Nanortalik, Greenland

[beachluver9]

We returned yesterday from a 14 nt cruise which stopped at the following three Greenlandic ports:  Nuuk, Qaqortoq, and Nanortalik.  Here is a quick (lol) synopsis of our experience:

 

Nuuk:  We did the City Walk tour which was not so great due to the inexperience of our guide (only his second tour). He was very kind, but his English was quite limited to the point of not being able to understand/answer questions posed in English very well if at all.  If anyone asked a question in English he would give a canned answer in broken English which often did not even pertain to the question.  However, if I asked a question in Danish he could answer in Danish and then I would translate for the others in our group.

 

Qaqortoq:  In the morning we did a tour called "The Greenlanders" which was very nice.  Was it worth the amount paid?  Probably not.  Would we do it again?  Yes.  The lady who hosted our group was very kind and welcoming.  She spoke no English, but our assigned guide had excellent English skills and was quick to interpret.  The walk to her house was mostly uphill and quite long.  Even with a few rest stops along the way to accommodate some of the slower walkers, one couple opted to head back downhill to the ship.

 

In the afternoon we took a RIB tour to see icebergs.  On the RIB you will be seated in a single straddle type seat (such as sitting on a horse) and will be packed in pretty tight.  There are four rows of two seats, so in addition to heads in front of you (unless to get in the first row), you will not be able to see ahead.  You could take photos to the side but not on your side where someone is sitting next to you.   Our boat driver did not spin the boat, so you could only see one side.  Also keep in mind that the suits can be beastly to put on/take off and there was no place to sit while doing so.  All you could do was laugh about it.  Fortunately, they were nice and warm and even kept the people in the first row relatively warm and dry.  However, once they are on you do not have access to any of the pockets in your jacket or pants.

 

Nanortalik:  This is the best of the three ports for viewing icebergs.  Be aware that there is only one tour provider in the village and they do not differentiate which type boat you will take to view icebergs.  We paid (through RCCL shore excursion) for a RIB tour of the bergs but were put on a covered boat instead.  RIB tours cost a good deal more than a larger covered boat tour.  They offered no alternative to us and would not make any sort of refund of the price difference. They said that RCCL should not sell a RIB tour because they don't guarantee that you will ride on one.   Fortunately, RCCL credited back the difference to us.  

 

In hindsight, we would have been better off booking the covered boat tour for both Qaqortoq and Nanortalik for a number of reasons.  These aren't the giant clunker boats used on Alaska excursions.  These only hold around 10 people, although they were selling 12 seats on them.  You are sheltered from the rain (fortunately, we had sun) and you can get up and move around to take photos.  We were lucky that everyone on our boat was friendly and would share the best viewing locations.  Also, you don't have to struggle with the cold weather suit!

 

Other takeaways:  

 

The same company that provides the boat excursions also sells the same tours in port.  Surprisingly, they were exactly the same price as the cruiseline excursion.  The RCCL excursions for these rides sold out the same day that they were posted so if you want the peace of mind that comes with booking through the ship, go for it.  You won't save money booking in port.

 

Both tender ports (Qaqortoq and Nanortalik) only have space for one tender boat to dock at a time, so tendering was pretty slow.  Although the ship ran plenty of tenders, they were jammed up waiting to offload passengers at the pier.

 

Whales and most other wildlife were long gone for the season before we arrived, so if you are hoping to see whales be certain to research when/where it is best to see them before traveling to Greenland just to see them.

 

Buy your souvenirs here because shopping is very limited in Qaqortaq and especially Nanortalik.  

 

We were able to see northern lights for several nights during the cruise.  However, there is never any guarantee.  Our phone cameras saw more colors than we could see with our naked eyes and with some of the other camera equipment.

 

Hope all of this rambling helps someone out there!

[Jasukkie]

I was on your cruise, what a wonderul trip! 

 

I had originally been booked on a RIB tour and had it cancelled due to port time change. I was only able to rebook on the regular iceberg boat tour and expected that to be like the whale boats in Alaska. Thankfully, the boats are really small and able to scratch right up on the bergs. We were able to touch them, get amazing pictures, and on one excursion have a chip of ice to eat. Yes, it was cold, but we did fine without the special suits. It was nice being able to move around to get pictures. I would definitely recommend saving the money and booking the regular boat ones. 

 

 

[beachluver9]

On 10/5/2023 at 9:40 AM, Jasukkie said:

I was on your cruise, what a wonderul trip! 

