Abashiri Drift Ice Cruise

Every winter the Sea of Okhotsk freezes far to the north and the ice drifts south until it presses against the coast of eastern Hokkaido, and from the harbor in Abashiri a red-hulled icebreaker called the Aurora pushes out into it for about an hour. Neither GetYourGuide nor Viator sells a plain ticket for the ship. What they sell are three tours that include it: a private day from your Abashiri hotel and two coach trips of two days from Sapporo. What each one costs, how much of it you spend on a bus, and what the listings leave in the small print.

  • Ice season: late January to MarchFebruary and the first days of March give the best odds of a sea packed with ice
  • Book well aheadThe coach tours run on a handful of set dates, and February sailings of the Aurora fill early

In a hurry? Our top pick is JUN Travel's private day in Abashiri: ~$2,082 for a group of up to six, three museums and the Aurora with a driver-guide who collects you at the hotel. Book it here.

Book on GetYourGuide Compare all 3

The Aurora at a glance

  • About an hour at seaThe cruise itself is short. Every tour wraps it in a full day, or in two days when you start in Sapporo
  • A big ship with warm cabinsHeated lounges inside, open decks outside, and a hull built to ride up onto the ice and crack it
  • Far from SapporoAbashiri sits on the Okhotsk coast, five to six hours from Sapporo by train or road. The nearest airport is Memanbetsu
  • Ice likely, never promisedWind decides where the floes sit. On a bad day the ship sails through open water, or stays in port

If you only have a minute

Which Abashiri drift ice tour should you book?

If a friend asked us how to get onto the Aurora, this is what we would tell them over a bowl of ramen.

The best Abashiri drift ice cruise for most visitors who already plan to be in eastern Hokkaido is JUN Travel's private day, from ~$2,082 for a group of up to six. A driver-guide who speaks English picks you up at your hotel in Abashiri and leads you through the ice museum and the old prison, then the museum of northern peoples, before putting you on the Aurora with the ticket already paid. Split between four or six people the price stops looking wild.

Starting in Sapporo and want the transport solved? H.I.S.'s two-day trip costs ~$401 a person and adds Asahiyama Zoo, an ice festival and a hot-spring hotel by Lake Abashiri, with a guaranteed seat on the Aurora. Club Tourism's two days at ~$430 trade the zoo for a walk on the shore ice in Shari and a night in Shiretoko.

All three are new listings without reviews yet, and none can promise ice. Check what the Aurora really costs and how to get there from Sapporo, see how each day is spent, then read what the listings play down before you pay.

Our pick

The drift ice day we would book: JUN Travel's private tour

Not the cheapest way onto the ship. It is the one that spends the most of your day in Abashiri itself and the least of it on a coach, with nobody to wait for at the museum doors.

View from the icebreaker's deck rail over a sea of broken white drift ice Our pick

Abashiri Drift Ice Cruise & Northern Culture Day Tour, JUN Travel

Free cancellation up to 24 hours before · reserve now, pay later

The car comes to your hotel in Abashiri, and for the next eight hours it belongs to your group alone. The first stop is the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum on the hill above town, where a room kept at −15 °C (5 °F) holds real drift ice and the deck outside looks over the coast you are about to sail. Then the Abashiri Prison Museum, an open-air collection of the old prison's wooden buildings, and after a local lunch the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples, which explains how the peoples of the far north dressed, hunted and lived through winters like this one.

The Aurora is the centerpiece, and the day is arranged around its sailing time. You board at the roadside station by the harbor, find a place at the rail and spend about an hour watching the bow break a path through the floes, perhaps with a sea eagle or a seal on the ice if you are lucky. The ticket, the museums, parking and fuel are covered. Lunch is not.

