Greenland Expedition with Silversea – an unforgettable journey through the land of ice

In the vibrant capital of Greenland, you can forget that you are in such a vast and isolated country. Nuuk is the economic and social center of Greenland, home to more than a third of the population of Greenland. From the port of Nuuk, you will set sail.

Days at sea are a great opportunity to relax and unwind. Whether it’s hitting the gym, visiting the spa, whale watching or catching up on reading, these blue sea days are the perfect balance to intense days spent exploring the shore.

Iqaluit is the capital of Canada’s newest territory, Nunavut, which means “our land” in the Inuktitut language. The community is located at the head of Frobisher Bay, an inlet of the North Atlantic extending into the southeastern part of Baffin Island. The bay is so long that it was originally considered a possible entrance to the Northwest Passage. In Iqaluit, the Nunatta Sunakkutaangit Museum and the Nunavut Legislative Assembly building house incredible collections of Inuit art, with interesting local prints for sale in the museum shop.

The Lower Savage Islands are a small group of islands located off the southeastern tip of Baffin Island that are a popular haunt for polar bears during the summer months. With plenty of land to roam, giving each other plenty of room to maneuver, as well as feeding opportunities, you’re likely to see bears here as the ice melts away with the warming summer season.

Monumental Island is a well-known home for polar bears, an icon of the Arctic. There is a good chance of seeing mother bears with cubs on the island, as they stay on the island due to the lack of summer ice, using it as a base for hunting until the ice returns in the fall. Groups of harp seals and Atlantic walruses can also be seen here.

Lady Franklin Island was named after the wife of Sir John Franklin, an Arctic explorer who died trying to discover the Northwest Passage. The waters around Lady Franklin Island are rich with seabirds, ducks, seals and walruses. If you are lucky, you may see Atlantic puffins and maybe even the rare ring-necked gull.

Auyuittuq National Park offers one of the most beautiful and striking landscapes in Canada. Vast valleys and steep-walled fjords surrounded by rugged peaks and massive glaciers, exactly as you would imagine the Arctic to be.

Auyuittuq is home to little vegetation, but you can still see some Arctic wildlife. You can see Arctic foxes, tundra reindeer, lemmings, snow geese, ermines, but also polar bears and many species of birds, such as peregrine falcons. Several species of cetaceans often visit the waters around the island, with narwhals, beluga whales and killer whales being the most likely. The coast of the island is a haven for many seabirds, such as eiders and little auks.

Designated in 2010, Ninginganiq National Wildlife Area encompasses not only Isabella Bay but also its islands, shores, and the adjacent open waters of Davis Strait out to 12 nautical miles offshore. In the XNUMXth century, Isabella Bay was an important center for whaling, and this National Wildlife Area continues to be an important marine habitat—now a sanctuary—used for feeding and resting by adult and large juvenile beaked whales in late summer and fall.

The stunningly beautiful Sam Ford Fjord area on Baffin Island has one of the most impressive concentrations of vertical rock faces found anywhere in the world. The waters are home to marine mammals, including narwhals and seals, which once attracted Inuit hunters to this coast.

Buchan Bay is a deep, elongated fissure carved by glaciers during the last ice age. The most striking feature of the bay is its impressive, steep coastal cliffs and rock pinnacles. These conditions are ideal for nesting Northern Fulmars and in fact the area is one of the most important nesting sites for these birds in the world.

Sailing far north, amidst the fjords and mountains of spectacular Baffin Island, discover the rich heritage of humanity and the Arctic wildlife of Fecham Bay. High cliffs shelter the calm waters of this protected harbour amidst the daunting splendor of the island's steep cliffs and rocky coastlines.

This small town of about twelve hundred inhabitants clings to a rocky cliff at the foot of a vast striped mountain whose twin peaks resemble a heart. The waters surrounding the town are adorned with enormous icebergs, and the vertical cliffs jutting out into the fjord are simply breathtaking.

Known as the birthplace of icebergs, the Ilulissat Icefjord produces almost 20 million tons of ice every day. In fact, the word Ilulissat means "icebergs" in the Kalaallisut language. The city is known for its long periods of calm and stable weather, but the climate is usually cold due to its proximity to the fjord. About 4500 people live in Ilulissat, the third largest city in Greenland after Nuuk and Sisimiut. Some residents estimate that the city has almost as many sled dogs as people!

Sisimiut is Greenland's second city, the largest Arctic city in North America, and a transportation hub between the warmer south and the country's icy north. With a young, dynamic population, including students from all over the country, Sisimiut is one of the fastest growing cities in Greenland. Inhabited for over four and a half thousand years, the Danish colonial era brought rapid growth in trade, and old buildings and artifacts can be seen in the Sisimiut Museum.

Evighedsfjord (Eternity Fjord) is a large fjord northeast of Kangaamiut, in southwestern Greenland. It is 75 kilometers long and can be seen branching off several glaciers descending from the Maniitsoq ice sheet to the north.

Kangaamiut is a settlement that hugs the coastline of Greenland’s Arctic Circle region, backed by some of the country’s most spectacular fjords. The nearby peak-shaped mountains gave the Danish-Norwegian colonial settlement its original name, Sukkertoppen (Sugarloaf), and the town recently celebrated its 250th anniversary. Here, you can experience small-town Greenlandic culture at its most authentic.