Please book your trip to Greenland here!
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A cruise along Western Greenland with Clipper Adventurer.
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| 11.7.2008 — 19.7.2008 |
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| 18.7.2008 — 26.7.2008 |
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EUR 2.790,-
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CRUISE |
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A cruise along Western Greenland with Clipper Adventurer
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Albatros Travel presents the world’s best cruise in Greenland aboard our own ship. Visit Kangerlussuaq, Sisimiut, Ilulissat, Uummannaq, the Eqi Glacier, Disko Island and Itilleq.
- With English speaking tour guides, 9 days/7 nights
Summer 2008
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Travelling by ship is the best way to experience Greenland’s nature and culture, as there is neither infrastructure nor roads inland. It is therefore fortunate that the wonderful nature sceneries are neighbouring the most important way of transportation— the sea. On this cruise you will experience Greenland’s nature at its best, right where land and mountains meet the cold ocean currents teeming with fish. The Greenlandic people reside in towns along the coast. Usually every town and every village clings dramatically to its rocky foundation. The small colourful houses seemingly crawl up the mountainsides sheltered by a promontory, on a foreland in the fiord or in a narrow valley between steep mountains — culturally and architecturally enriched and restricted by nature. Walking past the town limits you will most likely be on your own after only a few minutes, surrounded by one of the world’s largest and most pristine wildernesses.
This is a cruise filled with exceptional experiences of nature and culture — all obtained by the most relaxing means of transport. The ship leisurely sails along the coastline and down spectacular branching fiords, landing in serene towns and villages as we go. We have ample time and our schedule only has one objective: our guests must experience as much as possible. Furthermore our time plan is flexible, as we let events and the whims of nature govern our path to a certain extent. Albatros’ cruise and expedition leaders will assess the conditions and in collaboration with the captain lay down the route for each day.
Albatros has chosen the most versatile and interesting route going to the Disko bay and along Greenland’s breathtaking Western coast:
We land in Kangerlussuaq just north of the Arctic Polar Circle. Shortly after arrival we have the opportunity of observing musk oxen and reindeer grazing near the ice cap. In the afternoon, our voyage begins. From Kangerlussuaq, the ship sails along the beautiful and dramatic coast of Western Greenland. The ship docks at Sisimiut before continuing to Godhavn, a small, quiet town nestling under the 1,000-meter high mountains of Disko Island. On the third day, we visit Uummannaq and its characteristic, heart-shaped mountain looming nearby. Now the ship turns around heading back southwards, sailing closer to the mainland this time, amongst the reefs and small, rocky islands. The ship heads for the calving glacier — Eqip Sermia — and then we move on to the Pearl of the Disko Bay and Knud Rasmussen’s place of birth — Ilulissat. Here we will behold the impressive, world famous ice fiord. Continuing southwards, the ship lands in the small village, Itilleq. Finally, the ship heads down one of the world’s longest fiords, Sondre Strom Fiord. During the midsummer months of June and July the midnight sun illuminates the scenery in an unparalleled manner, making it difficult to define the concept of “morning coffee". What does morning signify when the sun never sets?
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Our ship, Clipper Adventurer, was built was built in 1975 and was converted into a fantastic expedition vessel in 1998. The conversion was inspired by the atmosphere and luxury of the great ocean liners of the past combining a unique intimate atmosphere with the luxury of the atlantic voyages of the beginning of the 20th century. The ship is now equipped with 61 large, exterior cabins, all with comfortable furnishing and private bathroom. The beautiful restaurant can accommodate all passengers in one seating, and all guests can enjoy an unhindered view from the newly lounge on the promenade deck. The ship is fitted with Zodiac crafts that are used for spectacular landings, when berthing is not possible, or perhaps for watching whales at close proximity. Full board and experienced Greenland guides are naturally included in the price.
Albatros Travel welcomes you on board!
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Day 1. Friday: Departure from Copenhagen
Departure by Air Greenland shortly after noon. After nearly 5 hours of flight we land in Kangerlussuaq early in the afternoon, local Greenlandic time.