 

I had originally been booked on a RIB tour and had it cancelled due to port time change. I was only able to rebook on the regular iceberg boat tour and expected that to be like the whale boats in Alaska. Thankfully, the boats are really small and able to scratch right up on the bergs. We were able to touch them, get amazing pictures, and on one excursion have a chip of ice to eat. Yes, it was cold, but we did fine without the special suits. It was nice being able to move around to get pictures. I would definitely recommend saving the money and booking the regular boat ones. 

 

 

It’s nice to know that someone came to the same conclusion as we did!  I think we were lucky with such calm weather.  Had it been windy I believe that it would have felt significantly colder

[TW6cruiser]

On 9/29/2023 at 3:21 PM, beachluver9 said:

We returned yesterday from a 14 nt cruise which stopped at the following three Greenlandic ports:  Nuuk, Qaqortoq, and Nanortalik.  Here is a quick (lol) synopsis of our experience:

 

Nuuk:  We did the City Walk tour which was not so great due to the inexperience of our guide (only his second tour). He was very kind, but his English was quite limited to the point of not being able to understand/answer questions posed in English very well if at all.  If anyone asked a question in English he would give a canned answer in broken English which often did not even pertain to the question.  However, if I asked a question in Danish he could answer in Danish and then I would translate for the others in our group.

 

Qaqortoq:  In the morning we did a tour called "The Greenlanders" which was very nice.  Was it worth the amount paid?  Probably not.  Would we do it again?  Yes.  The lady who hosted our group was very kind and welcoming.  She spoke no English, but our assigned guide had excellent English skills and was quick to interpret.  The walk to her house was mostly uphill and quite long.  Even with a few rest stops along the way to accommodate some of the slower walkers, one couple opted to head back downhill to the ship.

 

In the afternoon we took a RIB tour to see icebergs.  On the RIB you will be seated in a single straddle type seat (such as sitting on a horse) and will be packed in pretty tight.  There are four rows of two seats, so in addition to heads in front of you (unless to get in the first row), you will not be able to see ahead.  You could take photos to the side but not on your side where someone is sitting next to you.   Our boat driver did not spin the boat, so you could only see one side.  Also keep in mind that the suits can be beastly to put on/take off and there was no place to sit while doing so.  All you could do was laugh about it.  Fortunately, they were nice and warm and even kept the people in the first row relatively warm and dry.  However, once they are on you do not have access to any of the pockets in your jacket or pants.

 

Nanortalik:  This is the best of the three ports for viewing icebergs.  Be aware that there is only one tour provider in the village and they do not differentiate which type boat you will take to view icebergs.  We paid (through RCCL shore excursion) for a RIB tour of the bergs but were put on a covered boat instead.  RIB tours cost a good deal more than a larger covered boat tour.  They offered no alternative to us and would not make any sort of refund of the price difference. They said that RCCL should not sell a RIB tour because they don't guarantee that you will ride on one.   Fortunately, RCCL credited back the difference to us.  

 

In hindsight, we would have been better off booking the covered boat tour for both Qaqortoq and Nanortalik for a number of reasons.  These aren't the giant clunker boats used on Alaska excursions.  These only hold around 10 people, although they were selling 12 seats on them.  You are sheltered from the rain (fortunately, we had sun) and you can get up and move around to take photos.  We were lucky that everyone on our boat was friendly and would share the best viewing locations.  Also, you don't have to struggle with the cold weather suit!

 

Other takeaways:  

 

The same company that provides the boat excursions also sells the same tours in port.  Surprisingly, they were exactly the same price as the cruiseline excursion.  The RCCL excursions for these rides sold out the same day that they were posted so if you want the peace of mind that comes with booking through the ship, go for it.  You won't save money booking in port.

 

Both tender ports (Qaqortoq and Nanortalik) only have space for one tender boat to dock at a time, so tendering was pretty slow.  Although the ship ran plenty of tenders, they were jammed up waiting to offload passengers at the pier.

 

Whales and most other wildlife were long gone for the season before we arrived, so if you are hoping to see whales be certain to research when/where it is best to see them before traveling to Greenland just to see them.

 

Buy your souvenirs here because shopping is very limited in Qaqortaq and especially Nanortalik.  

 

We were able to see northern lights for several nights during the cruise.  However, there is never any guarantee.  Our phone cameras saw more colors than we could see with our naked eyes and with some of the other camera equipment.

 

Hope all of this rambling helps someone out there!

