Richseen Private Journeys · Polar Expedition

Greenland: Ice, Silence, and Scale

French Expedition — Reykjavík · Greenland Icefjord · Ilulissat
10 Days · 9 Nights
From USD 18,000+ per person
"Greenland's vast ice landscapes — approached with French expedition expertise and refined onboard living."
The Journey

Ice, Silence,
and Scale

Greenland is the world's largest island, covered for eighty percent of its surface by an ice sheet that contains seven percent of the world's fresh water and has been accumulating for 400,000 years. Its western coast — the Disko Bay and the Ilulissat Icefjord — presents a landscape of absolute scale: icebergs the height of office buildings drifting south in silence through water the colour of steel, and the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier producing more ice per year than any other glacier outside Antarctica. To stand at the edge of the Icefjord is to understand, physically and immediately, what geological time actually means.

This ten-day itinerary begins in Reykjavík — Iceland's compact and thoroughly considered capital, which functions as the natural staging point for Greenlandic expeditions and deserves two days of attention in its own right. The Reykjavík EDITION provides the design-forward base from which to explore a city that has produced more writers, musicians, and architects per capita than any other Nordic capital. From Reykjavík, the Ponant expedition vessel departs west across the Denmark Strait for the Greenlandic coast.

Ponant — the French expedition operator — brings to Arctic waters the particular combination of qualities that French culture applies to everything it considers worth doing carefully: the food is exceptional, the expedition team is scientifically serious, and the vessel is small enough to reach the anchorages that larger ships cannot access. Le Commandant Charcot or its fleet counterparts carry between 180 and 245 guests in all-suite accommodation, with a Zodiac fleet and a programme that responds to ice conditions, wildlife location, and weather rather than a fixed schedule. Five days in Greenlandic waters produce encounters that have no equivalent anywhere else on the planet.

Signature Moments

Six Encounters
with the Ice

Moments that define this journey — each one shaped by the ice, the light, and the particular silence of the Arctic.

01
Standing at the Edge of the Ilulissat Icefjord
The UNESCO-listed fjord trail, icebergs the height of office buildings drifting south in silence — geological time made physically immediate.
02
Zodiac Navigation Among the Disko Bay Icebergs
Moving between ice formations at water level — a scale that requires a full day to begin to process, in complete silence except for the melt.
03
The Eqi Glacier Front — Ice Calving in Real Time
Anchored before the most active glacier front in the northern hemisphere — the sound continuous, the collapses spectacular, the scale beyond anticipation.
04
Humpback Whales Alongside the Glacier Fronts
In the nutrient-rich meltwater where the glaciers meet the sea — observed from the Zodiac, at a distance the whales determine.
05
An Inuit Village Conducting Life as It Always Has
Uummannaq or Upernavik — the world's most northerly indigenous communities, encountered without theatre and without distance.
06
Dinner by the Midnight Sun on the Open Deck
Ponant's chef at work, the Arctic light unchanged at eleven o'clock — French culinary standards at the edge of the known world.
Curated Highlights