Price
from ~$2,082 per group of up to 6
Duration
About 8 hours
On the Aurora
About 1 hour
Group
Private, just your party of up to 6
Pickup
Hotels in the Abashiri area (farther away for a fee)
Guide
English-speaking driver-guide, also Japanese and Chinese
Ages
1 to 95
Cancellation
Free up to 24 hours, reserve now and pay later
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How the day runs, step by step

The order moves with the Aurora's departure and the museums' opening hours. This is the sequence the listing describes:

In town

  • Pickup at your hotel in the Abashiri area
  • The Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum and its −15 °C ice room, with a view from the deck
  • The Abashiri Prison Museum
  • Lunch at a local restaurant, paid on the day
  • The Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples

At the harbor

  • Boarding at Roadside Station Ryuhyo-kaido Abashiri
  • About an hour on the Aurora among the floes
  • The drive back to your hotel

What the price covers

The group price buys the car, the guide, three admissions and the ship. Food and anything extra are yours.

Included
  • Private car and an English-speaking driver-guide
  • Hotel pickup and drop-off around Abashiri
  • Three museum tickets and the Aurora fare
  • Parking and fuel
Not included
  • Lunch and personal spending
  • Getting to Abashiri in the first place
  • Pickup outside the Abashiri area (extra fee)
  • A guarantee of ice

Between us, before you go

A word from one cold-weather beginner to another. The listing is new and has no reviews yet, so you are among the first to try it. It also rules out travelers prone to seasickness or motion sickness, which matters on a ship that lurches as it climbs the ice. The price is per group, so two people pay the same as six.

Bring a passport, cash, and boots that keep out snow and slush. Our guide to dressing for the deck covers the rest.

Why it beats the coach tours

Both two-day trips spend most of their hours on a bus between Sapporo and the coast. This day starts and ends where the ice is, and leaves room for the museums that explain what you saw from the deck. If you sleep in Abashiri or fly into Memanbetsu, it is by far the shortest route onto the Aurora with a guide. Private and small-group days weighs it against the coaches in more detail.

Who we would not send on it

Couples on a tight budget, who pay the full group price for two. Travelers starting in Sapporo with no plan to reach Abashiri, who will be better off on the H.I.S. coach with a hotel night. And anyone who gets seasick, who should read what happens when the ship stays in and think about the museums alone.

Book it if

You are a family or a group of friends already heading to eastern Hokkaido and want one unhurried day on the Okhotsk coast. Someone else drives on icy roads, a guide explains the ice and the prison in English, and the Aurora fare is part of the deal. All you bring is warm layers, a little cash and good boots.

Skip it if

Ready for the Okhotsk ice?

The tour is sold on GetYourGuide only. You can cancel for free up to 24 hours before and reserve now, pay later, which helps while you watch the ice forecasts.

GetYourGuide

The cruise itself

How an Abashiri drift ice tour works

Every listing on this page comes down to two questions. Do you start in Abashiri or in Sapporo, a long day's drive away? And which week, with the ice anywhere from packed solid against the shore to scattered far out at sea?

Style · start in Abashiri

A day on the coast

JUN Travel

8 hhotel pickup, three museums, the Aurora

You get yourself to Abashiri by train, car or a flight to Memanbetsu, and the tour does the rest in a private car. The shortest day, the most time at the sights, and the highest price unless your group is large.

Style · start in Sapporo

Two days by coach

H.I.S., Club Tourism

2 dayscoach from Sapporo, a hotel night, the Aurora on day 2

An early start, long stretches on the road with stops along the way, a hot-spring hotel and the ship the next morning or midday. You pay for the transport and the room, and give up the choice of date.

Abashiri weather and drift ice, month by month

  • Chance of drift ice on the coast
  1. Jan−2°C high28 °F

    Ice usually arrives in the last third

  2. Feb−2°C high28 °F

    The thickest ice and the busiest sailings

  3. Mar2°C high36 °F

    Good early on, breaking up later

  4. Apr9°C high48 °F

    Last stray floes, mostly open sea

  5. May14°C high57 °F

    No sea ice, cool spring on the coast

  6. Jun17°C high63 °F

    Mild, often foggy over the sea

  7. Jul21°C high70 °F

    Summer in Shiretoko, no icebreaking

  8. Aug23°C high73 °F

    The warmest weeks of the year

  9. Sep20°C high68 °F

    Clear days, cooling nights

  10. Oct14°C high57 °F

    Autumn colors inland

  11. Nov7°C high45 °F

    First snow, the sea still open

  12. Dec1°C high34 °F

    Deep winter begins, ice still far north

Temperatures are rough daytime highs in Abashiri; nights in February often drop to around −10 °C (14 °F), and the wind on deck makes it feel colder still. The bars show roughly how likely you are to find drift ice off the coast, which changes a lot from one winter to the next. Highlighted months are the ones we would pick. The ice season in detail.