Kangerlussuaq is the larger of Greenland’s two international airports for civilian transportation. From here, there are connecting flights to the rest of Western and Northern Greenland. Kangerlussuaq — lying within the municipality of Sisimiut — is not a town as such, and actually didn’t receive this status until 2001. Approximately 4-500 people live and work here; most of them work in connection with the airport. In this small town, you will find a supermarket, a post office, a hotel with a restaurant, a couple of cafeterias, a bowling alley and a swimming bath inherited from the Americans.
The airport is a relic from the American forces, who during the Second World War established an airbase with the name of Bluie West Eight at the end of the 170 kilometre long Sondre Strom Fiord / Kangerlussuaq. The base was strategically very important, both during the Second World War and the following Cold War. 1400 persons were stationed here when the airbase was at its height. But the base lost its military significance along with the growing technological development, and in 1992 the Americans abandoned the base and handed over the facilities and buildings to the Greenlandic home rule.
After you have reclaimed your luggage, Albatros’ excursion busses will take the tour group on a combined sightseeing tour and musk oxen safari. We cross the former American base area and climb the Black Ridge. At the top of the ridge we are rewarded with an outstanding view over the valley and towards the permanent ice cap. Normally, this is where the musk oxen linger, but they may keep some distance from the road because of increased hunting activities. It is a good idea to bring binoculars. On the tour, our guides will tell you about the area and inform you of the program for the coming days.
The rest of the time before we board the cruise ship is at your own disposal. Approximately 12 kilometres west of the airport our ship, the M/S Clipper Adventurer, lies ready for departure. A zodiac will sail the guests in smaller groups the few hundred meters out into the fiord, where the ship lies at anchor. Cabins are allocated, safety procedures gone over, and whilst you enjoy your dinner in the restaurant with the truly magnificent view, the voyage commences out of the 170 km long fiord.
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Day 2. Saturday: Sisimiut
The ship reaches Sisimiut early in the morning, and after breakfast we are ready to get an impression of modern Greenland. Sisimiut is Greenland’s northernmost town with a harbour free of ice during winter, and at the same time the southernmost town for dog sledding (that is, when the snow settles in November-December). With 5,400 inhabitants Sisimiut is the second largest municipality in Greenland, only surpassed by Nuuk. People have lived in the Sisimiut region for approximately 4,500 years. The people of the Saqqaq, Dorset and Thule cultures all came from Canada, and lived on fish, birds and mammals such as whales, seals and reindeer. In the 17th century, the first European whalers appeared in the Sisimiut region. The Europeans only had sporadic contact with the indigenous inhabitants, and before the Norwegian missionary Hans Egede’s colonisation of Greenland in 1721 there was no regular contact between Inuit and European people.
In 1756 a colony named Holsteinsborg (Danish for Sisimiut) after Count Johan Ludvig Holstein was established, and the houses in Sisimiut’s historic part of town date back to the colony’s first hundred years. The oldest remaining house was built in 1756, and another characteristic building is the blue church from 1775. Today Sisimiut is an important industrial town and place of education. A major factory, that should be pointed out, is the Royal Greenland fish factory, the largest of its kind in Greenland and one of the most modern in the world.
Naturally, we are going for a walk around town, primarily visiting the historic colonial section, its museum and the beautiful church. But we also step by the busy town centre with an array of modern stores and shops . The tour guides will inform you of possible explorations on your own and of the additional guided excursions that you can purchase. In the afternoon we return to the harbour, board the ship again and proceed on our northbound voyage. During the evening we pass the Sisimiut Isortuat Fiord, the Northern Strom Fiord, the villages Attu and Ikerasaarsuk, and the small town Kangaatsiaq. In the course of the bright night we enter the southern part of Disko Bay, pass by Aasiaat, and on our portside the famous Disko Island will come into view with its characteristic 1,000-meter tall, layered mountains.
