What to see in Sisimiut, Greenland: Milan Bez Mapy’s tips

What to see in Sisimiut? Compared with busy Nuuk, Sisimiut is a small, quiet town beneath a dramatic mountain, and two full days were enough for me. What stayed with me most was the hike to a hut shaped like a UFO. I had no signal all day and didn’t meet a single person.

Quick factsby Milan Bez Mapy

Location

About 40 km north of the Arctic Circle, on Greenland’s west coast

Getting there

Air Greenland from Copenhagen, changing in Nuuk; from the airport to the centre it’s an hour on foot or 10 minutes by car

How many days

Two full days

Midnight sun

From about early June to 10 July

In your rucksack

Waterproof boots, a mosquito head net, sun cream

Museum and souvenir shops

Usually open only on days when a cruise ship is in port

But a Greenlandic summer also means soggy tundra and swarms of mosquitoes. I wouldn’t come back without waterproof boots and a mosquito head net.

What is there to see in Sisimiut, Greenland? I came here with a simple goal: I wanted to see what a Greenlandic summer looks like. So I deliberately planned my visit for around 21 June, the longest day of the year. It is also Greenland’s National Day, and Greenlanders chose that date precisely because it is the longest day. On that day the sun doesn’t set over Sisimiut at all, because the town lies about 40 km north of the Arctic Circle. With about 5,400 inhabitants it is Greenland’s second-largest town, yet you can still walk across all of it.

Its position just north of the Arctic Circle explains far more than the midnight sun, though. Sisimiut is the southernmost town on the west coast where sled dogs may be kept. North of that line, Greenlanders may not keep any other breed of dog, so that the Greenland sled dog doesn’t crossbreed and stays healthy.

Here’s my documentary vlog (in Slovak) from this trip to Greenland, which also covers my stop in Sisimiut:

I did see dogs near the town, but in summer they just rest: without snow, there’s nothing to pull. Sisimiut is also the northernmost town in Greenland whose harbour stays ice-free even in winter. That’s one reason the country’s most important fishing port grew up here. Sisimiut brings two worlds together: the sled dogs of the north and the sea of the south, open all year round.

How to get to Sisimiut and what an Air Greenland ticket costs

I flew to Sisimiut with Air Greenland from Copenhagen, changing in Nuuk. Since November 2024 Greenland’s capital has had a new airport with a longer runway, so jets from Copenhagen now land there directly. Before that, flights from Europe to Greenland mostly went via Kangerlussuaq.

From Nuuk, smaller propeller planes continue to Sisimiut. It isn’t cheap: my return ticket from Copenhagen cost €1,200. I paid for the whole trip myself. There are direct flights to Copenhagen from Vienna, so the expensive part only begins there.

Sisimiut Airport is small and only a few kilometres from the centre. It was sunny and completely still, so I decided to go into town on foot. It took me about an hour, while by car it’s roughly ten minutes. The walk alone was already an experience.

The road led past a bay and a beach where Greenlanders were swimming, even though it was only about 8°C. Above it all rises Nasaasaaq, the 784 m mountain that dominates Sisimiut. Its name refers to the shape of a cap, and the Danes call it Kællingehætten, the Old Woman’s Cap.

Where to stay in Sisimiut, how many days you need and what to watch out for in summer

I booked my accommodation the usual way, through Booking. Sisimiut is small and you can walk everywhere, so I didn’t need a car. There are no roads between Greenland’s towns either, so I didn’t hire one for trips out of town. Sisimiut has an ATM, and most shops take foreign cards.

In summer, the thing I really had to watch out for was the mosquitoes. There really are a lot of them, but almost every shop sells head nets, so I bought one straight away. Locals routinely wear them in the street too. The other thing is the sun. During the polar day it’s very strong and shines around the clock, so I brought sun cream. The upside is that there’s no need to rush anywhere, because darkness simply never comes.

• Tip from Milan I set aside two full days for Sisimiut, and they were enough for the town, the UFO hike and the island with the old graves.
• Tip from Milan I bought my head net on the very first day. They’re sold almost everywhere, so there’s no need to bring one from home.

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Things to do in Sisimiut: Milan Bez Mapy’s picks

Sisimiut doesn’t have many classic sights, so I spent most of my time outdoors. These are the places I explored myself, from a full-day hike to a coffee by the lake.

Arctic Circle Trail: the famous polar trek from Kangerlussuaq ends in Sisimiut

Sisimiut is the end point of the Arctic Circle Trail, one of the best-known polar hiking routes. It links the town with the airport at Kangerlussuaq and is about 160 km long. Experienced hikers take seven to ten days and sleep in simple huts. They carry all their food, because there isn’t a single shop along the way. I’m not quite that hardy a hiker, so I didn’t do the whole trail. Anyone can walk the last stretch before Sisimiut, though, and shorter day hikes start from the town as well.

UFO Trail in Sisimiut: a day hike to a UFO-shaped hut

The main hike of my stay was the UFO Trail. At the end of a long valley stands one of Sisimiut’s strangest sights, a mountain hut shaped like a flying saucer. You’ll find it at these coordinates. Anyone can stay the night there on a first-come, first-served basis. You can also walk there and back in a day, even in winter, when the route follows dog-sled tracks.

From the UFO I had a 180-degree view of the Kangerluarsuk Tulleq fjord and the high mountains that hide the Aqqutikitsoq glacier. The whole hike is roughly 24 km there and back. The path is narrow but well marked, and it mostly climbs gently. Early in the season or after rain, though, the stream crossings can be tricky.

On an information board by the path I loved one big note: you can drink the water from any stream. I had no signal at all the whole way and didn’t meet a single person, but that’s how hikes in Greenland go. Along the way I passed a waterfall and a frozen river. At the UFO I sat for a long while and took in the view. There’s even a toilet. You can walk right into the UFO, but there’s nothing inside apart from a visitors’ book and a first-aid kit.

