Nothing puts you in awe of nature more than sleeping on a 3km-thick patch of ice backed by snow that fell over a million years ago. Camp Ice Cap near the town of Kangerlussuaq offers an amazing opportunity to camp overnight on the Greenland Ice Cap which covers around 80% of the country, an experience usually only possible for research or expedition purposes.
But that’s not the only extraordinary camping experience in Greenland. The world’s largest island, with its largely inhospitable ice cap, often rough seas and the world’s largest land-based predator, the polar bear, has recently taken up glamping.
At Kiattua Camp, a two-hour boat ride from Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, you could settle into a hot tub with steamy views of the world’s second-longest fjord system, before enjoying a kitchen-prepared meal outside and retreat to your comfortable luxury teepee. In southern Greenland, meanwhile, you could fish, forage, kayak or hike beside a dramatic fjord overlooked by towering mountains at Tasermiut Camp, where the focus is on using Greenlandic nature as medicine for the soul by exposing you to its awe-inspiring views.
Far from being a tourist fad, these experiences are part of a wider awareness in Greenland of the value of its unique nature – a combination of dramatic mountain scenery, deep ice-filled fjords, untouched wilderness and of sprawling glaciers – for health and especially mental health. And while plenty of research shows that nature is good for your well-being and improves mental health, there’s something at play in Greenland that adds a different perspective.
