|
| Greenland adventure |
| by Brian Kelly |
|
 |
My life has been filled with many incredible travel experiences, and this past week, I got to experience yet another one of them — definitely a top five in terms of wow factor.
For background, I met Martha Stewart in 2016, and we quickly hit it off. I’ve been to her house for Thanksgiving dinner, which is epic. And in 2018, we went to Svalbard together with a group — to the Global Seed Vault — which was absolutely incredible. So when she asked me if I was interested in going on a cruise with her to Greenland, I jumped at the opportunity.
Martha knew the people at Swan Hellenic Cruises, which is a British cruise line that began operations 70 years ago. Three of its expedition ships were recently refurbished, and they invited Martha, and a friend of her choice, to experience the Swan Hellenic Vega. I immediately started doing some research and found that it had amazing reviews. Not only had I not been on a cruise in seven years, I’d never been on a small luxury expedition ship — I’d only been on large ships before this.
The ship holds 152 guests, but on this trip, was only about half full. So, really, it wasn’t a typical cruise; my experience felt more like being on a yacht.
Overall, I loved the ship experience. Greenland does not have a lot of infrastructure on the ground and limited airports, so getting around can be a bit of a challenge, but being able to see it from a small expedition ship was incredible. We were able to go up into fjords that you simply can’t access by road. Expedition cruising gives you the ability to see things that you normally wouldn’t be able to.
The cruise itself was 12 days long, but due to scheduling, I was only able to stay for the first half. Once on the cruise, it took about 24 hours to travel from Iceland, where the cruise started, to get to Greenland.
I haven’t been to Antarctica yet, but Greenland and the Arctic region are absolutely stunning.
Pros of expedition cruising: The staff was absolutely amazing, everything is included — even alcohol — so you don’t feel like you’re being nickel and dimed, and at any given point, I felt like I was five minutes from my cabin. The suite where I stayed had tons of storage, and while it didn’t quite pass the shower test (I am sometimes taller than the shower head), it was very close.
Overall, the SH Vega felt like a luxury yacht. The cuisine onboard was excellent — while there was only one formal main dining room, there was a cafe that was open most of the day.
We did have a few excursions off the ship, and while the British and American crew were informative, there’s nothing like being with locals on the ground to dive deep into the history and landscape of a place.
So, once we disembarked for our last day in Greenland, we visited the capital, Nuuk, and enlisted the help of my teammates at Elsewhere (TPG’s sister company) to plan something for the six of us since we only had about 24 hours before our flight home. While Elsewhere services a lot of countries around the world (I’ve used them in Ghana and Portugal also), so even though they didn’t have Greenland live on their site, I thought I’d give it a shot because they’d planned amazing adventures for me in the past. And I’m glad I did because what they were able to plan for us was epic.
Our Elsewhere guide, Beau, picked us up at the ship as we disembarked and looked after us until he put us on the Air Greenland flight the next morning. We visited the Greenland National Museum, with exhibits that included mummies and the history of the island dating back 4,500 years, and then they had a boat pick us up and take us about 2 hours north into the fjords. The real treat here was spending that time with the boat captain, who told us about his life, the changes he’s seen with climate change, and his optimism for the future of Greenland and sustainable tourism.
Next, we arrived in what I can only describe as a magical place, Camp Kiattua, which is a luxury eco-camp where we would spend the afternoon and evening. We were greeted by a drizzle of rain and a huge rainbow over the camp. All of us were in awe of this spectacular location. Its capacity is only for ten people, but we were not staying overnight this time. We were able to experience hiking, drinking pure glacier water and dinner prepared by a famous Icelandic chef. All I can say is wow!
Everywhere you go, there is so much beauty in Greenland. It was the night of the super moon, and I can’t tell you how beautiful it was to experience the full moon over icebergs and glaciers. We even got quite a show from the aurora borealis dancing above us, which I wasn’t expecting to see in September.
Overall, the trip was fantastic, and the company was amazing — Martha is a dream to travel with — funny, witty and inquisitive. I enjoyed my time with her and can affirm that she truly is a national treasure. I can’t wait to go back and plan to spend more time experiencing a luxury eco-lodge, as the hotels in Nuuk are all pretty bare-bones. Plus, you’d get to stay in nature, which is absolutely breathtaking.
I highly recommend having Elsewhere plan an adventure for you — check them out at Elsewhere.io.
Have a great weekend,
BK
|
|
| Posts in this newsletter contains references to products from one or more of our advertisers. We may receive compensation when you click on links to those products, and this may impact how or where they appear. For an explanation of our Advertising Policy, visit this page. |
| Photo Credit: BRIAN KELLY/THE POINTS GUY. |
|
|
|