How each day is spent

  • Road and sights
  • On the Aurora
  • May run longer

Hours count from pickup or departure and come from the listings. H.I.S. assigns one of three day-2 schedules a week before departure, so the end of that day moves by an hour or two. Club Tourism does not publish its day-2 timings.

  1. Decide where you startFrom Sapporo, a coach tour solves five or six hours of travel each way. Already in the east, the private day saves both. Tour or train from Sapporo.
  2. Pick the week before the tourThe coaches run on set dates only. February and early March carry the best odds of ice.
  3. Read the fallbackEach tour does something different when the ship stays in or the ice stays away. What each one promises.
  4. Dress for the deckSki-weight layers, a hat over the ears, gloves and grippy boots. What to wear.

The best time to see the drift ice goes through the season week by week, from the first floes to the break-up, and explains why the wind matters more than the calendar.

How to choose

How to pick the right drift ice tour

The ship is the same on all three. What differs is where you join, how long you sit on a bus and what fills the rest of the trip.

Sapporo or Abashiri

Two tours leave from Sapporo and take two days; one starts at hotels in Abashiri. Getting to the coast.

Group size

JUN Travel is private for up to six. The coaches carry up to 40, though H.I.S. also sells a small-group option. Private and small-group days.

What else you see

Penguins and an ice festival with H.I.S., a walk on the shore ice with Club Tourism, three museums with JUN. The rest of Abashiri.

Who is coming

Cold decks, long coach days and onsen rules all matter more with children. The icebreaker with kids.

The ice

No tour can order it. Wind can push it out to sea overnight. What you might see from the deck.

Price

From ~$401 a person for two days with a hotel to ~$2,082 for a private group. Every price in one table.

Everything else to do in Hokkaido

The 3 tours

Three ways onto the Aurora, side by side

We read every drift ice listing for Abashiri and the Okhotsk coast on both booking sites. Only these three include the Aurora, so all three are here: price, length, tour company and the catch, with a button for the site that sells each one.

Low winter sun setting over snow-covered shore ice on the Okhotsk coast Our pick

Abashiri Drift Ice Cruise & Northern Culture Day Tour, JUN Travel

The one we would book for a family trip to the far east of Hokkaido.

Eight hours in a private car with an English-speaking driver-guide, starting at your Abashiri hotel and taking in three museums (drift ice, prison history, northern peoples) before about an hour on the Aurora. Museum tickets and the ship are included.

  • DurationAbout 8 hours, 1 hour on the ship
  • Tour companyJUN Travel
  • Free cancellationUp to 24 hours before, pay later
  • PickupHotels around Abashiri
  • StrengthsNo coach, your own pace, the town's main museums in one day
  • Ideal forFamilies and groups of four to six

Good to know: The price is for the group, so two people pay as much as six. You have to reach Abashiri first, lunch is extra, and it is not for anyone prone to seasickness. Private days compared.

~$2,082per group
GetYourGuide
The Aurora icebreaker with its red hull and white decks moving through drift ice under a blue sky Lowest price

Drift Ice Cruise Aurora, Asahiyama Zoo, Onsen 2D1N Winter, H.I.S.

A winter sampler of Hokkaido with the ship as the finale.

Two days by coach from Sapporo: ramen in Asahikawa, the penguin walk at Asahiyama Zoo, the lit ice of the Sounkyo festival and a hot-spring hotel by Lake Abashiri. On day 2 the Aurora, then the Prison Museum with lunch before the ride back.