What Defines This Journey

01🚢
Ponant — French Expedition Excellence
Ponant brings French culinary and design standards to polar expedition operations. The fleet's smaller vessels access anchorages unavailable to larger ships; the expedition team combines scientific expertise with the particular French ability to explain complex things simply and without condescension. All-suite; all-inclusive; entirely focused on the destination.
02🧊
Ilulissat Icefjord — UNESCO World Heritage
The Ilulissat Icefjord is the most productive glacier system in the northern hemisphere outside Antarctica — the Sermeq Kujalleq glacier calves 46 cubic kilometres of ice per year into a fjord so choked with icebergs that navigating it by vessel requires the patience of someone who understands that the ice has priority. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2004.
03🌊
Disko Bay — The Iceberg Factory
Disko Bay receives the ice that the Ilulissat glacier produces — icebergs of extraordinary scale that drift south through water of improbable clarity. The bay in summer light, with the icebergs reflecting every colour between white and deep blue and the tundra hills of Disko Island visible to the north, is one of the most visually compelling landscapes on Earth.
04🐋
Humpback and Bowhead Whales
Greenlandic waters support some of the highest concentrations of large cetaceans in the North Atlantic. Humpback whales feed in the nutrient-rich waters alongside the glacier fronts; bowhead whales — the longest-lived mammals on Earth, with documented individuals exceeding 200 years — are encountered in the deeper channels north of Disko Bay.
05🎨
Reykjavík — Nordic Capital of Culture
Two days at The Reykjavík EDITION — the most design-considered hotel in a city that has produced more creative output per capita than any comparable Nordic capital. The Harpa Concert Hall on the harbour; the National Museum of Iceland; the geothermal pools of the Laugardalslaug; and the particular atmosphere of a city that takes culture seriously and tourism lightly.
06🌅
Intimate Vessel Scale — Rare Access
Ponant's smaller vessels access fjords, coastal villages, and anchorages that are unavailable to the larger expedition ships. The Inuit settlements of Uummannaq and Sisimiut; the Eqi glacier front where ice calves into the sea with continuous sound; the archaeological sites of the Norse settlements abandoned seven centuries ago. Access that requires the right vessel.
Sample Itinerary

Key Moments & Movements

Greenland's western coast is accessible from June through September — with July offering the maximum combination of ice, wildlife, and light. The Ilulissat Icefjord produces ice year-round; in July the surrounding tundra is green and the midnight sun provides photography conditions at any hour. August extends the season with somewhat reduced daylight and equally extraordinary ice conditions.

Every Richseen journey is individually crafted. Your private consultant will tailor each day to your preferences, pace, and passions.

Day 1
Reykjavík Arrival
Private transfer from Keflavík International Airport to The Reykjavík EDITION — the most design-considered hotel in the Icelandic capital, positioned in the city centre within walking distance of the harbour, the Harpa Concert Hall, and the old town. Evening: the harbour district restaurants and the particular atmosphere of a Nordic city in summer, when the light is still full at eleven in the evening and the streets remain occupied until considerably later.
The Reykjavík EDITION
Day 2
Reykjavík — Culture and Geothermal Landscape
Morning: Hallgrímskirkja — the volcanic basalt-inspired church visible from every point in the city — and the surrounding old town streets. The National Museum of Iceland for the archaeological context: Viking settlement, medieval manuscripts, and the compressed history of an island that was uninhabited until the ninth century. Afternoon: the Sky Lagoon or the Laugardalslaug geothermal pools — Iceland's genuine contribution to the concept of leisure, conducted in water heated by the same volcanic system that produced the landscape.
The Reykjavík EDITION
Day 3
Embark — Reykjavík to Greenland
Transfer to Reykjavík harbour and embarkation aboard the Ponant expedition vessel. The ship clears the Faxaflói Bay as the Snæfellsjökull glacier — the volcano beneath Jules Verne's Journey to the Centre of the Earth — appears to the north and then recedes behind the stern. The Denmark Strait crossing takes approximately twenty-four hours; the first icebergs appear off the Greenlandic coast the following morning.
Ponant Expedition Vessel
Days 4–8
Greenland — Five Days of Ice and Silence
Five days along the western Greenlandic coast — from the Inuit settlements of the south to the Ilulissat Icefjord in the north. Each day the expedition team identifies the optimal programme: Zodiac navigation among the icebergs of Disko Bay, where the scale of the ice requires a full day to begin to process; a landing at Ilulissat town, from which the UNESCO-listed icefjord trail provides three hours of walking alongside the most productive glacier in the northern hemisphere; the Eqi glacier front north of Ilulissat, where active calving produces continuous sound and occasional spectacular collapse; humpback whale observation in the nutrient-rich waters alongside the glacier fronts; and the Inuit villages of Uummannaq or Upernavik, where the traditional culture of the world's most northerly indigenous people is conducted with the same matter-of-fact authority it has maintained for four thousand years. Ponant's culinary team provides French standards throughout; the expedition naturalists lecture each evening; the midnight sun ensures that the light is adequate at any hour of the twenty-four for whatever the ice requires.
Ponant Expedition Vessel, Greenland
Day 9
Return — Denmark Strait Crossing
The vessel turns east and crosses the Denmark Strait toward Iceland as the Greenlandic coast recedes behind the stern. The crossing provides a transition between the expedition and the inhabited world — a day at sea in which the naturalist team conducts final lectures, the kitchen produces its most considered dinner of the voyage, and the icebergs of the Greenlandic current drift south alongside the vessel for the last time. Arrival in Reykjavík in the early morning.
Reykjavík
Day 10
Departure — Iceland Recedes
Private transfer to Keflavík International Airport for international departure. The Snæfellsjökull glacier is visible from the aircraft window on the western approach as the island of Iceland disappears below the North Atlantic. Greenland continues without witnesses — as it has for most of its 400,000-year history of accumulating ice.
Luxury Stays

