Kapisillit, the Nuuk Icefjord and Kangeq Island Day Trips

While half-day boat tours in Nuup Kangerlua circle Sermitsiaq Island and Qooqqut, full-day boat excursions from Nuuk reach two remarkable outer corners of Sermersooq Municipality: the inner-fjord village of Kapisillit near the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, and the historic island settlement of Kangeq at the outer mouth of the Labrador Sea.

Kapisillit and the Kangersuneq (Nuuk) Icefjord

Situated 75 kilometres (47 miles) northeast of Nuuk near the head of the Kapisillit Kangerluaq tributary fjord, Kapisillit is the sole permanently inhabited settlement remaining inside the vast Nuuk fjord complex, with 43 residents recorded on 1 January 2024. Its name means "the salmon" in Kalaallisut (Danish: Laksene), referring to the nearby Kapisillit River, which is famous as the only river system in Greenland where wild Atlantic salmon naturally spawn. Accessible only by boat or helicopter ( roughly two hours by fast charter boat from Nuuk Port), the village centres on a small red wooden church, a school, and a grocery shop, with a warmer, drier inner-fjord microclimate than coastal Nuuk. From Kapisillit, a well-marked 45-to-60-minute tundra hike climbs across a low saddle to a dramatic ridge viewpoint overlooking the Kangersuneq Icefjord (Nuuk Icefjord), where a dense white pack of calved icebergs drifts down from the Qamanaarsuup Sermia and Akullersuup Sermia glaciers draining the inland ice sheet.

Kangeq Island (Håbets Ø) and Aron of Kangeq

Sailing 18 kilometres (11 miles) west-southwest of Nuuk's Old Colonial Harbour to the skerry-filled entrance of Nuup Kangerlua brings you to Kangeq Island ("Promontory"). Situated on the ancient coastal migration route of the Dorset and Thule peoples, the island was named Håbets Ø ("Island of Hope") when Norwegian-Danish missionary Hans Egede landed here on 3 July 1721 and established his stone-and-turf Hope Colony (Haabets Koloni) for seven years before governor Claus Paarss moved the settlement to mainland Nuuk in 1728. Established as a Royal Greenland Trade Department station in 1854, Kangeq was the home of Aron of Kangeq (1822 to 1869), the celebrated Inuk hunter, oral historian, and watercolourist whose woodcuts and paintings preserved traditional Inuit narratives. Abandoned in the 1970s and used in 2009 as the 1952 Nuuk film set for the historical drama Eksperimentet, Kangeq's weathered wooden houses and turf house foundations can be explored on calm-weather boat charters.

Qoornoq Island

Located in the middle reaches of Nuup Kangerlua on Qoornuup Qeqertarsua Island, where Saqqaq palaeoeskimo hunters first camped around 2200 BCE, the former cod-fishing village of Qoornoq is now a peaceful summer cabin settlement for Nuuk families, frequently visited as a scenic landing stop on full-day fjord boat tours. Check our 3-day Nuuk itinerary and packing guide before booking your boat excursion.