Instead of flying, we decided to travel from Ilulissat back to Nuuk aboard the Sarfaq Ittuk, a ferry operated by the Arctic Umiaq Line. In Greenlandic, “Sarfaq” refers to a current or tide, while “Ittuk” means old or great.
The Sarfaq Ittuk route is the most vital transport link in Greenland. As the country’s only scheduled coastal passenger service, it is the sole lifeline capable of moving large numbers of people and essential supplies over long distances. Unlike flights, the ferry is less vulnerable to the unpredictable weather and sea ice, providing remote communities with a reliable and affordable way to stay connected.
For a traveler, however, this journey is about more than just logistics. Stepping on board offers a rare window into the daily lives of Greenlandic locals, all while winding past some of the most breathtaking glaciers and untouched coastlines on the planet.
Itinerary Overview
Day 1:
- We set sail at 5pm, passing right through the mouth of the Ilulissat Icefjord before cutting across Disko Bay.
- Just after sunset, we made a brief 30min stop at Aasiaat.
- Once we pulled away from the docks of Aasiaat, cabin services wound down for the night, and the ship settled into a quiet evening hum.
Day 2:
- At 9:30am, we arrived in Sisimiut, Greenland’s second-largest town, for a 90min layover.
- Lunch was served just as we left the Sisimiut harbor.
- By early afternoon, we reached the tiny fishing village of Kangaamiut for a quick 15min stop.
- As the sun began to set, we rounded the island of Sermersuut, eventually reaching Maniitsoq in the evening for a 30min stay.
Day 3:
- At 7am sharp, we pulled back into the capital, Nuuk.
One point to keep in mind is that the Sarfaq Ittuk is a ferry, not a cruise ship. This means you won’t find a wide range of entertainment facilities on board, nor will there be guided commentary on the sights or organized tour groups for the stops along the way.
Day 1: Icefjord and sunset at sea
Departure
In the afternoon, we walked down from our accommodation in Ilulissat directly to the ferry terminal by the shore to prepare for boarding. The boarding process was straightforward – they just checked our tickets and IDs, with no other paperwork required.
The ferry has a total of five levels, serving both passengers and cargo, though it does not carry vehicles.
- The 5th floor is the top deck, which passengers can access at any time.
- The 4th floor features 16 cabins and no couchette/bunkbeds. There is a public lounge area and a small cinema at the back. A public walkway wraps around outside the cabin windows on this level.
- The 3rd floor contains 10 cabins, a large number of couchettes, and the cafeteria. There is no walkway outside the cabin windows here, offering better privacy than the floor above.
- The 2nd floor has several more shared couchettes at the backn, but these have no windows.
- The 1st floor at the very bottom only has a small central area with couchettes, which also lacks windows.
Even-numbered cabins are located on the port side (left), while odd-numbered cabins are on the starboard side (right). Since the route runs north-south along Greenland’s west coast, you can select specific room numbers when booking. I think the prime choice for a southbound journey like ours would be the even-numbered rooms on the third floor (310, 312, 314, 316, 318), for better views and privacy. For a northbound route, the odd-numbered rooms on the same level (311, 313, 315, 317, 319) are the ones to get.
If you are booking a couchette, I highly recommend aiming for the third floor because of the windows. The couchettes on the 1st and 2nd floors have no natural light, which can feel quite cramped and claustrophobic.
As the clock struck the hour, our ferry pulled away from the dock right on time. A crowd gathered on the deck, leaning over the railings to wave a final goodbye to friends and family gathered at the dock.
Icefjord
The surface of Disko Bay was incredibly calm, giving us the perfect opportunity to take in the beauty of the icefjord one last time.
Despite the dense pack ice on the water, our ferry seemed completely unfazed. We could frequently hear the heavy clunk and thud against the hull as the ship crushed through smaller icebergs. I suspect the hull must be reinforced with a design similar to an icebreaker.
In the Arctic, the sun sits so low on the horizon that sunsets and their afterglow seem to last forever. The sky was set ablaze with fiery clouds that lingered for ages, refusing to fade.
Aasiaat
Shortly after sunset, we officially left the Avannaata region of Greenland (meaning “The North” in Greenlandic) and crossed into Qeqertalik (“The Place of Islands”). Our ferry would soon make a port call at Aasiaat, the regional capital.
Aasiaat sits on the outermost edge of Disko Bay, right alongside the Davis Strait, and is home to a population of about 3,000. With a scheduled 30min stop, we had just enough time to hop off the ship and explore for about 20min.
Day 2: Qeqqata
We officially bid farewell to the calm waters of Disko Bay after leaving Aasiaat, and headed out into the rolling swells of the open sea. It was a rocky night of sleep with the ferry swaying back and forth, but I managed to drift off eventually. By the time I woke up, we had entered the Qeqqata region, which means “The Center” in Greenlandic. The three towns we are passing today – Sisimiut, Kangaamiut, and Maniitsoq – all belong to this central district of Qeqqata.
Sisimiut
Due to the thick blanket of fog, the sea cliffs we were supposed to see before arriving in Sisimiut were almost entirely hidden from view.
As Greenland’s second-largest town after Nuuk, with a population of about 5,600, there was a huge rush of passengers embarking and disembarking. The ferry stays in port for about 90min here, which gave those of us staying on board a solid hour to stretch our legs and wander through town.
The pier was buzzing with people, some there to welcome arriving travelers and others to see off friends and family. Even under the gloomy skies, the atmosphere was thick with excitement and joy. Rows of cars crowded the access roads, packed several layers deep as they moved in and out of the port area.
Like many other towns here, the pier in Sisimiut is located right in the heart of the town, making it incredibly easy to explore as soon as we stepped off the ferry. The terrain is rugged and steep with almost no level ground here, leaving exposed cliffs and rocky crags visible at every turn.