What to take on the UFO hike in Greenland: wet boots and 50,000 steps

Honestly, the hike wore me out, even though it isn’t extremely long. I clocked almost 50,000 steps, because on the rocky path I could only take small ones. A Greenlandic summer also means melting snow and ice, and water everywhere. The tundra is full of bogs and ponds hidden under the vegetation. Several times I stepped right into one, and my boots ended up completely soaked. On the plus side, the sun doesn’t set at this time of year, so I didn’t have to hurry back before dark.

• Tip from Milan For hiking in Greenland I recommend properly waterproof boots. Mine gave up after a few steps into a hidden bog.
• Tip from Milan I took sun cream and a head net on the hike. North of the Arctic Circle the sun is strong even when it isn’t warm.

Midnight sun in Sisimiut: when the sun doesn’t set and where I watched it

That evening after the hike, I walked up a small hill right in the centre of Sisimiut to see the sun at midnight. It’s a simple attraction, but a rather nice one. The polar day in Sisimiut lasts from about early June to 10 July. Because the town lies only just north of the Arctic Circle, the sun stays low above the horizon at midnight but doesn’t sink below it. On the way I also stopped at the local cemetery.

Bethel Kirke in Sisimiut: Greenland’s oldest surviving church, paid for with whale blubber

In the old part of town I walked around the grounds of Sisimiut Museum, which occupies 18th-century colonial buildings. This is also where the blue Bethel Kirke stands, the oldest surviving church in Greenland. It has quite a story.

The church began as a kit made in Denmark. A ship brought it to Holsteinsborg, as Sisimiut was then called, and it was consecrated in 1775. It was paid for in whale blubber, which at the time sold in Europe as lamp fuel. Today the church is part of the museum, and services take place in the red church from 1926 right next door.

At the entrance to the museum grounds stands a gate made of whale bones, or more precisely the jawbones of a bowhead whale. It was built between 1906 and 1907 outside the house of the trading station’s manager at the time. The museum itself, however, was closed when I came. Its collection even includes finds from the Saqqaq culture, the first people to settle in Greenland, about 4,500 years ago. It usually opens only when a cruise ship is in port, and many souvenir shops work the same way. Sisimiut gets around 40 cruise ships a summer.

• Tip from Milan Next time I’ll check before I travel when a cruise ship is due in Sisimiut. That’s the day with the best chance of finding the museum and the souvenir shops open.

Tele Island (Sallinnguit) near Sisimiut: Inuit graves with skeletons still inside

What I enjoyed most in Sisimiut was the walk to the island of Sallinnguit, which the Danes call Tele Ø after the telecom equipment on its summit. It lies close to the centre, and a small bridge connects it to the town. It took me about an hour to walk there along the harbour.

According to archaeologists, people have lived here on and off for the last 4,000 years: first the Saqqaq and Dorset cultures, later the ancestors of today’s Inuit, the Thule culture. Where the island begins there’s a map with numbered stops explaining the remains of dwellings and the graves. Apart from the history, the island also has lovely views of Sisimiut.

The most powerful part, though, is the old stone graves. The Inuit didn’t bury their dead in the ground. The soil here is thin, stony and often frozen below the surface, so digging a grave simply wasn’t possible. Instead, they laid the body on the ground and covered it with stones. In some graves you can still see real skeletons, preserved for hundreds of years by the cold, dry climate. The same principle lies behind the famous Qilakitsoq mummies, which hunters found in 1972 in north-west Greenland. You’ll find the skeletons from the photo at exactly these coordinates.

Taseralik Culture Centre and Spejdersø lake in Sisimiut

Right in town there’s a lake with two names. Greenlanders call it Nalunnguarfik, the Danes Spejdersø, meaning Scout Lake. A pleasant path loops around it, and in the morning I saw lots of people out running. On its shore stands the Taseralik culture centre, which opened in 2008.

It has a concert hall that doubles as a cinema, an exhibition space and a café overlooking the lake. This is where I had a very good coffee, and I recommend it as a quiet break between hikes. In winter, dog sleds set off from here, and the Arctic Circle Race, a ski race, starts here too.

Traditional Greenlandic food in Sisimiut: halibut, whale and mattak at Hotel Sisimiut

For traditional Greenlandic food I went to the Nasaasaaq restaurant at Hotel Sisimiut. I tried prawns, halibut, whale meat and mattak, raw whale skin with a layer of blubber. Greenlanders eat it cut into small cubes, and it is one of their traditional delicacies. The whole meal was very fatty and heavy, with strong flavours.

That makes sense, though: in winter the body needs a lot of calories up here. I dipped the mattak and the whale in lemon juice or a garlic dip to make them taste better. The town has a few other restaurants and cafés, but Sisimiut really is small, so the choice is limited. I’ve written more about what people eat in Greenland in my article on typical Greenlandic food.

Where to go after Sisimiut: Kangerlussuaq, Aasiaat and other towns in Greenland

From Sisimiut I carried on aboard the Sarfaq Ittuk to the small town of Aasiaat and came back on an overnight sailing. It was in Aasiaat that I saw the National Day celebrations on 21 June. I describe the whole voyage in my review of the Sarfaq Ittuk. The nearest major place on the map, though, is Kangerlussuaq, about 130 km to the east, close to the edge of the Greenland ice sheet.

That’s where the Arctic Circle Trail begins, and you can read about my time there in the article Things to do in Kangerlussuaq. I also got to know the capital, Nuuk, the busiest of Greenland’s towns. But my favourite place in all of Greenland was Ilulissat, with its icefjord full of huge icebergs. What to see in Sisimiut? The answer is in this article.

Happy travels!