nuuk twice a week. The island was already seeing a boom in tourism after President Trump drew attention to it.
Two more international airports are scheduled to open this year. The first is Qakortok Airport in South Greenland in April. Then, in October, a more remarkable event occurred in Ilulissat, the island’s only real tourist attraction.
Located on the west coast, Ilulissat is a beautiful halibut and shrimp fishing port in a dark rocky bay. Visitors can sit in the pub and sip craft beer chilled in 100,000-year-old glacier ice.
This is the awe-inspiring location of the UNESCO World Heritage Icefjord, where icebergs the size of Manhattan skyscrapers spill out of the Greenland ice sheet and float like ghost ships in the surrounding Disko Bay.
A small boat takes visitors out to sail up close among the bay’s spectacular fleet of icebergs. But not too close.
“I was once on a boat and saw one of these icebergs break in two. The pieces fell backwards into the sea, causing huge waves,” said David Carlsen, captain of the pleasure boat Kathak. “…I wasn’t just hanging out.”
The other giants of Disco Bay are whales. From June to September, humpback whales join fin and minke whales in feeding on plankton. Greenland’s rocky coastline is perfect for whale watching.
You can eat whale here. Visitors should not be surprised to encounter Mattak, a traditional Greenlandic delicacy (whale skin and blubber that resembles chewing rubber to the taste). Inuit communities have quotas to hunt things like narwhals, as well as polar bears, musk oxen, and caribou, which also appear on menus.
Ilulissat is also a base for coastal cruises. A record number of 141,000 visitors to Greenland in 2024 was due to a surge in cruise tourism (as of January 2026, numbers for 2025 have not been released).
The West Coast is particularly popular for voyages that typically depart from North America or Iceland. Greenland cruising started as a niche for the adventurous, but it has now gone mainstream. In 2026, Virgin Voyages will visit Greenland on its Iceland-New York transatlantic crossing, and Celebrity Cruises has sailed through the region since the coronavirus pandemic.
The number will increase even more during the 2026 solar eclipse. Eyos Expeditions, for example, organizes special cruises around Greenland to set guests on the path of perfection.
From Ilulissat, your cruise ship heads south along the coastline, stopping at Kekertarsuak (Disco) Island, a cute little village with houses painted in green, blue, yellow and purple, and flat, glaciated mountains.
You’ll also explore the striking blue waters of Eternity Fjord near Manitsog, and the remains of ancient huts from pre-Inuit archaic cultures in South Greenland, as well as the remains of Viking longhouses that arrived in the 10th century.
remote and robust
A more natural way to see this coast is by riding the Sarfak Ituk, a multi-day coastal ferry on the Arctic Umiak line. Less sociable than modern cruise ships, travelers can meet Inuit commuters. Greenland is expensive. Lettuce might cost $10 at your local community store, but it won’t cost you a fortune on this coastal trip.
The current hot ticket to exploring Greenland’s wilderness is heading to its east coast, which faces Europe. It has a wilder climate, far fewer tourists, and a harsh and dramatic coastline of fjords with icebergs flowing south. There are no roads and a population of just over 3,500 people live scattered along a coastline roughly the distance from New York to Denver.
A growing number of small expedition vessels explore the frozen landscape and wildlife on this remote coast. Growing in popularity is the world’s largest fjord system at Scoresby Bay, with its sharp-tusked mountains and drooping glacier-locked valleys. Heading north, the aptly named North East Greenland National Park is a great place to view wildlife on the tundra.
Travelers come during the northern hemisphere summer to watch polar bears approach land as sea ice melts. There are also musk oxen, large flocks of migrating geese, arctic foxes and walruses.
Some of these animals are legitimate prey for local communities. Perhaps the most interesting cultural visit in Greenland is to visit Itttoqqortoormiit, a village that takes more time to learn to pronounce than it does to actually walk around. 500 miles north of the neighboring settlement, 345 local residents will be frozen out for nine months of the year. During the brief summer thaw from June to August, ships set sail to meet them.
Trapped in ice, they maintain their traditional customs.
“My parents hunt for almost all of their food,” said Mette Balsereisen, who owns Itkortormit’s only guesthouse. “They prefer the old-fashioned method of preserving meat by burying it in the ground and fermenting it. One musk ox alone can carry 440 pounds of meat.”
The Inuit here still prefer snowmobiles to get around during the winter, but they still own dog sleds. During the winter months, dog sledding excursions are offered to intrepid visitors, braving the frigid temperatures while wrapping up warmly. These can last an hour or be part of a multi-day expedition, sometimes with the additional experience of learning how to build an igloo. Sisimiut on the west coast and Tasiilaq in the southeast are active winter dog sledding centers.
But the greatest attraction of winter is watching the Northern Lights. With little urban light pollution, Greenland is a dark canvas for spectacular shows, making northern lights holidays increasingly popular.
Stay outdoors Greenland is gaining a reputation among adventure enthusiasts. From long-distance ski expeditions and heli-skiing over the ice caps to hiking the 160-mile Arctic Trail from Kangerlussuaq, you should carry a firearm to fire a warning shot if you encounter a polar bear.
Life will definitely change here. The climate crisis is eroding ice sheets, and Greenland could end up as a pawn in a geopolitical chess game. But for now, the glare of international attention should cast a positive light on one of the wildest travel destinations on earth.
Travel writer Mark Stratton is an Arctic expert who has traveled to Greenland six times and continues to do so. He marveled at the Northern Lights, sailed to Disko Island, went dog sledding with Inuit, and once got stuck in an ice floe.
● This article was originally published in January 2025. Updated and republished in January 2026.
