Every winter, from December onwards, the Icehotel seems to grow organically from ice blocks taken from the Torne river, while international artists flock from all over to carve the ice sculptures that make its frozen rooms masterpieces. Snuggle up between reindeer furs on a bed of ice in the igloo-like 'cold rooms'; thankfully, the bathrooms in the building are heated...
From a humble start in 1989 as a small igloo, originally built by Yngve Bergqvist to house an art gallery, the Icehotel has grown into a building comprising an entrance hall and a main walkway lined with ice sculptures and lit with electric lights, with smaller corridors branching off towards the 35 suites. Guests sleep on reindeer skins and are provided with sleeping bags used by the Swedish army for Arctic survival training, guaranteed to keep one warm despite the -5°C temperature inside the rooms (and in winter that’s nothing – outside the hotel it can be as low as -30°C).
There are heated bathrooms near the reception, and you leave most of your possessions in lockers so that they don’t freeze. Stuff your clothes into the bottom of your sleeping bag, otherwise they’ll soon resemble a washboard. Come morning, guests are revived with a hot drink and a spell in the sauna. Guests spend just one night in the Icehotel itself (it’s not a comfortable night’s sleep for most), so the hotel provides 30 satellite chalets – bungalows decorated in contemporary Scandinavian style.
This custom-built ‘igloo’ also has an Ice Ceremony Hall, popular for weddings (giving new meaning to the expression ‘cold feet’)! Outside the winter season, the hotel offers tours (around 325kr in winter) that initiate visitors into the process of building this unique hotel and include a visit to see the rooms in Icehotel 365.
Winter adventures on offer include snowmobile safaris, skiing, ice fishing, dogsledding (you can even arrange a dog-sled pickup from the airport!), Sami culture tours and Northern Lights safaris, while summer activities comprise hiking, rafting, paddleboarding, canoeing, fishing and all-terrain-buggy tours.