Two icebreakers and one frozen sea, the day trips from Rovaniemi
Two ships take visitors from Rovaniemi out onto the frozen Bothnian Bay and let them float beside the hull in survival suits. Both fill a whole day and cost several times as much as a lake float. This page sets the Polar Explorer against the Sampo so you can pick one.
Two ships on the same frozen bay
Most winters, sea ice closes over the Bothnian Bay, the top end of the Gulf of Bothnia. Two working icebreakers now carry passengers through that ice, one from the Finnish side and one from the Swedish side.
The Polar Explorer sails from Axelsvik in Sweden, and the Sampo from the SnowCastle area in Kemi, Finland. Both sell a full day from Rovaniemi with the bus ride, the cruise, a walk on the ice and a float in the sea.
Neither is a short outing. If you only have one free afternoon, the forest lake float versus the sea comparison shows what the three-hour lake trips give you instead.
Polar Explorer, over the border to Axelsvik
The Polar Explorer icebreaker cruise from ~$363 has the larger and stronger review record of the two ships on GetYourGuide, as the table below shows. Viator lists the same day but has no score for it yet.
The cruise itself lasts 3 hours. With the optional shuttle from Rovaniemi the whole day runs to about 8.5 hours, so check which option the price covers before you compare it with the Sampo.
Passengers have seven decks to explore. An audio guide app covers 16 languages, and the ship's theatre screens an 11-minute documentary. Hot drinks are included, while meals cost extra.
After the float you receive a Cruise & Swim Certificate. Up to 100 people can join a sailing, so it feels more like a ferry outing than a small group.
The passport and the clock
Axelsvik is in Sweden, so bring your passport even though the ride from Rovaniemi feels like a domestic bus trip. Sweden's clock runs one hour behind Finland's, which matters when you read the departure time.
The other caution is the ice itself. Polar Explorer makes no promise of thick sea ice before early January, so a sailing in the first weeks of winter may have to drop the walk on the ice.
Sampo, a long day out of Kemi
The Icebreaker Sampo cruise from ~$564 is the pricier day and scores a touch below the Polar Explorer on GetYourGuide. Its Viator page holds a 3.3 from just 7 reviews, too few to read much into.
The coach makes four pickups in and around town. Santa's Igloos and Scandic Pohjanhovi are two of them. The morning cruise collects you between 5:45 am and 6:20 am, the afternoon one between 9:25 am and 10:00 am.
The bus to the SnowCastle area in Kemi takes about 1 h 45 min each way. All told, the day lasts between 9 h 40 min and 10 h 45 min.
The morning sailing lasts about 3.5 hours and the afternoon one about 4 hours. Only the afternoon cruise comes with a buffet lunch on board. Anyone on the early slot should bring food along or plan to buy a meal.
The longer cruise with a ship tour
Sampo spends up to four hours in the ice, with a guided walk through the ship and entry to two exhibitions in Kemi. Pick the afternoon sailing if you want lunch included.
The price also covers the SnowExperience and Gemstone exhibitions near the harbor. One reviewer said the guided ship tour went down to the engine room and up to the bridge, with a look at the crew quarters too. The Polar Explorer day does not advertise a tour like that.
The same company runs a sister ship, the Arktis, with a 3-hour cruise at a lower price. It is not on this site.
The two days side by side
| Detail | Polar Explorer | Sampo |
|---|---|---|
| From | ~$363 | ~$564 |
| Harbor | Axelsvik, Sweden | Kemi, Finland |
| Cruise | 3 hours | 3.5 or 4 hours |
| Whole day | about 8.5 hours with the shuttle | 9 h 40 min to 10 h 45 min |
| Lunch | sold on board | buffet on the afternoon cruise only |
| Floating height | children from 125 cm with parents | 140 cm minimum |
| GetYourGuide | 4.7 from 400+ reviews | 4.6 from 200+ reviews |
How long you float at sea
On both ships the float is one part of a longer program, not the main event by the clock. A Sampo reviewer spent about 10 minutes in the water, and with many passengers taking turns it can feel crowded at the edge of the channel.
A full survival suit goes on over your clothes. Inside it you stay dry while you lie back among broken plates of ice. It is floating, not swimming. Our page on what the float feels like describes the suit and the cold in more detail.
Phones stay behind when you are in the suit. Both ships sell photo packages, which is the usual way to get a picture of yourself in the sea.
Floating on the Sampo is optional, and the staff may check each person's condition first. The Sampo listing also says the day is not suitable for reduced mobility and advises against floating in pregnancy.
What each fare leaves out
Lunch is the obvious extra on the Polar Explorer and on the morning Sampo. Add the photo package, and possibly the shuttle on the Polar Explorer if the cheapest option does not include it.
Value for money is the Sampo's weakest sub-score on GetYourGuide at 4.1, which says a lot about how people feel about the fare. Our full price breakdown for all four trips puts the totals next to the lake floats.
Which ship suits which traveler
Families with children under 14 cannot join the lake floats, so an icebreaker is their way in. The Polar Explorer takes children from 125 cm with their parents, a lower bar than the Sampo's 140 cm, as our rules on age and height show.
Pick the Polar Explorer if a lower starting price and the stronger review record matter most. Its cruise is also the shorter one. Pick the Sampo if the guided tour of a working ship appeals and you do not mind a pickup before 6:20 am.
Either day leaves little room for anything else. Our three-day Rovaniemi plan places the icebreaker so it does not collide with an evening aurora float.