We are far north of the Arctic Polar Circle, and the midnight sun shines all night long, at least until the end of July. If you rise early, you can enjoy the sight of icebergs — the Giants of Disko Bay — being squeezed out from Jakobshavn Ice fiord.
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Day 3. Sunday: Disko Island, Qeqertarsuaq
In cover of Disko Island’s 1,000-meter tall mountains we put into port in a protected natural harbour. The place is aptly named Godhavn ("Good harbour") in Danish, while its Greenlandic name “Qeqertarsuaq" simply means "The Big Island".
Up to 1950, Godhavn was the most important town north of Nuuk, solely because of the many whales that the whaling boats towed here after catching them in Disko Bay. This bestowed the town with much wealth, starting already in the 16th century. Now the town is on its way to oblivion as it gets harder and harder to find work here, and the island is poorly connected to the mainland. We walk through town to the characteristic, octagonal church, nicknamed “the inkpot of God". During our stay in Qeqertarsuaq, we will visit Greenlandic families treating us with traditional Greenlandic “kaffemik" (a get-together in the home with coffee, cake and story-telling).
The flat mountains on the island are volcanic and belong to the youngest of Greenland’s geological formations. The mountains contain some special occurrences of pure iron and coal. For a number of years, the coal was mined from Qullissat on the northern coast of the island. In 1972 the mine and the town was closed by Danish decree, which awoke a strong political consciousness amongst the Greenlandic youth. This ultimately led to the forming of Greenland’s own parliament in 1979.
When the day wanes, Clipper Adventurer again heads into the bay on a northbound course. In the evening, the ship sails through Vaigat Sound between the tall mountains on Disko Island and Nuussuaq peninsular. Early in the morning, we round the small cliffs at the tip of Nuussuaq and enter Uummannaq Bay. On the whole trip we will pass numerous icebergs, one more dramatic and extraordinary than the other.
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Day 4. Monday: Uummannaq
When you wake up this morning, you will find yourself roughly 590 kilometres north of the Arctic Polar Circle, in one of Greenland’s most beautiful and sunny regions. The ship has reached Uummannaq. The town is situated on a 12-km2 island, and the impressive 1.175-meter tall heart-shaped mountain that has given the town its name dominates the view (Uummannaq means “a place where the heart is"). From the town there is an extraordinary vista comprising the island’s 1,000-meter tall rock faces, the snow-covered peaks on Nuussuaq peninsula to the south, and out across the fiord. In the fiord, icebergs of all shapes and sizes majestically float by on a course set by wind and current. As much as 5 active glaciers at the bottom of the fiord ensure that we can observe plenty of icebergs.
Uummannaq was founded as a colony in 1758 on the Nuussuaq mainland, but shortly thereafter, in 1763, it was moved to the nearby island, as seal hunting was more bountiful here. On our walk along the town’s steep streets we visit the historic train-oil building, built in 1860. Inside its yellow walls, whale and seal blubber used to be stored. Because of the horrid stench, the blubber was not boiled here, but well outside town! Behind the train-oil storage we will find a peat hut, which was still in use a few years ago.
We spend most of the day in Uummannaq, but the more agile may want to hike to “Santa Claus’ house" — another traditional Greenlandic peat hut, that has taken part in some Christmas television shows.
The dry and settled arctic climate has around 2,000 hours of sunshine and 100 millimetres of precipitation per year, and Uummannaq can rightly call itself the Greenlandic Riviera!
In the early afternoon, we all meet up at the harbour and after boarding, the ship heads back south.
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Day 5. Tuesday: Eqip Sermia
In the morning, the cruise ship has reached a magnificent highlight of nature, the enormous Eqip Sermia glacier in Disko Bay’s northeasterly corner. Approximately 50 nautical miles north of Ilulissat, this glacier-front is somewhat renowned, and many tourist boats come here every day. Also the legendary arctic explorers had their base here; the Frenchman de Quervain built a winter hut here as a base for his expeditions onto the inland ice cap.
We sail as close to the edge of the ice as possible — but in safe distance from the plunging blocks of ice and violent waves caused by the calving glacier. In the afternoon, we head for Ilulissat, where we berth in the evening.