  • Duration2 days, about 1 hour on the ship
  • Tour companyH.I.S.
  • Free cancellationUp to 7 days before
  • StartANA Crowne Plaza Sapporo, about 9:45 am
  • StrengthsHotel, three meals and a guaranteed Aurora seat in one price
  • Ideal forFirst winter trips based in Sapporo

Good to know: Day 1 is about ten hours on the road with stops. You cannot pick the hotel, the room type or the day-2 schedule, tattoos are barred from the baths and the festival fee of 1,000 yen is paid on site. From Sapporo.

~$401per person
GetYourGuide
Aerial view of the Aurora icebreaker cutting a dark channel through white drift ice Walk on the ice

Hokkaido Drift Ice Tour with Touch Experience and Aurora Cruise, Club Tourism

For travelers who want to stand on the ice, not only look at it.

A coach from Sapporo to the Okhotsk coast, the view from Mt Tento and 40 minutes on the shore ice in Shari with a local expert, then a night at the Shiretoko Daiichi Hotel. Day 2 brings Oshinkoshin Falls, Kitahama Station, the Aurora and a hot-pot lunch.

  • Duration2 days, about 1 hour on the ship
  • Tour companyClub Tourism
  • Free cancellationUp to 6 days before
  • StartSapporo Station North Exit, 7:30 am
  • StrengthsDrift ice from the land, the shore and the sea, a licensed guide
  • Ideal forPhotographers and anyone curious about Shiretoko

Good to know: The ice expert in Shari speaks Japanese, lunch on day 1 is on you and the tour runs whether or not the ice comes, with cancellation fees. Without ice the Aurora sails as a plain cruise. When the ice stays away.

~$430per person
Viator

A small heads-up. These are GetYourGuide and Viator affiliate links, so when you book through one we earn a little commission and you pay exactly the same. It keeps this guide going and never touches our ranking or the catches we point out.

Before you go

Eight things about drift ice tours that no listing puts in big letters

None of these sits at the top of a booking page, and each one decides whether you come home with photos of a white sea or of a gray harbor.

What you should know

  1. Nobody sells a plain Aurora ticket online in English. Both booking sites only list packages that include the ship. Doing it alone means buying the fare at the harbor or through Japanese channels. What it all costs.
  2. The ice comes and goes with the wind. A north wind packs the floes against the shore; a south wind can clear the bay in a night. No tour can promise ice. Best weeks.
  3. The ship sails even without ice. Club Tourism says so plainly and refunds the fare difference. You still get an hour at sea, just not the cracking.
  4. Each tour has its own plan B. If the cruise is cancelled, H.I.S. switches to the ice museum and Club Tourism picks another sight or refunds the difference. Fallbacks compared.
  5. Sapporo is far away. Five to six hours each way by train or road, which is why the two coach tours take two days and spend most of day 1 on the bus.
  6. These are new listings. None of the three had any reviews yet when we looked. Read the inclusions closely rather than trusting star ratings.
  7. Cancellation windows differ. JUN Travel lets you cancel free until a day before; the coach tours want a week of notice (H.I.S.) or six days (Club Tourism). Watch the forecast before that line.
  8. The deck is colder than the thermometer. Around −2 °C (28 °F) on a February afternoon feels far colder in the wind at the bow. What to wear.

Everything in one table

Three drift ice tours, catch included

The three tours side by side, with the strength and the catch of each one in the same row.

Swipe the table sideways to see all columns →

Tour Ideal for Price Length Starts from Tour company and cancellation Strength and catch Book
JUN Travel private day (our pick) Groups already in the east ~$2,082per group About 8 h, 1 h at sea Your Abashiri hotel JUN Travel
Free cancellation up to 24 h		 Private car, three museums, the Aurora. Group price, reach Abashiri yourself.
GetYourGuide
H.I.S. two days A Sapporo base, a first winter trip ~$401per person 2 days, 1 h at sea ANA Crowne Plaza Sapporo H.I.S.
Free cancellation up to 7 days		 Zoo, ice festival, onsen hotel, seat guaranteed. Long coach days, set dates.
GetYourGuide
Club Tourism two days Walking on the shore ice ~$430per person 2 days, 1 h at sea Sapporo Station North Exit Club Tourism
Free cancellation up to 6 days		 Ice from land, shore and sea, Shiretoko night. Ice walk in Japanese, fees if you cancel late.
Viator

About the numbers. Prices are "from" rates in US dollars, per person for the coach tours and per group of up to six for the private day. Dates, group size and exchange rates move them, so check the booking page, which has the final word.

