Greenland: Disko Bay, Ilulissat (land or sea?)

[GeezerCouple]

I posted about the ship, Arctic Umiaq's SARFAQ ITTUK, on the "other cruise line" sub-forum.

This is a ferry with local service along Greenland's west coast.

 

But we are also interested in the general area.

Our main goal is Disko Bay, where there apparently are some spectacular icebergs.

 

Has anyone been to Disko Bay/Ilulissat, Greenland?

 

We stumbled across this area, and the ship, by way of following some Googling on icebergs, which led us to Greenland.

It reminded us a bit of Hurtigruten, but much more spartan.

 

But the VIEWS...!

 

We could fly directly to Ilulissat, or we could fly to Nuuk, and catch the ferry for a few days, and then approach by sea.

Once at Ilulissat, there are some day excursion boats to get back out in the sea, near the icebergs, and somewhat toward the glacier that calves them.

 

[We generally like more luxurious accommodations, but we were surprised, and very positively, with our wonderful Hurtigruten cruise.  We didn't know what to expect there, and were a bit wary.  But no room service?  No big deal; we didn't even miss it.  The scenery was *everything*, just as we had hoped.

We did have an OS, but we are aware that the regular cabins, and the cabins on the Sarfaq Ittuk, are *tiny* (like 100 sq ft).  We'd get a private cabin, although they do have couchettes, which are like bunks with curtains in rooms for 4 or 8, with shared bath/toilet down the hall; when we were younger, that might have been interesting, but not now...]

 

We absolutely LOVED the wintery scenery in Norway.  The Sarfaq Ittuk only goes as far as Disko Bay/Ilulissat during the warmer season, however.  But seeing those glaciers is the goal, so that has to be the destination.

 

Are there other areas along Greenland's coast that have *icebergs*?

(We keep dreaming of Antarctica, but it's such a long distance, and then there is the Drake Shake/Lake potential.  And the cost was also surprising, but it's not a total trip-stopper.  But if we can see even some dramatic icebergs more easily, well... either we'll have our fill... OR... we'll be even more interested in Antarctica... )

 

Comments?

 

Many thanks!

 

GC

 

[hallasm]

Sounds like a great adventure - bit confused by the title including ‘Land or Sea’ - should rather be ‘Air or Sea’ - there are no roads between any towns or communities in Greenland - only transport by boats, helicopters and airplanes.

You can get to Greenland via KEF in Iceland or CPH in Denmark. 

SARFAQ ITTUK is the only ferry service along the west coast. Hurtigruten and others does have expedition cruises to Greenland.

You can find more information at https://visitgreenland.com - they are trying hard to develop the tourism in Greenland. Big Island with a total population of only 50.000.

Greenland is a great area to explore  - unfortunately I haven’t been there yet. On my list. Hope someone at CC have made the trip, but I sense that most people traveling in Greenland are not CC members. 

 

[GeezerCouple]

18 minutes ago, hallasm said:

Sounds like a great adventure - bit confused by the title including ‘Land or Sea’ - should rather be ‘Air or Sea’ - there are no roads between any towns or communities in Greenland - only transport by boats, helicopters and airplanes.

You can get to Greenland via KEF in Iceland or CPH in Denmark. 

SARFAQ ITTUK is the only ferry service along the west coast. Hurtigruten and others does have expedition cruises to Greenland.

You can find more information at https://visitgreenland.com - they are trying hard to develop the tourism in Greenland. Big Island with a total population of only 50.000.

Greenland is a great area to explore  - unfortunately I haven’t been there yet. On my list. Hope someone at CC have made the trip, but I sense that most people traveling in Greenland are not CC members. 

 

 

Hi there,

 

Too bad... I was hoping you'd chime in with some real experience 

 

I guess I should have written "by sea or not by sea" - it's the arrival to Ilulissat... to sail through icebergs en route, or not.  The main question is whether the SARFAQ ITTUK is, well, *too* spartan.

But we, especially DH, were similarly concerned when we were trying to decide about Hurtigruten, and as you well know from our other posts, we absolutely *loved* it... and want to return (maybe Svalbard? or... if we make "the" decision, Antarctica... but we aren't getting younger, alas...)

 

The cabin photos from SARFAQ ITTUK make it seem that the private cabin sizes and set up might not be that much different from the regular Hurtigruten cabins, even on newer ships like Trollfjord...?  What is your opinion?  Those couchettes... if that was the only choice, I'd be less interested.

And we'd probably only be on board a few nights, if we only went Nuuk to Ilulissat.

And then a day trip or two while there, by sea again.

 

But I don't know if the photos are anywhere realistic in terms of what the "average" visitor is likely to see, specifically in terms of *icebergs*. 

(Sort of like the Northern Lights issue on Hurtigruten.  I'm not sure if we'd go if not for the icebergs.  It's quite a trip to get there... matrix flight software won't even show any routing at all, even with unlimited connections, and that's a first!  My guess is that I've not chosen the right day of the week or something.)

 

If the past is any indication, we'd once again be "sorry we weren't staying longer", which has happened on *every* trip.  DH is the ultimate "reluctant traveler", although at least he now recognizes and remembers that there has not yet been a single trip that was a disappointment (even the one where I ended up in hospital overseas, and I actually considered calling MedJetAssist to "take me home" - and SO glad I did not, because we only ["only"!?] missed the middle week of our trip).

He has considered every single trip a wonderful success.  I want to keep it that way!

 

Who knows... we could end up on a freighter around the world eventually!  (Well, not quite that, I guess, but mostly I'm sure because of the length of time, not the "freighter" part.  I've started following some on that sub-forum, too!  I am totally HOOKED here )

 

GC

 

 

 

 

[hallasm]

Sorry that I gave you ‘false hope’ - some links with more inspiration

https://2kalaallitnunaatigo.wordpress.com/

https://greenland-expeditions.com/

[kaisatsu]

 

On 1/21/2019 at 1:20 AM, GeezerCouple said:

Are there other areas along Greenland's coast that have *icebergs*?

(We keep dreaming of Antarctica, but it's such a long distance, and then there is the Drake Shake/Lake potential.  And the cost was also surprising, but it's not a total trip-stopper.  But if we can see even some dramatic icebergs more easily, well... either we'll have our fill... OR... we'll be even more interested in Antarctica... )

Have you looked at the northeast? Several Antarctic expedition staff I know consider northeast Greenland even more spectacular than Antarctica. ...But I think they're spoiled! Actually, I think it owes a lot to the remoteness and the incredibly unique flora and fauna, but there are certainly some massive icebergs and a ridiculous number of glaciers! If you're looking for more luxurious options, Hurtigruten itself actually runs trips to Northeast Greenland by way of Svalbard and Iceland (as well as several itineraries along the west coast). Even fancier, you could look at something like Ponant or Silversea.

 

That said, you won't find the massive tabular icebergs in the northeast, since they get trapped in the narrow fjords and need to break up a bit as they make there way out. The means that you see a lot more dramatically sculpted blue ice in the area around Scoresbysund. It also means that you're never far from land, so you don't have such wide expanses of ice and water.

 

I haven't been to Disko Bay (Maybe I should plan a trip, since I won't be able to make it south again for a few years), but the big difference with Antarctica is the matter of scale. The tabular icebergs of the Weddell Sea are enormous, and there are simply so many of them. Likewise with the sheer quantity of glaciers, icebergs, and dramatic snowy landscapes. On a micro scale, I actually think that cruising around Jökulsárlón in a zodiac was surprisingly similar to the experience of some of the zodiac cruising I've done among the Antarctic sea ice!