Hotel Kulusuk

Rooms here face one of two ways: mountain or sea. Hotel Kulusuk stands in Kulusuk, a settlement of around 250 people on a mountainous island ringed by ice-filled water, at Greenland's eastern edge. The airport lies a few minutes away by road, making the hotel the first stop for most arrivals into East Greenland. All 34 rooms have private bathrooms and televisions, and the dining and lounge area is built wide and open, a plain space rather than a styled one. A gift shop sells local carvings, including tupilaq figures, along with T-shirts and other small pieces made in the settlement. Breakfast runs early, dinner late afternoon by city standards, and both fold into the working rhythm of a small hunting and fishing community rather than a resort calendar. It is a short walk, about fifteen minutes, into Kulusuk village itself. From the hotel, staff arrange boat trips out to see icebergs or whales, drives to the old DYE 4 station, and walks along the shoreline or up into a valley thick with summer flowers. Tours run or shift according to weather, which changes fast this far north. Wifi reaches the rooms. Checkout is at 10am, and the clock here runs two hours behind Reykjavik.