Kemi in February and March: the only weeks when the cruise, the Winter Park and real daylight overlap.

Why these two months carry the Kemi trip

Kemi's two products have different clocks. The icebreakers sail from mid-December, but the Winter Park needs enough cold and snow and usually opens in mid-January. Daylight before February is short: about three hours at the solstice and six and a half by the end of January. From February the three lines cross: both products open, eight or more hours of sun, and sea ice thick enough for the walk beside the hull and for the ice trek across the bay to the old town.

March adds sunshine that lifts off the ice and afternoons near freezing, at the cost of the Winter Park softening toward the end of the month. The cruise season normally runs to the first days of April, so a late-March trip still gets the ship.

A two-night plan for February or March

Arrive by train in the afternoon of day one, walk the centre and eat early. On day two take the morning cruise, lunch in town, then the SnowCastle area in the afternoon on the day ticket included with the cruise. Keep the evening for a minibus aurora tour if the forecast is clear, or a sauna if it is not. Leave on day three by train, or add a husky ride, the reindeer farm or the sight-skiing outing in the morning first.

• Day 1: train in, centre walk, early dinner.
• Day 2: morning cruise, afternoon at the SnowCastle area, aurora tour if clear.
• Day 3: animal morning or ski outing, then the train to Rovaniemi or Oulu.

Cold, wind and what to wear

February is the coldest of the two months, with mean lows of −14.4 °C and cold snaps well below −20 °C. The coast adds wind that the inland fell resorts do not have, and two hours on the ship's deck and on the ice feel colder than a forest walk at the same temperature. Wear wool base layers, an insulated jacket and trousers, a hat that covers the ears, mittens over thin gloves and boots rated for cold with grip soles; the survival suit for floating goes over everything.

March is easier by day and still cold at night. Sunglasses matter on the ice in both months, and a phone kept inside the jacket lasts the cruise.

School holidays and booking order

Finnish winter holidays run in staggered weeks from late February into early March, and British and other European half-term weeks fall in the middle of February. Sailings on those dates fill first, the Rovaniemi coaches after them, then the Kemi hotels. If your dates are fixed by school, book the cruise the day the calendar opens, then the hotel, and add the animal morning last. Outside those weeks a few weeks' notice is enough.