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We weren’t in Kansas anymore. No, Brent and I had traveled much farther north, even above the Arctic Circle at one point — to Iceland and Greenland.
Look, it’s not like we made the trek on dog sleds. We were on a cruise ship.
But it was a cruise with an unusual itinerary. And we ended up in places much farther off the beaten path than we expected.
Pack your bags, we’re going on an adventure
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Here are some thoughts on four of our destinations — from the least to the most remote.
Akureyri, Iceland
You’ve probably seen pictures of Goðafoss Waterfall, near Akureyri, in northern Iceland. I suspect this fantastic cascade would be even more famous if it were farther south.
As for the city, Akureyri is tucked away at the end of Eyjafjörður — “Islands Fjord” — and has a population of only 19,000. So it’s small, but it’s not that small.
But Akureyri is a five-hour drive on a two-lane road from Reykjavik — Iceland’s largest city.
Tourists don’t come to Akureyri for the town itself; they come for the natural beauty—Goðafoss Waterfall and the Dimmuborgir lava field. Iceland is well-known for its current volcanic activity, but Dimmuborgir is a fascinating collection of old lava formations from the past.
Akureyri is also famous for the Mývatn geothermal area, which is interesting but considerably less impressive than America’s Yellowstone National Park.
Akureyri also has regular flights from Reykjavik, albeit on small turboprop planes, so it’s not that remote.
But we did say we were starting with the least remote location!
Ísafjörður, Iceland
With less than three thousand residents, Ísafjörður is considerably smaller than Akureyri.
And unlike Akureyri, Ísafjörður is not on the Ring Road or part of the tourist driving circuit known as the Diamond Circle — the northern counterpart to the even more famous Golden Circle. This means Ísafjörður gets far fewer tourists than elsewhere in Iceland, except for the occasional cruise ship.
Ísafjörður is only 30 nautical miles from the Arctic Circle.
But again, no tourists come here for the town itself. Ísafjörður is the gateway to the Westfjords, one of Iceland’s most remote and rugged areas.
Alas, we were on a cruise ship, so we spent our time (briefly) exploring the small but colorful town…
…and then hiking up — or more along — some nearby mountains.
In 1995, an avalanche killed sixteen people in neighboring Flateyri. Today, Flateyri and Ísafjörður are protected by avalanche barriers that now double as popular walking paths.
Tucked way up in northern Iceland, with only two turboprop flights daily, Ísafjörður is pretty remote.
Qaqortoq, Greenland
But now we were getting to some truly remote places.
There’s no airport in Qaqortoq, Greenland, so to get here, you have to fly to the ex-military base of Narsarsuaq and then catch a helicopter or one of the very occasional ferries to Qaqortoq.
Or you can, you know, take a cruise ship.
Qaqortoq has a population of 3,000, but that’s a lot of residents for Greenland, given that the entire island—a Danish protectorate—only has 56,000 people.
Everyone says Iceland should have been named Greenland because it’s pretty green, and Greenland should have been named Iceland because it’s mostly ice.
Well, this small area of Greenland is somewhat green, which is why early settlers mistakenly named the whole island “Greenland.”
The economy is primarily based on fishing, particularly cod and shrimp, although there’s also some seal hunting. As a result, much of the town has a gritty, industrial feel.
This isn’t to say that Qaqortoq is unattractive. Like many Arctic and sub-Arctic towns with long, dark winters, the houses are mostly painted bright colors.
One good thing about remote places? You can be at the edge of town in about five minutes — and in countries like Iceland and Greenland, that means immediate access to spectacular wilderness.
Alas, even in summer, our weather was absolutely terrible — cold and rainy. But we did our best on a hiking trail along Tasersuaq — or “the Great Lake.”
In Qaqortoq, the weather sucked, and there wasn’t much to do. But we liked the solitude — and the sense that we were finally somewhere truly off the beaten path.
Nanortalik, Greenland
Now, we were finally getting to the true end of the Earth!
To reach Nanortalik, Greenland, population 1200, you also have to take a helicopter from Narsarsuaq or catch the ferry. However, the ferry to Nanortalik only runs in summer — and only once or twice a month. And even those very sporadic summer trips can be canceled due to ice.
And those of you silently mocking us for taking a cruise ship to this remote place? Even many cruise ships are blocked by that ice. Only half of the forty scheduled cruise ships made it to port this summer because there was so much ice.
Given its small size, there wasn’t much to do in town, although it does include the Nanortalik Outdoor Museum — a nice collection of buildings that houses exhibits about the town’s history, Inuit culture, and the fishing and seal hunting on which the town’s economy is based.
As usual, this remote town is primarily a gateway to wilderness for tourists, including some of Greenland’s best hiking and mountain climbing. Neighboring Tasermiut Fjord is often called the “Arctic Patagonia.”
And as usual, we planned to head straight for the closest hiking trail.
Then we learned that in Greenlandic, “Nanortalik” means “Place of the Polar Bears.” Uh, maybe we didn’t want to take that hike.
Upon further investigation, we discovered that polar bears have only been here in winter, and even in winter, it’s been years since anyone has seen one.
With that in mind, we started on a trail into the hills surrounding town.
Unfortunately, the weather was horrible again — and, even worse, the ground was really boggy.
Then we came to a small river that looked far too cold to cross in our tennis shoes.
If Nanortalik is no longer the Place of the Polar Bears, it might instead be called the Place of the Icebergs. Even with climate change, Nanortalik still has those in spades.
Check out all the icebergs in this recent satellite image of town:
Sure enough, we saw plenty of icebergs from the boat.
Now for some harsh truth about Nanortalik, Greenland — and remote places in general.
It’s easy to make almost any destination look charming, and God knows, Instagram influencers and some travel writers often try very hard to do just that.
In the case of Nanortalik, we could show you a stunning Arctic sunset or maybe a church and some colorful houses reflected in an inlet.
But the fact is, remote places are often remote for a reason — harsh weather or general inaccessibility.
All this can add up to a decided lack of opportunity for the locals and very high rates of depression.
Greenland has the highest suicide rate in the world.
Nanortalik felt poor. Many houses were tiny and basic-looking and desperately needed painting and repair.
But this is an excellent reason to visit remote places. After all, the people in these places usually want you there—unlike busy, overcrowded places like, say, Barcelona, where the locals are making it very clear they’re sick of all the visitors.
On the contrary, in places like Nanortalik, the locals are delighted to have you there — even if you arrive on a cruise ship.
As for us, we loved being somewhere far off the beaten path, where craggy mountains met fairly treacherous seas — and where peace and quiet weren’t over some distant horizon: it was all around us.
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