Bucket List / Experience Goals
Stay At An Ice Hotel
Still to do
Sleep on a block of river ice in a suite carved by artists, deep inside the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland.
The adventure
Every spring, blocks of crystal-clear ice are cut from the frozen Torne River and stored through the summer. When winter returns, artists from around the world arrive in the village of Jukkasjärvi to carve them into a new hotel: vaulted halls, glowing corridors and art suites that will never exist in the same form again. By late spring it melts back into the river it came from.
Spending a night here is wonderfully strange. The rooms hover around minus five degrees, lit softly through walls of ice, with beds topped by reindeer hides and expedition-grade sleeping bags. You drift off in total silence and wake to a cup of hot lingonberry juice brought to your room. Step outside and you're in the Arctic, with dog sledding, snowmobiles and, on clear nights, the northern lights rippling above the river.
Why it’s epic
- Opened in 1989, the Icehotel was the world's first hotel built from ice and snow.
- Each year's art suites are designed by different artists, so no two winters look the same.
- Icehotel 365, a permanent building kept frozen all year using solar power, means you can sleep on ice even under the midnight sun.
- An ice bar serving drinks in glasses made of ice, plus aurora tours, husky sledding and Sámi culture nearby.
What it is
The Icehotel is rebuilt each winter from ice from the Torne River.
How to do it
Fly to Kiruna. There's also a permanent Icehotel 365.
Top tip
Book a warm room for your second night.
Need to know
- The seasonal hotel is usually open from December to April; Icehotel 365 is open all year.
- Fly to Kiruna, about a 15-minute drive away; most guests spend one cold night and the rest in heated rooms.
- Room temperatures are well below zero, so follow the staff's advice on what to wear inside the sleeping bag.
Plan this trip
- Rough cost
- £2,000 to £5,000 per person, including flights from the UK
- Time needed
- 1 night
- Best time to go
- December to April
- Fly into
- KRN airport
Ice rooms cost far more than a normal hotel night, and flights to Kiruna plus Arctic activities add up quickly.
Make it happen
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Why it’s on my list
The worlds original Icehotel, located in Jukkasjarvi in Swedish Lapland has long been high on my bucket list. It has been around for quite a while – In 1989, a Swede by the name of Yngve Bergqvist hit on the idea of building an igloo on the frozen banks of the Torne river in Swedish Lapland to showcase indigenous Sami art and handicrafts.
A few tourists asked if they could sleep in the igloo for a real taste of what the Swedes love to call ‘the exotic’. Bergqvist soon realised the idea had potential and soon created the now world famous Ice Hotel.
The hotel, including the chairs and beds, is constructed from snow and ice blocks taken from the nearby Torne River. Artists are invited to create different rooms and decorations and the entire hotel is rebuilt between December and April each year.
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