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Day 6. Wednesday: Ilulissat
Ilulissat is possibly the most marvellously situated town in Greenland. Ilulissat means icebergs in Greenlandic, and the nickname of the town is rightly “the iceberg capital". In Disko Bay just off the coast of Ilulissat, gigantic icebergs linger. The icebergs come from the Ice fiord — located a good half hour hike south of Ilulissat — and they are born 32 kilometres deeper in the fiord by the enormous Sermeq Kujalleq glacier. This 10-kilometre wide and 1,000 meter thick glacier is the most productive glacier outside of Antarctica. Whereas most glaciers only calve at a rate of approximately 1 metre per day, the Ilulissat glacier calves at a rate of 25 metres per day. The icebergs produced by the glacier represent more than 10% of all icebergs in Greenland, corresponding to 20 million tonnes of ice per day. These facts have together with the fiord’s extreme beauty ensured the Ice fiord a spot at UNESCO’s World Heritage List, an honour the fiord and town of Ilulissat share with Mount Everest, Yellowstone and only 166 other nature sceneries in the world.
For more than the 250 years that have passed since the foundation of Ilulissat, the town has steadily grown and today it is Greenland’s third largest with more than 4,300 inhabitants. Most of the inhabitants make their living by fishing or otherwise in the fishing industry. The town is very vibrant and welcoming, with a wide range of cultural attractions — according to Greenlandic standards. The polar explorer Knud Rasmussen and his good friend Joergen Broenlund were both born in Ilulissat. Joergen Broenlund was an eminent dog sledge driver who perished during The Denmark Expedition. In the town itself we will take a closer look at the wonderfully located church, at Knud Rasmussen’s beautiful old house, and at Emanuel A. Petersen’s collection of paintings.
A little hike will take us to the Sermermiut plain, about 2 kilometres south of Ilulissat. Sermermiut means "the people by the ice", and the plain has been inhabited since 1400 B.C. When the first Danish merchants arrived in the Ice fiord in 1727 and “discovered" Sermermiut, approximately 250 people lived here, making it the most densely populated area in Greenland at the time. Today the old settlement appears as a row of grassy square pits, which are the remnants of the foundations of the houses, the inhabitants lived in. Everywhere in the surrounding earth-slopes, plenty of bones from seals, birds, fish and whales stick out — it is not difficult to figure out what their diet was made up of. A little further north of Sermermiut, where the conditions for docking were more suitable, the Danish squire, Jakob Severin, founded the colony Ilulissat in 1741.
The Ice fiord, the coast along the fiord and the Sermermiut plain are laid out as a conservation area, and hiking in the area is restricted to the marked paths. Also in the old settlement area, no walking outside the paths is permitted.
We say goodbye to the iceberg capital in the evening.
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Day 7. Thursday: Itilleq
Going southward, the ship has made good headway, and it reaches the village Itilleq, in the municipality of Sisimiut, around noon. Previously we have visited the “major" town of Sisimiut and now we get an impression of a typical Greenlandic village for comparison. Itilleq is delightfully situated in a hollow (called "Itilleq" in Greenlandic) on an island without any fresh water. Therefore, an osmosis water system, which converts saltwater into potable water, was built a few years ago. Previously, the town’s inhabitants fetched their water on the mainland by means of a barge. The village has approximately 130 inhabitants.
A local resident will give a talk on the history of the village and on everyday life in a small, Greenlandic trading station. In the evening, the voyage continues towards Kangerlussuaq.
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Day 8. Friday: Kangerlussuaq
During the bright night, the ship passes through one of the world’s longest fiords and arrives at Kangerlussuaq in the morning. We sail by zodiacs into Kangerlussuaq’s harbour.
We spend a part of our day in Kangerlussuaq on a fantastic trip in a cross-country bus to the majestic Greenlandic ice cap. We might even take a walk on the slippery ice itself. On this trip, we have great chances of seeing reindeer and musk oxen grazing on the river’s opposite bank. The ice cap excursion is included in the price of the tour package.