Who went

Reviews from travelers who sailed the ice

Fourteen travelers, some who found the sea white to the horizon and some who got thin floes and open water, on what won them over and what they would do differently.

★★★★★Private day in Abashiri

Our guide picked the four of us up at the hotel at nine and drove like someone who had done these icy roads all his life. The ice room at the museum was colder than any Swedish February I remember, and he timed the prison visit so we reached the harbor with twenty minutes to spare. On the Aurora he found us a spot at the bow, pointed out an eagle on a floe and went inside to warm up. A long, easy day.

ALAnna L. · Gothenburg, SwedenIce to the horizon
★★★★★Private day in Abashiri

Six of us split the price and it came out cheaper than the bus tours. No regrets.

KTKenji T. · Vancouver, CanadaIce to the horizon
★★★★☆Private day in Abashiri

The museums were the surprise of the day, especially the northern peoples one, where the guide translated every panel for my parents. The ice was thin when we sailed, loose plates and a lot of open water, so the cracking was gentle. Not the tour company's fault, and the guide said so honestly before we boarded.

PRPriya R. · Pune, IndiaThin ice that day
★★★★★Private day in Abashiri

Hand warmers in every pocket, and still the deck took my breath away. Worth the flight to Memanbetsu.

MBMartin B. · Leipzig, GermanyIce to the horizon
★★★★★Private day in Abashiri

We were a family of five with two teenagers who only agreed to come for the ship. They ended up asking the most questions at the prison museum, and the guide had stories for every building. Lunch was a seafood bowl he chose for us near the station. The ship itself was full but we never felt rushed.

SCSofia C. · Valencia, SpainIce to the horizon
★★★★★2 days: zoo, onsen, Aurora

First snow of my life on day one, penguins waddling past my boots in the afternoon, and an outdoor bath at the hotel by the lake with snow falling into the water. The Aurora next morning was the cherry on top: the sea was white as far as we could see and the hull groaned like an old house. The bus days are long, so bring snacks and download a few films, but for the price you get a lot of Hokkaido in one go.

JWJess W. · Brisbane, AustraliaIce to the horizon
★★★★★2 days: zoo, onsen, Aurora

The penguin walk was so close I could have touched them. Do not miss the ramen stop.

LHLi H. · SingaporeIce to the horizon
★★★★☆2 days: zoo, onsen, Aurora

Good value and the Aurora seat really was guaranteed, which mattered because the sailings were sold out. Day one is ten hours on and off a coach, though, and the ice festival came at the end when everyone was tired. We got course C on day two, which meant a 7 am start. Go in with the right expectations.

TOTom O. · Cork, IrelandIce to the horizon
★★★★★2 days: zoo, onsen, Aurora

The ice festival lit up in blue and green after dark was a lovely surprise.

NMNoor M. · Rotterdam, NetherlandsThin ice that day
★★★★★2 days: ice walk, Aurora

Walking out onto the frozen sea in Shari was the moment of the trip for me. The local expert explained everything in Japanese, our tour guide translated the important bits, and then we stood on plates of ice that had floated down from Russia, crouching to touch the ridges where they had pushed together. Next day the Aurora felt almost calm in comparison. The Shiretoko hotel had a huge bath looking out over the sea and a buffet with crab. Long drives both days, but I would book it again tomorrow.

GPGiulia P. · Turin, ItalyIce to the horizon
★★★★★2 days: ice walk, Aurora

The view from Mt Tento, white to the horizon, then Kitahama Station with ice nearly at the platform. Our guide knew exactly where to stand for photos at every stop.

RDRachel D. · Denver, ColoradoIce to the horizon
★★★★★2 days: ice walk, Aurora

The hot pot in Kitami after a morning on deck. Perfect end.

