Ice Hotel 1

The Ice Hotel is at Jukkasjärvi, 18km from Kiruna in Swedish Lappland. In case you haven't figured it out the whole thing is made solely of ice and snow. It started as as an ice art gallery, and at one time a few people stayed inside it overnight, and that was the seed that made it one of Sweden's top tourist attractions.






There is a proper church at the hotel (left). There also used to be a Globe Theatre, where they were performing Shakespeare plays in the Sami language. Sitting in the cold, watching shakespeare in an even less easy to understand language... not a money spinner.

There are also warm cabins around the hotel, in which you can stay if you are not brave enough for the ice hotel where it is about -5 inside. The ice hotel is not a cheap experience - the cheapest bed in an undecorated room is ~$250. We paid about $330 each for a 3 person suite.



The frames for making the ice hotel. They line them up, and when it is cold enough (~Nov) to make snow or use natural snow, they pile the snow on top and tamp it all down to make a solid mass. The bottom of these arches have ski-like feet so they can be dropped and slid out from under the arch. This forms the main passageways. Then they knock holes in the walls to connect corridors and make the rooms.



The ice they use for building other parts of the hotel, and for the furniture and sculptures all comes from the local Torne river, which is one of the purest unpolluted rivers in Europe. They cut out huge blocks with chainsaws which they store for the following year. It is amazingly transparent, as you can see from the 'cold reception desk' below. These blocks are about 1m thick.

The dining hall

Rieko has very poor table manners

Artists from a wide range of disciplines (other than 'traditional' ice carving) apply from all around the world to come and decorate the rooms.

Some of the room interiors:

Maybe my favourite room. Sorry about the blur.

One of the deluxe suites, with a Sergeant Peppers theme.

Bed details: the ice blocks surround the bed and support a wooden frame. On top of the wooden frame is a foam matress and then reindeer skins. It would much colder and dangerous to actually lie on ice. More sleeping details later.

An undecorated room.

The Ice Bar -the decorations weren't finished in time for the opening, due to global warming. The building and opening of the hotel was delayed due to increasingly warm weather. Probably means it will melt earlier too - there is no guarantee of the hotel being open in April.



The Ice Bar uses solid ice glasses. You pay $5 extra on the first drink to buy the glass, and can use it for several drinks. They are slippery to hold onto, and the ice bar had a bit of a lean, so I have a feeling quite a bit of money is made from spills. They have to use the top quality ice, as cracks aren't kind to the containment of liquids.








The Ice Bar is sponsored by Absolut vodka (which is swedish), and all cocktails are based on various flavoured Absolut varieties. Hot drinks are also available, in paper cups

The Valhalla - very good

The table gets replaced at least once a season, due to wear and tear and vandalism. Everyone wants to make their mark, so there are all sorts of carvings and cigarette lighter meltings. I took off my ring and just the residual heat was enough for it to melt and sink halfway into the ice. Although it's 'just ice', the tabletop is costed at $1200.