Icebreaker cruise from Rovaniemi

The icebreaker cruises leave from Kemi on the coast, a day trip from Rovaniemi, and the operator is The Icebreaking Company, a tourism company owned by the City of Kemi. It runs two ships for visitors. A shuttle bus from Rovaniemi collects you from one of four pick-up points: Santa’s Igloos, Santa Claus Holiday Village, the Arctic TreeHouse Hotel or Scandic Pohjanhovi. Including the cruise and the ride back, the day lasts 10–11 hours.

Sampo or Arktis

The Sampo was built in 1960. The operator calls it the world’s only A1 super-class passenger icebreaker; it has carried tourists in Kemi since 1988 and doubles as a museum of Arctic shipping. The Arktis is the more modern ship and has the longer season at the start of winter. The two programmes differ in what comes with the ticket.

If you travel in the first half of December, only the Arktis is sailing. From 18 December you can choose, and the Sampo’s afternoon departure is the one with lunch.

What happens on board

On the Sampo, a guide shows you around the ship. For the floating you put on a survival suit, which the operator says keeps you warm in the freezing sea water. On both ships the programme also includes a walk on the sea ice. At the end you get a diploma or certificate.

The Sampo ticket also covers SnowExperience, an exhibition room of snow and ice in the operator’s main building in Kemi. It is open all year and always kept at around −5 °C. The transfer package from Rovaniemi lists a gemstone exhibition as well.

When the ice decides

Two parts of the programme depend on the sea, and the operator is clear about it. Ice floating is meant to happen on every cruise when conditions permit, but wind, weather, ice or safety can move the floating spot or cancel the activity, with no separate compensation. Walking on the sea ice needs sufficient, safe ice cover. The Sampo transfer package adds that the ice walk may not be possible on cruises early in the winter season.

For ice floating there is no age limit, but you must be taller than 140 cm. Children below that height can still come on the cruise. Neither the Sampo nor the Arktis is wheelchair accessible.

Getting there from Rovaniemi

The transfer packages are the simple way. The bus leaves Rovaniemi three to four hours before the cruise starts, so the morning departure means a very early pick-up and you are back in the late afternoon. You cannot drive to the ship yourself: the Sampo lies in the Veitsiluoto harbour, a closed private area, and every guest checks in at the operator’s site in Kemi and takes a bus to the port, a ride of about 15 minutes.

If you prefer the train, the operator notes that Kemi can be reached by rail from Rovaniemi, and the station is 1.5 km from the check-in point. You would then book the cruise without the Rovaniemi transfer. Our page on getting around Rovaniemi covers trains and buses.

Around the winter solstice the sun is up in Rovaniemi only from 11:08 to 13:22, so a December cruise day starts and ends in the dark. By 1 March the sun is up for almost ten hours.

The Swedish alternative

A third icebreaker, the Polar Explorer, sails from Axelsvik on the Swedish side of the border. Its programme is built around a tour of seven decks with an audio guide in 16 languages, a film, hot drinks and a swim in a survival suit, which is open from 125 cm. The transfer from Rovaniemi is optional. The operator writes that the ice and its thickness are not guaranteed until early January, and its cancellation terms are much stricter than those of the Kemi trips, so read them before you book. You cross a border, so take your passport or ID card.

What to wear

The operator recommends layered thermal underwear, warm windproof outer clothing, a hat, woollen socks and mittens. You wear the survival suit only for the floating, and the ice walk takes place on open sea ice, where the Lapland safety brochure’s warning applies: wind makes it feel colder and can cause frostbite even just below zero. More on layers and boots in what to wear in Rovaniemi.

If a full day in Kemi is too long, a shorter floating session on a lake near Rovaniemi is on our ice floating page, and other trips out of town are listed under day trips from Rovaniemi.