HKHyun-woo K. · Busan, South KoreaIce to the horizon
★★★★☆2 days: ice walk, Aurora

The ice had blown out the night before, so the Aurora sailed mostly through open water with a few floes near the end. The touch experience still went ahead on the shore ice, and the refund for the fare difference arrived without me asking. Disappointing for the ship, fair from the company.

EFEmma F. · Lyon, FranceThin ice that day
★★★★★2 days: ice walk, Aurora

I booked this as a photographer and came home with more frames of ice than I can edit in a year. Sunrise from the Shiretoko hotel window, frozen falls at Oshinkoshin, the bow of the Aurora pushing plates aside, and an eagle sitting on a floe for long enough to change lenses. The guide kept the group moving without ever rushing anyone, and the conductor at Sapporo Station with the flag made the 7:30 meeting easy to find.

DSDaniel S. · Tel Aviv, IsraelIce to the horizon

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Ice on the day

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Gloves on

Book JUN Travel for your day on the ice

If you are going to eastern Hokkaido in February anyway and want one day on the Okhotsk coast you will still be describing at home, we would book JUN Travel's private tour. A guide who explains where the ice comes from, the ice room and the old prison, an hour at the rail of the Aurora, and nobody else's schedule to keep.

It is a new listing, so you are among its first guests, and you can hold a place now, pay nearer the day and cancel until 24 hours before. Pack your warmest gloves.

~$2,082

per group of up to 6 · about 8 hours · pickup in Abashiri

GetYourGuide
  • ✓ Free cancellation up to 24 hours before
  • ✓ Reserve now, pay later
  • ✓ Aurora fare and three museums included
  • ✓ Pickup at your hotel

Good to know

Where the drift ice comes from, and what you are looking at

Five minutes of reading, and the white sea, the grinding hull and the eagles on the floes will make a lot more sense.

The drift ice off Abashiri is not born here. It forms hundreds of kilometers to the north in the Sea of Okhotsk, much of it where the Amur River pours fresh water into the sea and makes it easier to freeze. Wind and currents carry the floes south through the winter until they reach Hokkaido, one of the southernmost shores in the Northern Hemisphere that sea ice ever touches.

01Ice that travels

The Japanese call it ryuhyo, flowing ice, and the name fits. It usually reaches the Abashiri coast in the second half of January, piles up through February and starts to break up in March. In between it is restless: a north wind pushes the plates against the shore into a jumbled white field, and a south wind can open the bay again in a day. The best weeks to go.

02A town at the edge of the sea

Abashiri is a small fishing and farming city on the Okhotsk coast of eastern Hokkaido, with Lake Abashiri behind it and the Shiretoko Peninsula on the horizon to the east. Long before Japanese settlers arrived, people of the Okhotsk culture hunted seals here, and their shell mound is now a museum. What else to see in town.

03The prison that built the roads

In the Meiji era the government sent prisoners to Abashiri to clear land and cut roads through the forest, and the hardships of that work made the town's name famous across Japan. The old wooden buildings now stand in an open-air museum, while a modern prison still operates elsewhere in town. Every tour on this page stops at the museum except Club Tourism's.

The moment most passengers remember is not the cold. It is the sound, a deep crunch under the bow that you feel through your boots before you hear it.

04The ship that climbs

An icebreaker does not slice through ice so much as ride up onto it and crack it under its own weight. The Aurora works that way, nosing into the floes and letting the plates split and tumble along the hull. It boards at the roadside station by the harbor, about five minutes from JR Abashiri Station, and a cruise lasts about an hour. How it differs from the Garinko.

05Who lives on the ice

Steller's sea eagles, huge birds with yellow beaks, spend the winter on this coast together with white-tailed eagles, and they perch on the floes to watch for fish. Spotted seals haul out on the ice to rest. Neither turns up on order, and many cruises see neither. What you might spot from the deck.

06Manners on board

Hold the rail when the ship lurches onto a floe, keep gloves and phones strapped on, and do not throw anything onto the ice. Inside, the heated cabins fill up quickly, so step in to warm your hands and give the window seats back. The icebreaker with children has more on keeping small passengers safe and warm.

