Ice Boat Travel Guide

Quick answer

• Boats slide fast on ice: about 40 blocks per second on ice and packed ice.
• On Blue ice they reach about 72 blocks per second.
• Build ice roads in the Nether to cover huge distances fast.

Ice roads are the fastest way to travel without elytra. Put a boat on blue ice and it flies.

Nether Portal CalculatorConvert Minecraft Overworld coordinates to Nether coordinates and back, so your portals link to the right place every time→

Speeds

Surface	Boat speed
Ice	about 40 blocks/s
Packed ice	about 40 blocks/s
Blue ice	about 72 blocks/s

Getting the ice

• Mine Ice and Packed ice with a Silk Touch pickaxe. Without it, ice breaks into nothing.
• Craft packed ice from 9 ice, and blue ice from 9 packed ice. That's 81 ice for one blue ice block.
• Find blue ice ready made under icebergs in frozen oceans.

Nether highways

One block in the Nether is 8 in the Overworld. A boat road in the Nether at 72 blocks per second covers a huge amount of Overworld distance.

1. Build a tunnel at a safe height in the Nether, 2 blocks tall.
2. Lay a line of blue ice with a wall on each side so the boat stays straight.
3. Put a portal at each end.

Cheat sheet

• Ice and packed ice: about 40 blocks/s
• Blue ice: about 72 blocks/s
• 81 ice = 1 blue ice
• Build it in the Nether for 8× the distance