An Abashiri drift ice cruise with kids
Children usually love the moment a ship cracks through ice, and they usually hate being cold for long. The three tours that include the Aurora handle a family very differently, from a private car that collects you at your hotel to two long coach days from Sapporo. This guide covers the age limits and the hours on the road, then the stops children tend to remember.
Who can come on each tour
Each listing sets its own limits, and they are not the same.
- JUN Travel, private day in Abashiri. Not for children under 1, anyone over 95, frail travelers, or anyone prone to seasickness or motion sickness
- H.I.S., two days from Sapporo. Not for wheelchair users, people with animal allergies (the first day includes a zoo) or anyone over 95
- Club Tourism, two days from Sapporo. Not wheelchair accessible; the listing sets no age limit that we found
So for a toddler the real questions are the cold and the length of the day, not the rules. For a child who gets carsick, the long coach days of the two Sapporo tours may be the bigger problem than the hour on the water. Our Sapporo guide sets out how far Abashiri is from the city.
An hour at sea with small children
The Aurora's cruise lasts about an hour. The cabins are heated and have windows, so a small child can watch most of it from inside on a parent's lap. The open decks are where the cracking ice is loudest and the view down onto the plates is best, and they are also where the wind cuts straight through a thin coat.
A plan that works for many families is to take turns. One adult stays inside with the little ones, the other goes out with the older children, and everyone steps out together when the ship pushes into a thick sheet. Ten minutes on deck is plenty for a preschooler. Mittens on a string and a hat that covers the ears matter more for children than for adults, because they lose heat faster and complain later. What to wear on the icebreaker has the full list of layers.
The ship moves slowly through ice, but open water can roll. JUN Travel's listing rules out travelers prone to seasickness, and the same caution makes sense on any tour if your child struggles on boats.
Long coach days from Sapporo
Sapporo to Abashiri is a long trip by any route, and both coach tours spend much of their time on the road. With H.I.S. the first day runs about 10 hours from the 9:45 am start at ANA Crowne Plaza Sapporo to the hotel by Lake Abashiri, broken up by stops. The longest are 90 minutes at Asahiyama Zoo and 30 minutes at the Sounkyo Ice Waterfall Festival, where a 1,000 yen fee is paid on site. Lunch that day is not included. Day 2 brings you back to Sapporo Station North Exit somewhere between about 5:20 and 7:40 pm, depending on which course you are assigned.
Club Tourism starts earlier, at 7:30 am at the Sapporo Station North Exit group bus stop. That means a dark, cold walk with sleepy children, followed by a long drive east. Pack snacks, something to do on a screen and a spare layer within reach on the bus.
What children tend to remember
The penguins, often first. On the H.I.S. tour the stop at Asahiyama Zoo lasts 90 minutes, and in winter the zoo walks its penguins along a path through the snow, with visitors lined up on both sides. It is held only in winter, around 2:30 pm in that itinerary, and like anything with animals it is not promised on a given day.
Penguins on day 1, the ice on day 2
The H.I.S. two days from Sapporo, from ~$401 per person, take in Asahiyama Zoo on the way to a hot-spring hotel night with a buffet dinner, then the Aurora the next morning. Day 1 lunch and the Sounkyo festival fee are extra.
The room kept at −15 °C (5 °F) at the Okhotsk Ryuhyo Museum is another hit, because children can stand next to real drift ice and feel their breath freeze. JUN Travel's day includes it. On Club Tourism's trip, the 40-minute drift ice touch experience in Shari lets families step onto the ice with a local expert. The expert speaks Japanese, which matters less to a six-year-old than to an adult. The guide to what you see from the deck covers both stops in more detail.
The private day for a family
JUN Travel's private day, ~$2,082 for a group of up to 6, is the calmest way to do this with children. Your English-speaking driver-guide picks the family up at the hotel, and the order of the day shifts around the ship's departure time. You can stop when someone needs a toilet or a warm drink, and lunch, which is not included, can be wherever the children will eat.
The price is per group, so it looks steep for two and much kinder for a family of five or six. The catch is getting to Abashiri first (by train or on a flight into Memanbetsu), and the 8 hours still include three museums and the cruise. Private and small-group drift ice days and what the Aurora icebreaker costs do the sums.
Hot springs and the tattoo rule
The H.I.S. night is at one of two hot-spring hotels by Lake Abashiri, and you cannot choose the room type. Tattoos are barred from the baths there, and the listing says that includes stickers, so check your children's arms for temporary ones before bath time.
Baths in Japan are taken naked and separated by gender. Everyone washes and rinses at the taps before getting in, small towels stay out of the water and long hair is tied up. Hotels set their own rules on the age at which a child may go into the bath of the other parent's gender, so ask at the front desk. Club Tourism's Shiretoko Daiichi Hotel has a large public bath, and besides Western rooms it offers Japanese and mixed ones. Japanese-style rooms, usually with futons on the floor, give small children space to spread out.
A day trip that asks too much of most children
A private Garinko III day from Sapporo, ~$541 per person, gets you onto drift ice and back in one go. For children the catch is plain, 11 hours with most of them in a car and a pickup before dawn. It also sails a different ship from Monbetsu rather than Abashiri, and it has no reviews yet. Aurora or Garinko sets the two ships side by side; for the week itself, see when the drift ice is thickest.