Icebreaker Arktis Cruise With Transfer From Rovaniemi: Your Ten Hours

The arithmetic

Ten hours from pickup to drop-off. Roughly four of those are on a coach, three are aboard the ship, and the remaining three go on the harbour, the snow castle, boarding, and the ordinary business of moving forty people around.

Written down that looks unbalanced. Experienced, it does not, because none of the non-ship time is spent waiting in a car park. But it is worth knowing before you commit a day of a short trip to it.

The single biggest variable is which departure you take, because in a Lapland midwinter the difference between a morning and an afternoon slot is the difference between seeing the ice and seeing the dark.

It also helps to think of it as a day trip to the coast that happens to contain an icebreaker, rather than as a three-hour cruise with a long commute attached. Framed the first way it is a full and varied day with a spectacular centrepiece; framed the second way the same hours feel like an inconvenience wrapped around a short experience.

Pickup and the road south

Four collection points across Rovaniemi, at times that vary between them by up to about forty minutes. The coach then runs south for roughly two hours down the river valley to the coast.

Bring everything you need for the day. You are not going back to the hotel until the evening, and there is nowhere to leave anything in between.

Sleep if you can. It is dark for much of the winter morning and there is a long day ahead.

Arriving at Kemi

The coach reaches the harbour area, which is where the SnowCastle stands. Depending on the departure and the schedule there is time here either before or after the cruise, and this is where the SnowExperience and the Gemstone Gallery can be added at the reception.

The harbour itself is a working one and looks it: cranes, ice, industrial buildings, and a ship at the quay that is plainly not a pleasure craft.

Boarding is straightforward. Instructions are given, the safety briefing happens, and the ship leaves.

The gap between arriving and boarding is the part that varies most between departures, and it is worth asking the guide on the coach how long you actually have. If it is generous, the SnowCastle rewards the time. If it is tight, the extras at the reception are not the place to spend it.

The three hours on the ship

She works her way out through the ice. There are two heated decks and a cafe inside, and open deck outside, and the whole three hours is a matter of choosing between them according to what is happening.

Somewhere in the middle the ship stops and the ice floating happens. Suits are issued, people go in in groups, and those who are not floating watch from the rail, which is entertaining in its own right.

Conditions permitting there may also be the chance to walk on the ice, which is not guaranteed and is not something an honest operator promises.

Boarding at the quay, the ship alongside the ice

Eating

The cafe aboard serves hot drinks and food and it is perfectly adequate for what it is. On a ten-hour day it is not a substitute for a meal.

A lunch buffet at the restaurant ashore can be booked in advance, and for most people that is the right call. It is one extra step at booking and it removes a problem from the middle of a long day.

Failing that, eat properly before the pickup, which in practice means asking your hotel about an early breakfast.

The return

Back aboard the coach and north again, arriving in Rovaniemi about ten hours after your own pickup. Note that the ten hours are counted from the first pickup rather than from yours, so check what that means for your particular point.

If you have an evening booking, especially an aurora hunt, confirm the expected return time when you book rather than assuming. The two can collide, and it is entirely avoidable.

Most people are quiet on the way back, which is the mark of a day that worked.

Morning or afternoon

In December, when Kemi gets under four hours of daylight, the morning departure gives you the ice in what light there is and the afternoon gives you twilight and dark. Both are worth having and they are not the same trip.

In March, with eleven hours of daylight, the distinction largely disappears and the choice becomes a matter of what else you have planned.

If you are travelling specifically to see the frozen sea, take the morning. If you want the ship under a low pink sky, take the afternoon and accept that you will not see far.

The other thing the choice of departure decides is the light on the way home. An afternoon cruise puts the coach journey north in full darkness, while a morning one can catch the last of the twilight over the forest, which for a first visit to Lapland is not nothing.

What to bring

Warm outdoor clothing for the deck, because the ship makes its own wind and the deck is exposed. Ordinary layers underneath, not the thickest jacket you own, because the flotation suit has to close over them.

A camera with a spare battery, kept warm. Sunglasses in March, because a sunlit ice field is genuinely dazzling.

And something to read or listen to for the coach. Four hours is four hours.

Before you book

The ten hours, in order

1. Pickup in Rovaniemi

   One of four points, at times varying by up to forty minutes. Bring everything for the day.

2. Two hours south by coach

   Down the river valley to the coast, in the dark for much of a winter morning.

3. Kemi harbour and the SnowCastle

   The working port, with the snow castle beside it. Extras are ticketed at the reception.

4. Three hours aboard Arktis

   Out through the ice, with two heated decks, a cafe and open deck to choose between.

5. The ice floating

   Suits issued, groups in and out. Those not floating watch from the rail.

6. The coach home

   North again, arriving about ten hours after the first pickup rather than after yours.