Where You Rest Matters

City Centre, Reykjavík, Iceland
Reykjavík — 2 Nights
The Reykjavík EDITION
City Centre, Reykjavík, Iceland
The most design-considered hotel in the Icelandic capital — positioned in the city centre with immediate access to the Harpa Concert Hall, the harbour, and the old town streets. The EDITION brand's characteristic combination of contemporary design and anticipatory service, applied to a Nordic city that takes both qualities seriously.
Western Greenland — Disko Bay
At Sea — 7 Nights
Ponant Expedition Vessel
Western Greenland — Ilulissat to Uummannaq
Ponant's expedition fleet — Le Commandant Charcot or its counterparts — brings French culinary standards, scientific expedition expertise, and intimate vessel scale to the waters of western Greenland. All-suite accommodation; a Zodiac fleet for ice navigation and shore landings; an expedition team whose naturalist and glaciological expertise is applied to the most extraordinary ice landscape in the northern hemisphere.
Exclusive Experiences

Moments Designed for You

🧊
Glacial Wonder
Ilulissat Icefjord — UNESCO Landscape
The Sermeq Kujalleq glacier produces 46 cubic kilometres of ice per year — calving it into a fjord so densely packed with icebergs that navigation requires patience and the understanding that the ice has unconditional priority. The three-hour icefjord trail from Ilulissat town provides the closest landward approach to a UNESCO landscape that has no equivalent.
🚣
Ice Navigation
Zodiac Among Disko Bay Icebergs
Zodiac navigation through the icebergs of Disko Bay — structures that calved from the Ilulissat glacier weeks earlier and are drifting south on the Greenland current, in shapes and colours and scales that no other natural phenomenon produces. A morning among the Disko Bay icebergs is a morning that changes the way you understand the word scale.
🏘️
Cultural Access
Inuit Settlements — Uummannaq and Beyond
The Inuit settlements of western Greenland — Uummannaq beneath its distinctive heart-shaped mountain, Upernavik at 72° North — are among the most remote inhabited places accessible by expedition vessel. The traditional culture of the world's northernmost indigenous people, conducted with the matter-of-fact authority of four thousand years of continuous Arctic habitation.
🍽️
Cuisine
Ponant French Culinary Programme
Ponant applies French culinary standards to expedition conditions — which is to say, the food is considerably better than the food has any right to be at 70° North. The onboard chef sources ingredients at each port of call, incorporates Greenlandic produce where available, and maintains the standard that French culture considers the minimum acceptable for any serious meal.
Visual Journey

Through the Lens

Begin Your Story

Craft Your
Private Journey

Every detail — from your first evening in Reykjavík to your final morning among the Greenlandic ice — is composed entirely around you. Speak with your dedicated Richseen journey consultant today.

From USD 18,000+ per person

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