About 1 hA cruise on the Aurora

−15 °CThe ice room at the Ryuhyo Museum

5 minFrom JR Abashiri Station to the ship

2005Shiretoko made a World Heritage Site

Should you take the Aurora at all, or the Garinko up the coast in Monbetsu? Our guide Aurora or Garinko: which icebreaker? weighs the two ships.

Questions and answers

Frequently asked questions about the Abashiri drift ice cruise

Fourteen questions we hear again and again, with the full answer.

How much does an Abashiri drift ice cruise cost?

The three tours with the Aurora on this page start at ~$401 per person for H.I.S.'s two days from Sapporo with a hotel night and three meals, ~$430 per person for Club Tourism's two days, and ~$2,082 for JUN Travel's private day for a group of up to six. Each includes the ship's fare. Every price and extra is in our cost guide.

Which Abashiri drift ice tour is the best?

For a family or a group already traveling in eastern Hokkaido, JUN Travel's private day: hotel pickup, three museums and the Aurora with an English-speaking driver-guide. For a trip that starts in Sapporo, H.I.S.'s two days offer the most for the money. All three are new listings without reviews yet.

When is the drift ice season in Abashiri?

The ice usually arrives in the second half of January, is thickest through February and into early March, and breaks up during March. It varies from year to year and from day to day with the wind. The season in detail.

How long is the Aurora icebreaker cruise?

About an hour at sea. The tours around it last eight hours for the private day and two days for the coach trips from Sapporo.

Is drift ice guaranteed on the cruise?

No. Drift ice is a natural phenomenon and every listing says so. On days without ice the Aurora sails as an ordinary sightseeing cruise; Club Tourism refunds the fare difference in that case. What each tour does without ice.

What happens if the icebreaker is cancelled?

It depends on the tour. H.I.S. sends you to the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum instead, Club Tourism swaps in another sight or refunds the difference, and JUN Travel rearranges the day and refunds the booking in full if you do not accept the new plan.

Can I do the Aurora as a day trip from Sapporo?

Not comfortably. Abashiri is five to six hours from Sapporo each way, which is why both coach tours take two days. A flight to Memanbetsu Airport shortens the trip, and from there JUN Travel's private day starts at your Abashiri hotel. Tour or train from Sapporo.

Should I choose the Aurora or the Garinko?

Both are sightseeing icebreakers in the same drift ice. The Aurora sails from Abashiri and fits with the Prison Museum and Shiretoko; the Garinko sails from Monbetsu, about 100 km (60 miles) up the coast, and drills into the ice with screws on its bow. Choose by where you are staying. The two ships compared.

What should I wear on the icebreaker?

Ski-weight layers: thermal underwear, a fleece, a windproof down or ski jacket, a hat over the ears, warm gloves and waterproof boots with grip. Hand warmers from any convenience store help, and sunglasses cut the glare off the ice. What to wear.

Will I see seals or eagles from the Aurora?

Maybe. Steller's sea eagles and white-tailed eagles winter on this coast and spotted seals rest on the floes, but none of them can be promised and many cruises see neither. Binoculars help. What you might see.

Are the drift ice tours suitable for children?

Yes, with warm clothing and patience for long days. JUN Travel takes children from age 1, the zoo on the H.I.S. trip is a hit with kids, and the heated cabins on the Aurora give a break from the cold. The icebreaker with kids.

Do the tours have English-speaking guides?

JUN Travel's driver-guide speaks English. H.I.S. lists guides in Chinese, English and Japanese, and Club Tourism uses a National Government Licensed Guide Interpreter, though the drift ice expert in Shari speaks Japanese.

Can I cancel a drift ice tour for free?

Yes, within each tour's window: up to 24 hours before for JUN Travel, up to 7 days before for H.I.S. and up to 6 days before for Club Tourism. Later cancellations are charged.

What else is there to do in Abashiri in winter?

The Abashiri Prison Museum, the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum with its ice room, the Hokkaido Museum of Northern Peoples and the Moyoro Shell Mound, plus hot-spring hotels around Lake Abashiri and day trips toward Shiretoko. The rest of Abashiri.

Read before you travel

Guides to the Okhotsk drift ice

Ten questions that keep coming up, each with the long answer instead of the short one.