The great cruise of Greenland

On board the polar yacht Le Nanook

• From fjords rich in Inuit history, to Viking settlements, to Danish trading counters.
• In search of polar bears, whales and musk oxen.
• The most impressive landscapes of giant icebergs, ice floes, cliffs, peaks, glaciers.
• Ilussat the iceberg capital of the world.

Grands Espaces

• An expedition cruise on one of the smallest expedition boats.
• 25 years of Polar expertise, a route completely oriented towards wildlife observation and the discovery of the polar environment
• A 100% French-speaking cruise (passengers and team)
• Outings and conferences supervised by our team of naturalist guides

Your program

DAY 1 | Reykjavik (Islande) – Constable Point (Greenland)

A private flight takes you over the volcanic landscapes of Iceland before reaching in about two hours the east coast cut into its basalts and granites that emerge from the ice cap. Boarding at Constable Point.

DAY 2 | Ittoqqortoormiit and the Land of Blosseville

The village of Ittoqqortoormiit (350 inhabitants) was installed in 1925 at the entrance of the largest fjord in the world. Museum, sled dogs, church, monuments to Ejnar Mikkelsen and to Commandant Charcot. The coast of Volquart Boons is forged in basalts covered with glaciers that flow to the coastline from the nearby ice cap.

DAY 3 | Coast of Blosseville

Barclay or Nansen bays. Icebergs clutter the front of glaciers that reach the sea. This coast is named in memory of Jules Poret de Blosseville, commanding a crew of a French brig of 83 men, who disappeared in these waters in 1833. We will sail in the shadow of the highest peak in the Arctic, Gunnbjornfjellet (3692 meters above sea level).

DAY 4 | Ikertiva

North of Sermiligaaq, the Steenstrup glaciers reach the sea from the ice cap. We will meander between the ice, with a landing near a superb glacial lake that traps icebergs calved by the glacier. The landscape is of icebergs and high mountains. This region is close to Mount Forel (3400 meters above sea level), discovered by a Swiss expedition.

Seals and polar bears frequent these places.

DAY 5 | Tasiilaq

The town of 2000 inhabitants, formerly Ammassalik, concentrates the largest settlement on the entire east coast of Greenland. It was the centre of scattered Inuit hunting communities in this area, and the Danes established a post there in 1894. In a vast bay, it is set in a superb setting of high mountains, between the two Sermilik fjords of great beauty, and from where expeditions that cross the cap on foot start.

In 1934, Commander Charcot placed 4 explorers there for a long journey across the ice cap,

including Robert Gessain who will trace the foundations of French Inuit anthropological research, and Paul Victor, who will return there to later deliver to the world his fascinating stories about the Inuits. Visit of the city, with its sled dogs, its museum.

Possibilities for overflight by helicopter.

DAY 6 | Bernstofft Icefjord and South-East coast

An exceptional setting with a fjord crowded with giant icebergs. Over more than 200 kilometers, immense glaciers come to throw themselves into the sea from the icy chaos ice cap that presses between the peaks of the surrounding peaks at an altitude of 1500 meters. Bears and seals prowl, and at sea the observation of whales (rorquals, megapterans and orcas) is regular in these very rich waters. The large fjord of Lindenow is 64 kilometers long and cuts a landscape of walls such as Apostolen and its 2291 meters in height.

DAY 7 | Prince Christian’s Strait

This spectacular strait, which is occupied by ice most of the year, zigzags for about 100 kilometres, sometimes only 500 metres wide.

DAY 8 | Qaqortoq

In the 4th city of the country, with its 3200 inhabitants, visit the museum of the city and the tannery. Visit the site of Hvalsey, where the Vikings built a church whose ruins are visible and preserved, and around which their colonization of southwest Greenland was organized until the mid-fifteenth century.Survol possible en hélicoptère.

DAY 9 | At sea

Rising from the West Coast, crossing icebergs and whales as in the distance, the ice cap rises to the horizon.

DAY 10 | Nuuk

This spectacular strait, which is occupied by ice most of the year, zigzags for about 100 kilometres, sometimes only 500 metres wide.

DAY 11 | At sea

On the way to the ice capital, and we pass the Arctic Circle and off the cities of Sisimiut and Aasiat.

DAY 12 | Ilulissat – Isfjord – Glacier Eqi

Arrival in Ilulissat, the ice capital. It is the 3rd largest city in Greenland. Founded in 1741, it houses the explorer Knud Rasmussen’s museum and the ice information center, which we will visit. Hiking in the tundra with an exceptional viewpoint over the Isfjord, cluttered with giant icebergs over more than 60 km. The glacier, 160 km long, advances there by more than 25 meters per day, creating one of the most extraordinary sites, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Possibility of flying over the ice field towards the Ilulissat glacier. Excursions to the icebergs. Possible continuation towards the Eqi glacier coming from the ice cap and offering a very active front.

It is in the bay that Paul Emile Victor and the French Polar Expeditions landed between 1948 and 1958, for the study of the cap and its crossing.

DAY 13 | Ilulissat – Reykjavik

Private flight from ilulissat. Crossing the Greenland ice cap and arriving in Reykjavik

©Photos-Grands Espaces

THE NANOOK

✔ A reinforced hull boat, ice class 1B, intended for large expeditions and long crossings

✔ 12 passengers maximum

✔ 2 zodiacs for excursions

✔ Lounge, bar and panoramic restaurant, sauna and jacuzzi, Scandinavian style interior

Built in 1968 in Denmark to face the North Seas, this 53.5 m ship, classified as ice 1B, is designed for oceanic expeditions. With two 2,200 HP engines, it reaches 12 cruising knots. It accommodates up to 12 passengers in 9 comfortable cabins (8 to 16m 2), each equipped with single or double beds, a workspace, storage and a private bathroom and it has two zodiacs for outings.

Fully restored between 2020 and 2024, it benefits from redesigned cabins and a panoramic lounge. This robust and elegant boat will sail in the Arctic from 2025.