Niche travel

If you’ve ever harboured ambitions to go somewhere really remote, now’s your chance.

Summer gives the intrepid traveller a window of opportunity to get to Greenland, before winter closes in and it becomes Whiteland once more.

From now until October, it is possible to stay in an igloo at the Hotel Arctic in Ilulissat, in the western part of the country, 200km north of the Arctic Circle.

Situated at the end of a wooden bridge a short walk away from the main hotel, the igloos are right on the waterside looking out across Disko Bay, giving you a front row seat as colossal icebergs drift by.

Ilulissat Icefjord, which is on Unesco’s World Heritage List, has one of the biggest and most active glaciers in the world. All 3,000sq km of it is advancing at a rate of 20m a day.

Not real igloos mind you, these are made of aluminium, but what you lose in authenticity you gain in mod cons – the dome-shaped units come with decking, heating, TV and coffee-maker.

Getting to the ends of the earth isn’t easy. You’ll have to fly to Copenhagen, take an Air Greenland flight to Reykjavik plus a further 45-minute flight to Ilulissat.

It’s worth the effort though. Ilulissat is a picturesque town, filled with brightly painted wooden houses, many of which have dog sledges parked in the drive where the rest of us have cars.

It’s only picturesque in summer mind you – in winter you’d be hard pressed to distinguish between it and the glacier.

Igloos cost DK 1695 (€228) for a double, based on two sharing.