Best Things to Do in Nuuk

Nuuk rewards travellers who combine its compact cultural quarter with time on the surrounding water and granite peaks. Within a single morning you can examine 4,000-year-old Saqqaq stone blades, stand beside the tide-submerged sculpture of the Mother of the Sea, and watch fishing boats unload cold-water shrimp and halibut at the harbour pontoon, before spending the afternoon cruising past calved icebergs beneath a 1,210-metre island mountain. Use this overview alongside our 3-day Nuuk itinerary to structure your stay.

1. Walk the Old Colonial Harbour and Nuuk Cathedral

Start at Kolonihavnen (Nuutoqaq), where the red wooden Church of Our Saviour (Annaassisitta Oqaluffia) has stood since its consecration on 6 April 1849. Climb the granite knoll behind the church to the 1921 bronze statue of Hans Egede for a clear panorama across the brightly painted timber cottages of Myggedalen, then walk down to the tidal cove at low water to see Christian Rosing's granite sculpture of Sassuma Arnaa (Mother of the Sea) and the yellow 1728 Hans Egede House, Greenland's oldest surviving building.

2. See the Qilakitsoq Mummies at the Greenland National Museum

Housed in a converted 1936 harbour warehouse directly on the waterfront, the Greenland National Museum traces human survival in the Arctic from the Saqqaq and Dorset cultures to the medieval Norse Western Settlement. Its centrepiece is the Qilakitsoq collection: four naturally mummified Thule Inuit bodies dating to around 1475 CE, displayed alongside 78 intact garments including waterproof sealskin kamit boots insulated with sedge grass and inner anoraks sewn from bird feathers.

3. Experience Katuaq, Nuuk Art Museum, and Kalaaliaraq Market

In the city centre, step inside the Katuaq Cultural Centre, designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen and inaugurated on 15 February 1997 with a curving golden-larch screen inspired by the aurora borealis. Ten minutes east on Kissarneqqortuunnguaq, the Nuuk Art Museum displays Svend Junge's bequest of more than 150 historic Greenlandic landscapes by Emanuel A. Petersen alongside soapstone, ivory, and antler tupilak carvings. Nearby, browse the daily catch of redfish, halibut, and reindeer at Kalaaliaraq Market.

4. Cruise Nuup Kangerlua Past Sermitsiaq to Qooqqut

Book a half-day or full-day boat excursion into the 160-kilometre Nuup Kangerlua fjord system. Boats pause beneath the glacial waterfalls of 1,210-metre Sermitsiaq Island, scan the deep channels for feeding humpback whales between June and September, and continue either to the catch-and-cook summer restaurant at Qooqqut Nuan or to the floating ice pack below the Narsap Sermia tidewater glacier.

5. Hike Quassussuaq, Ukkusissat, or the Kapisillit Icefjord

Follow the orange-painted cairns up 420-metre Quassussuaq (Lille Malene) for a three-to-four-hour ridge circuit, or tackle the steeper 790-metre granite climb of Ukkusissat (Store Malene) above Qinngorput. For a gentler coastal walk, follow the wooden walkway described in our Ilimmarfik and coastal boardwalk guide, or take a boat day trip 75 kilometres northeast to the salmon-river village of Kapisillit and the Kangersuneq Icefjord.