Key takeaways
- About 115 kilometres south of Rovaniemi, on the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia.
- Both ways, from four pickup points in Rovaniemi. You do not need a car.
- Which is most of the difference between a three-hour cruise and a ten-hour day.
- If you are staying on the coast rather than at the Arctic Circle, the harbour is where it starts.
The fact the tour name hides
This is sold as an icebreaker cruise from Rovaniemi, and the icebreaker is not in Rovaniemi. It is in Kemi, a port town on the Gulf of Bothnia about a hundred and fifteen kilometres south, and getting there is a real part of the day.
None of that is concealed, and the booking includes the coach in both directions, but it is regularly a surprise to people who assumed the ship was somewhere nearby. It is the first thing to understand about the tour and it changes how you plan the day around it.
Rovaniemi sits on the Arctic Circle, inland. Kemi sits on the coast where the Gulf of Bothnia ends. Between them is a good road and a great deal of forest.
There is a straightforward reason for the arrangement. Rovaniemi is where the visitors are, because it has the airport, the hotels and the Arctic Circle, and Kemi is where the frozen sea is, because it is on the coast. No amount of scheduling can move either one, so the tour bridges the gap with a coach and builds it into the ticket.
How long the road takes
Roughly two hours each way in winter conditions, on a maintained main road that runs south down the Kemijoki valley to the coast. It is a straightforward drive and the coach does it in comfort.
Four hours of a ten-hour day is therefore travel, which sounds worse written down than it feels. A coach at seven in the morning in a Lapland December is dark and warm and most people sleep.
The return in the afternoon or evening is the same in reverse, and if the timing works you may see some of the best light of the day through the window.
The pickup points
Four options in Rovaniemi, listed on the booking. They are chosen to cover the central hotels and the main accommodation areas, and the pickup times differ slightly between them.
Be at the point early rather than on time. A coach that has three more stops to make and a departure slot at a harbour two hours away does not wait long.
The same points serve as drop-offs at the end of the day.
The pickup points also determine how early your morning starts, which is not trivial in a place where the sun may not rise until nearly ten. A first pickup and a last pickup can be forty minutes apart, and if you are on the early one that is forty minutes of a Lapland winter morning you will not get back.
The road south through snow-laden forest towards the coast
Joining at Kemi instead
If you are staying on the coast, this is worth asking about. The cruise departs from the harbour at Kemi and the coach is a transfer to it rather than part of the experience.
Kemi is reachable by train from the south and from Rovaniemi, and by road. For a visitor already in the area it removes four hours from the day, which is a substantial improvement.
Check the operator listing for how the booking handles it, because the ticket is built around the transfer.
What the drive is actually like
Forest, mostly, and a great deal of it. This is the transition from Lapland proper down to the coastal plain, and in winter it is snow-laden spruce for a very long way.
The road follows the river valley for much of the distance. In the short daylight of December you will see some of it; in March you will see all of it, and it is genuinely handsome country rather than filler.
There are no dramatic mountains here. Finnish Lapland is a country of low fells, forest and enormous rivers, and this drive is a fair introduction to it.
Watch for the moment the forest thins. Somewhere south of the halfway point the country flattens out, the spruce gives way to more open ground, and there is a distinct sense of leaving the interior for the coast. It happens quietly and it is the only real landmark on a road that otherwise offers very few.
Whether it is worth it
That depends entirely on how much time you have. For a visitor with a week in Lapland, spending one day of it on an icebreaker is an easy decision, and the coach is simply what it takes to reach a coast.
For someone with three days built around aurora nights and short daylight, ten hours is a large commitment and worth weighing against two shorter activities.
What it is not is a badly designed tour. The ship is where the frozen sea is, and the frozen sea is on the coast.
Practical points for the road
Bring what you need for the day with you rather than leaving anything at the hotel, because you are not going back to it until the evening.
Eat before you leave or add the lunch buffet, since a coffee on board is not a meal and the day is long.
And use the coach. Four hours of seat time is an opportunity to sleep, which matters if your evenings in Lapland are being spent outside looking at the sky.
One last thing: check what the operator says about the return time rather than assuming. A ten-hour day quoted from the first pickup is not ten hours from your own, and if you have an evening booking such as an aurora hunt, the two can collide in a way that is entirely avoidable with one question at the time of booking.
The coach both ways is part of the booking
Check datesBefore you book
Where does the icebreaker actually sail from?
How long is the coach?
Is the transfer included?
Can I join at Kemi instead?
What are the pickup points?
What is the drive like?
Is it worth four hours on a coach?
Should I bring lunch?
The journey, in order
Pickup in Rovaniemi
One of four points across the city, with slightly different times. Be there early rather than on time.
Two hours south
Down the river valley to the coast through snow-laden forest on a maintained main road.
Kemi harbour and the SnowCastle
The harbour area, with the snow castle beside it, before boarding.
Three hours on the ice
The cruise itself, with the ice floating somewhere in the middle of it.
The coach home
Back the same way, arriving in Rovaniemi about ten hours after you left.