Our first stop was the Sisimiut Museum, a charming collection of several preserved historic houses and an old church.
Then we took a casual stroll through the town. With plenty of locals out and about – from the youth to the elderly – the morning air was filled with the warm, lively pulse of daily life.
The local supermarket in Sisimiut is stocked with a rich variety of local products. Interestingly, they have a rather unique rule that prohibits the sale of any alcoholic beverages before 10am.
Our ferry pulled in at 9:30am and was scheduled to depart before 11am. Since most of the local restaurants don’t open until 11am, we didn’t get a chance to sit down for a meal in Sisimiut. Instead, we grabbed some bread and pastries from the supermarket and headed back to the ship to have our lunch on board.
Kangaamiut
Originally, the Danish name for Kangaamiut was Sukkertoppen, which translates to “Sugarloaf”. The town earned this name because of the cluster of rounded peaks to its north. Later, the Danes transferred the name Sukkertoppen to Maniitsoq further south, and this location became known in Danish as Gammel Sukkertoppen, or “Old Sugarloaf.” Following the movement to restore Greenlandic place names, it officially returned to its original name, Kangaamiut.
As for those distinctive mountains, the Greenlandic people call them Uummannat, meaning “heart-shaped”, the same name shared by another village north of Ilulissat.
Kangaamiut is a tiny fishing village with a population of only about 300. It is tucked away within a small cluster of offshore islands rather than on the mainland of Greenland. These islands act as a natural barrier against the open sea, which is why the waters we sailed through for the half-hour before our arrival were incredibly calm and still.
The inlet in front of this fishing village is quite narrow and likely shallow, so our ferry couldn’t dock directly at the pier. Instead, we had to rely on a small shuttle boat to ferry passengers back and forth between the ferry and the shore.
Since it is such a small village, we only stopped here for 15 minutes. About ten people got off the boat, and roughly the same number hopped on for the next leg of the journey.
We were treated to a full panoramic view of Kangaamiut as we pulled up anchor. Most of the houses are painted in vibrant hues, with their steep gabled roofs and square windows creating a charming and picturesque scene.
As soon as we left the harbor and hit the open sea, the swell became noticeably stronger, and the ship returned to its familiar, steady roll.
Sermersuut Island
Just before sunset, we reached the northwestern tip of Sermersuut Island. The ship then turned east, leaving the open sea for the calm waters of the inlet, circling halfway around the island clockwise before heading south toward Maniitsoq.
The island didn’t look like much from a distance due to the heavy fog, but as we drew closer, we realized that the valleys cutting through the center of the island were absolutely overflowing with glaciers.
I’ve spent ages looking for the names of those glaciers via maps, databases, and academic papers both online and off since returning from Greenland, but I still haven’t been able to find a single name for any of the glaciers on Sermersuut. It is honestly mind-boggling that such a massive concentration of ice remains completely nameless.
About half an hour after entering the inlet, we reached the northeastern tip of Sermersuut Island. The ferry then made a sharp 90-degree turn to the right, heading straight south through the fjord toward Maniitsoq.
The sea cliffs on the eastern shore of Sermersuut Island are much steeper than those on the north. Without inland valleys to cradle them, there are no glaciers here, and even the snow struggles to find a foothold. Like much of Greenland’s west coast, the bedrock here is ancient, dating back to the Archean Eon. Looking at the cliff faces, we could see distinct strata; the dark upper section shows very low-grade metamorphism and remains true granite, setting it apart from the gneiss that dominates most of the region.
As the ferry cruised south through the inlet between Sermersuut Island and the Greenland mainland, we were treated to the sight of numerous glaciers clinging to the mainland side, creating a truly poetic and atmospheric scene.
As we were about to leave Sermersuut Island, looking back toward the northeast, a massive glacier came into view deep within the inlet on the Greenland mainland. I couldn’t find a name for this one either, but satellite imagery places it at 65.684 N, 52.513 W, marking it as part of the western fringe of the Tasersiaq ice cap. This is the same ice cap we spotted from the air during our flight from Nuuk to Kangerlussuaq, though that was a much more inland section.
Two vivid blue glaciers appear on the Greenland mainland just before reaching Maniitsoq. Their high-altitude horns towered over the landscape.
Maniitsoq
With the very last traces of the sunset lingering in the sky at 9:30 pm, we arrived right on schedule at our final stop for the day: Maniitsoq, a town of about 2,500 people.
Even before the ferry had fully docked, the energy on board and at the dock began to pick up, the air buzzing with excitement.
We had a half-hour stop in Maniitsoq, just enough time to hop off and do a quick loop through the center of town. It’s a small town with everything: residential houses, a bustling harbor, local shops, museums, churches, schools, hotels, and so on. Even as the light faded into the late evening, the streets were still alive with the sounds of kids out playing.
D3: Back to Nuuk
Just before sunrise the next morning, we finally made it back to Nuuk! The ferry stops here for a good few hours before continuing its journey south, but it looked like most people were disembarking here. The port was absolutely packed with locals waiting to welcome their friends and family, making for a wonderfully lively and joyful scene.
We stayed one last night in Nuuk before flying back to the US. To prevent useless repetitions, I extracted those parts of my journal which refer to Nuuk, without always attending to the order in which we visited them: Greenland’s capital on Archean gneiss.
The End
Out Greenland trip is getting close to the end. As of me writing up this post in January 2026, Greenland has been seeing an unprecedented level of international media attention. As an ordinary commoner of the “Global Village”, I have no influence over the shifts in international affairs, yet in the deepest corners of my heart, I wish every iceberg, every glacier, and every inch of the beautiful land of Greenland could keep its undisturbed purity and peace forever.