Just to clarify, in Nanortalik there are iceberg excursions available to purchase on shore?  We are going on the Emerald Princess next summer. We just booked and the excursions at this port for the icebergs are already full.  I will keep watching to see if they add more times or spots open up, but it would be good to know we can just book once ashore.  We have high status with Princess so do have priority tendering. 

[beachluver9]

1 hour ago, TW6cruiser said:

Just to clarify, in Nanortalik there are iceberg excursions available to purchase on shore?  We are going on the Emerald Princess next summer. We just booked and the excursions at this port for the icebergs are already full.  I will keep watching to see if they add more times or spots open up, but it would be good to know we can just book once ashore.  We have high status with Princess so do have priority tendering. 

There were excursions available to see the icebergs when we were in port.  While there is no guarantee that they will be there next year,  the company that ran the ships excursions was the same one selling in town.  There was a table set up in town, not at the end of the pier.  Just follow the sidewalk into town and you should see them.  Max five minute walk.  It should be set up where the boating excursions depart.  Our ships iceberg excursions for this port were also sold out but tickets magically appeared in our stateroom at the beginning of our cruise.

[TW6cruiser]

3 hours ago, beachluver9 said:

There were excursions available to see the icebergs when we were in port.  While there is no guarantee that they will be there next year,  the company that ran the ships excursions was the same one selling in town.  There was a table set up in town, not at the end of the pier.  Just follow the sidewalk into town and you should see them.  Max five minute walk.  It should be set up where the boating excursions depart.  Our ships iceberg excursions for this port were also sold out but tickets magically appeared in our stateroom at the beginning of our cruise.

Thank you very much.  I feel better now about the ship list being full.   Normally we do trips with the ship, but as we are in port all day and the iceberg trips are short we won't fret about getting back.  

[little britain]

DH did the early RCI rib trip. 

 

We loved Nanortalik- so authentic. Just walk around and understand their way of life. 

Edited December 4, 2023 by little britain

[wakey]

On 11/29/2023 at 5:57 PM, beachluver9 said:

There were excursions available to see the icebergs when we were in port.  While there is no guarantee that they will be there next year,  the company that ran the ships excursions was the same one selling in town.  There was a table set up in town, not at the end of the pier.  Just follow the sidewalk into town and you should see them.  Max five minute walk.  It should be set up where the boating excursions depart.  Our ships iceberg excursions for this port were also sold out but tickets magically appeared in our stateroom at the beginning of our cruise.

Thanks, can I ask which company did the boats please?  My wife and I have added ourselves to the wait list for a boat to the icebergs, but even though we requested the same time, we have been moved to two different wait lists.  This was the main reason for our choosing the cruise and it seems princess dont have the ability to procure enough capacity to seat couples together!

[beachluver9]

30 minutes ago, wakey said:

Thanks, can I ask which company did the boats please?  My wife and I have added ourselves to the wait list for a boat to the icebergs, but even though we requested the same time, we have been moved to two different wait lists.  This was the main reason for our choosing the cruise and it seems princess dont have the ability to procure enough capacity to seat couples together!

I took a pic of the guides jacket which had a logo and phone number on it.  I will attempt to attach it.  I am not certain if it is the boat tour company or some other business.  
 

there was only one boat business that we saw.  We did, however, see some of the same walking tour guides in Qaqortaq and Nanortalik, so checking both towns as well as Nuuk might give you some leads (hopefully)

[beachluver9]

Just now, beachluver9 said:

Looks like the email is

nts@nts.gr

tømrer means carpenter so it might be an unrelated business

[tatabea]

On 4/10/2024 at 2:37 PM, wakey said:

Thanks, can I ask which company did the boats please?  My wife and I have added ourselves to the wait list for a boat to the icebergs, but even though we requested the same time, we have been moved to two different wait lists.  This was the main reason for our choosing the cruise and it seems princess dont have the ability to procure enough capacity to seat couples together!

Tasermiutcamp is who we booked with 

[TW6cruiser]

On 11/29/2023 at 4:31 PM, TW6cruiser said:

Thank you very much.  I feel better now about the ship list being full.   Normally we do trips with the ship, but as we are in port all day and the iceberg trips are short we won't fret about getting back.  

PS, our ship added a number of excursions so we were able to book through the cruise line.

[90scruzer]

hoping that they will do the same for ours.   we are over a year out, and already waitlisted for boat ride to the glaciers in Nanortalik.