Working remotely from Greenland

Yes, you read that well! Remote working from Greenland. After working remotely from another unlikely place: Iceland, it was time to head even further north and to a more rugged destination: Greenland!

Why Greenland? Honestly: this wasn’t the first location I had in mind when I dreamed about remote working. It just so happened that my girlfriend received a research grant for a month to do research in the capital, Nuuk. And who would I be if I didn’t say: yes, of course I’ll come along, great!

In total, we spent three and a half weeks in Nuuk and half a week in Ilulissat. We flew from Copenhagen and landed in Kangerlussuaq, which at the time was the only international airport in Greenland. We were supposed to fly to Nuuk after a short layover. However, it was too cloudy and we couldn’t land. We turned back and spent a night in Kangerlussuaq.

The next day we had more luck. After another delay, we landed in the capital, Nuuk. We’d managed to rent an Airbnb (not easy and certainly not cheap!) in Old Nuuk. It’s a truly unique and exceptionally beautiful neighborhood in Nuuk. You can see the houses in the background of the photo below.

Nuuk is a small city, with only 20,000 inhabitants. It’s also very spread out. You really shouldn’t imagine a European-style city. Construction of houses is happening wherever possible, and that’s certainly not everywhere. It’s a small city, but there’s definitely plenty to do. Three weeks might have been a bit much; I think you could easily see the whole of Nuuk in a few days.

How did I work remotely from Nuuk?

I wanted to work in cafes, but that didn’t work out. There was one cafe that did fit the style: Kaffivik. Unfortunately, it was about a 40-minute walk for us, and it didn’t open until late. It was also small and a bit too noisy. Suitable for work, definitely not for meetings. This meant I mainly worked from home, with a beautiful view of the bay (with ice floes regularly floating by!). You can see the bay in the background of the photo below.

What to do in Nuuk?

Before we went to Nuuk, we started looking for friends. And we were lucky! There were a handful of international residents who had a group chat. During our month in Greenland, we saw them regularly. We went hiking on Lila Malina and another hike behind Nuuk (see picture below).

We went swimming, to the cinema, and had dinner and drinks in the city. One evening, we ended up in a Greenlandic karaoke bar, a truly memorable experience. We also went on many hikes and were treated to a true Northern Lights spectacle every two or three days:

What else to do in Greenland?

There are so many places to visit in Greenland. However, we only went to Ilulissat. Why? It’s the most famous and probably most beautiful place in Greenland. Why else? Greenland is quite expensive. There are no roads between the towns/villages, and the country is incredibly vast. A one-way plane ticket easily costs hundreds of euros. So did our flight to and from Ilulissat. But it was definitely worth it! I think I can confidently say it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. I’ll try to show it in some photos. You can see the drifting icebergs and the Eqi Glacier: most active glacier in the Northern Hemisphere:

Ilulisat, like Nuuk, Kangerlussuaq, and Greenland in general, deserves its own post. There’s so much to tell about its history, Inuit culture, Danish influences, pristine nature, rapid development, and unique natural phenomena, but we won’t get to that right now. Also, keep in mind that our visit was before the opening of Nuuk’s international airport and before Donald Trump’s re-election, which thrust Greenland back into the spotlight. A video of my girlfriend (in Hungarian, sorry) was also eagerly watched (partially because of the timing): 30 fun facts about Greenland.

Conclusion: Will Greenland be your next remote work location?

Do you have a generous budget? Then I would definitely recommend visiting Greenland! But perhaps it’s wiser to do Greenland as a vacation rather than a remote work location. There’s so much to see and do, and the country is so vast. Combine that with the cost of accommodation and travel between locations, and I would advise spending as much time as possible exploring Greenland (and as little time as possible working).

Greenland is on the cusp of enormous development. This is reflected everywhere. There isn’t much infrastructure for tourists yet, and this simply makes the existing infrastructure quite expensive. Greenland was by far the most expensive place I’ve ever been. As a digital nomad, you want and need to stay in one place for longer. In my opinion, Nuuk and Greenland aren’t very suitable for this at the moment (and I also question whether that’s even desirable). Want to see Greenland? Go to Nuuk, Illulisat, and a few other places. There are also village-to-village cruises, which are pricey, but probably the most fun and best way to truly get to know Greenland. Do you still want to go to Greenland as a Digital Nomad? Then spend 3-4 days in Nuuk and 3-4 days in Ilulissat. If you have extra time (and especially budget!), check out flights to places like Sisimut.

There’s so much to tell, I hope I’ve been able to share something about my experience. Want to know more? Let me know, I might write another post!

Thanks for your attention!