Greenland: Getting there & around

Budget travellers will find that their most expensive outlays will be their return tickets and the cost of ferries, flights or helicopter hops between destinations. Apart from a few tour-group charters operating out of Canada, all international flights to Greenland start in Reykjavik (Iceland) or Copenhagen (Denmark). This may change in 2007 with a proposed direct service to Washington-Baltimore. The vast majority of flights arrive in Kangerlussuaq (central Greenland) and Narsarsuaq (southern Greenland) though Kulusaq (Eastern Greenland) is popular with day trippers from Iceland. Nerlerit Inaat and Mesters Vig are used mostly by chartered flights serving very remote northeast Greenland.

Many settlements are linked by planes or helicopters of Air Greenland, the national airline, but the weather can always play havoc with the best of the airline's intentions. The airline has sometimes been referred to as Immaqa Air, loosely translated as Maybe Air, and it's wise to bear this in mind when booking. Leave plenty of leeway to account for grounded planes and other weather-induced delays. Planes and helicopters may also be chartered.

Travelling by boat is a good option. Even if you aren't clinking cocktails on a nobby north Atlantic cruise liner, you can use the small fleet of coastal ferries which run up and down the west coat from stunningly beautiful Aappilattoq in the south reaching as far north as Uummannaq in midsummer.

For those inaccessible villages and towns, or places off the usual ferry route, it's possible to charter boats. Or hitch rides with Inuit seal-hunters if you're not too squeamish.

Forget about driving in Greenland. Outside the towns there simply aren't any driveable roads. The only stretch of tarmac between two settlements is only 5km long! And that links a naval base (Grønendal/Kangilinnguit) with an abandoned ghost town (Ivittuut). A 4WD hasn't yet been made that can cope with rural Greenland's rugged and icy conditions. Dogs, on the other hand, are much more flexible and remain commonly used especially on the winter ice. However dogsleds are only allowed in towns north of the Arctic Circle or on the east coast.