Our Greenlandic fairytale is ended with a farewell dinner at Hotel Kangerlussuaq, before we board the Air Greenland flight late in the evening.
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Day 9. Saturday: Arrival in Copenhagen
We arrive in Copenhagen early morning, Danish time, after approximately 4½ hours of flying.
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Cabins
There are 61 cabins with ocean view, all with two separate beds, private bathroom, a table and a chair. The cabins are situated on 4 decks:
- A-deck with passenger cabins
- Main deck — with passenger cabins, gym and zodiac boarding area
- Promenade deck — with passenger cabins, bar, dining room, main lounge, reception and purser’s office
- Boat deck — with passenger cabins and the library
The following categories of cabins are based on their furnishing and location on the ship:
Owners Cabin
The owners cabin is situated on the boat deck and is the largest (appr. 25 sqm) and most exclusive suite on board. There is two rooms en suite with two separate beds, four windows, sofagroup, large desk and bathroom with a bathtub/spa.
Cabin category A (“Leif Ericsson"- and “Admiral Byrd"-suites)
Large deluxe suites (appr. 20 sqm) with ocean view at the boat deck. Two separate beds, sofa, desk, four windows and a large bathroom.
Cabin category B
Deluxe cabin with ocean view at the promenade deck (appr. 15 sqm). Two separate beds, desk, chair and a window.
Cabin category C
Deluxe cabin with ocean view at the promenade deck (appr. 12 sqm). Two separate beds, desk, chair and a window.
Cabin category D
Cabin with ocean view at the main deck (appr. 12 sqm). Two separate beds, desk, chair and a window.
Cabin category E
Cabin with ocean view at the main deck (appr. 12 sqm). Two separate beds, desk, chair and porthole.
Cabin category F
Cabin with ocean view at the A-deck (appr. 12 sqm). Two separate beds, desk, chair and porthole.
Cabin category G
Cabin with ocean view at the A-deck (appr. 10 sqm). Two separate beds, desk, chair and porthole.
Single cabin
A single cabin is available at extra charge. Single travellers can avoid paying the extra charge by sharing a double cabin with another traveller of the same sex. However, an available shared double cabin is not guaranteed.
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Type of travel
A cruise along Western Greenland on board Clipper Adventurer.
Duration
9 days / 7 nights
Departure dates 2008
June 20th — June 28th
June 27th — July 5th
July 4th — July 12th
July 11th — July 19th
July 18th — July 26th
Price per person in double cabin with two people
G category, A-deck 2,790 €
F category, A-deck 2,990 €
E category, Main Deck 3,190 €
D category, Main Deck 3,590 €
C category, Promenade Deck 3,890 €
B category, Promenade Deck: 4,090 €
A category, Suite, Boat Deck 4,690 €
Owners cabin, Suite, Boat Deck 5,390 €
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Included in the price
· English speaking tour guides
· Return flight Copenhagen-Kangerlussuaq with Air Greenland, 1 night on airplane
· All taxes
· 8 days / 7 nights cruise in cabin with ocean view and private bathromm
· Full board aboard Clipper Adventurer (not including drinks)
· Local transportation in Kangerlussuaq
· Briefing at arrival
· Sightseeing in Kangerlussuaq
· “Kaffemik" with Greenlandic family in Godhavn/Qeqertarsuaq
· Lecture on the village in Itilleq
· Excursion to the ice cap with cross-country bus, approx. 3½ hours
· Farewell dinner in Kangerlussuaq
· Sightseeing walks in the towns of arrival
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Not included in the price
· Cancellation insurance
· Travel insurance
· Meals other than the above mentioned
· Drinks other than coffee, tea and tap water
· Domestic flights in Denmark
· Gratuities to Clipper Adventurer’s service staff, we suggest $ 10 per guest per day
· Possible extra excursions
· Personal expenses
· Service charge:
· Everything not mentioned under “included in the price"
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Clipper Info |
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