This summer I had planned to take my family to the Faroe Islands and Greenland. But with travel restrictions still in effect, it appears that trip will have to wait.
Denmark, Faroe Islands, And Greenland Still Difficult To Reach For American Tourists After Europe Re-Opens
While I’ve only seen pictures, I consider the Faroe Islands to be one of the most beautiful treasures of Earth. It’s also fairly off-the-beaten-track in that tourist infrastructure is limited and most Americans seem not to have heard of it.
Greenland is a bit more prominent, especially after President Trump tried to buy it, but still quite a difficult place to reach.
The plan was to spend a bit of time in Copenhagen, then the Faroe Islands, then Greenland, before spending the bulk of the summer in Germany.
But despite many European nations re-opening to vaccinated tourists, Denmark is taking a more cautious approach.
While Denmark will start waving quarantine requirements for vaccinated EU citizens, only EU-approved vaccinations administered inside the European Union will be accepted. My wife and children have German passports so we no longer have to “justify” a visit to Denmark, but because my wife and I were vaccinated in the USA, Denmark (at least now) will not accept it.
That means we have to test before the trip, test on arrival, then quarantine until we obtain a third negative test on the tenth day.
Sorry, I’m out.
I’m an indoor person, but you don’t go to the Faroe Islands and Greenland to stay indoors.
There’s a bit of wiggle room in that the Faroe Islands has waived quarantine for EU citizens (with or without vaccination), but still requires testing on arrival and fifth day testing, even for vaccinated travelers over the age of 12. Furthermore, if traveling via Denmark (Faroe Islands is semi-autonomous) will Denmark enforce its wider Kingdom quarantine requirements?
So this trip will sadly have to wait unless Denmark suddenly loosens requirements and award space on SAS magically appears (it was available but is now all gone).
CONCLUSION
Dear Europeans, you are spared another year of American tourists in Denmark! But we’re already gearing up for next summer!
This summer I am going to keep the budget tight and we’ll spend our time in Germany. I’ll miss visiting the Copenhagen, the Faroe Islands, and Greenland, but I look forward to more time to explore Germany.
When you eventually visit the Faroe Islands, please do extensive reviews, even with photos of ordinary things and the airport. My guess is that the Faroe Islands is a fantastic place to visit but Greenland is a place to visit only to brag that you’ve been there.
If you bring your wife, be very careful as there is a wife shortage in the Faroe Islands. So bad is it that they have to import not only cars and computers, but also wives, usually from the Philippines. The number 3 ethnic background in the Faroe Islands is Filipino, just after Danish. Thai is #4.
Faroe islands & Greenland will be on my docket for 2022 most likely, too. Very short summer window when a visit is possible
I was hoping to take my family to Copenhagen for a day trip in July. I don’t think there’s any sense in trying to determine the testing/quarantine requirements and exemptions until just before our trip. I’m not going to do testing/quarantine for a day trip obviously, but I’m hopeful the rules will be relaxed by then. If not, we’ll just wave to Denmark from Malmo!
The Faroe Islands are so beautiful. They recently built a massive new sea tunnel which makes travel between torshavn and klaksvik even quicker. It’s just so so pretty.
is alcohol available?
I would think so. Why?
I started planning 18 months ago for a trip to Faroe Islands but then the pandemic hit. Trying to reschedule for 2022 or 2023.
The readers will have to wait for your photo essay using the hafur hunting for Puffins and showing diverse cooking dishes.
Beyond repulsive. Under the thinnest veneer of sophistication ( courtesy of the link with Denmark), this vile dump engages in the wholesale slaughter of whales and puffins. It’s one of the last places on earth that I’d visit.
Please don’t travel to the Faroe Islands – Paolo is right – whales slaughtered in the cruelest way, they do not need your blog attention and money.
https://www.seashepherd.org.uk/campaigns/operation-bloody-fjords/
Why not wait till Canadian North flies to Greenland! It’s worth the in flight snack of cookies and day trip to Iqaluit 🙂
The whales slaughter is indisputably problematic and quite weird. I almost put off my visit to the Faroe islands because of it. (That was after almost putting off a stay in Myanmar because of the Rohingyas. Possibly a disturbing pattern.) However, the islands are very unique, rugged, empty, scenic, and really beautiful. If you’re interested in the architecture, I’ve made a series of drawings about it: https://drillon.net/faroe-islands
I visited the Faroe Islands as an American in 2018. I’m happy to answer any questions or describe things in detail if anyone would like.
Vagar airport is charmingly small, and my Atlantic Airways arrival from CPH let off straight into the supermarket-like duty free shop, as if it were the end of a museum tour. I’ve never witnessed this elsewhere, but EVERYONE on the flight grabbed a shopping cart and went to town. For fear of missing out, I ended up grabbing a six pack of soda and a local hard cider.
For those concerned with questionably ethical whaling practices, I find it difficult to maintain the moral high ground when I hail from a nation where factory farms churn out a chicken every 8 weeks, living in an environment where beaks are trimmed and surplus male chickens are euthanized by crushing them sans anesthesia, just after hatching. The animal rights abuses of the Faroes are certainly higher profile, but our collective opinion tends to be the pot calling the kettle black.
@Asarious
It’s not either/or and kettle/pot. Both should be condemned/stopped ( as should bull fights/ fox hunting/kangaroo culling/trophy hunting). They’re all repulsive. But you’re right to point out the obscenity of chicken farming ( including the laughably misnamed ‘free range’). Dairy is just as bad.
Indeed, anyone complaining about animal cruelty in the Faroe Islands while still consuming animal products can kindly shut the front door, doubly so if he also cries about anthropogenic climate change.
There is one thing I will concede.
For most situations regarding animal welfare, I think there’re easy “low-hanging-fruit” actions we can take to materially improve our processes.
However, when grappling with the ethics of slaughtering a pilot whale, I cannot think of a practical method to do so quickly and painlessly. The animal is simply too large for humans to dispatch efficiently. I suppose someone could design some purpose-built contraption for this express purpose, but that’s probably unrealistic for other reasons.