We went to the Ice Hotel in Sweden over Christmas in 2017. You fly into Kiruna and drive to the site. Located 200 kilometers north of the Arctic circle in Jukkasjärvi, the ICEHOTEL has been built to a fresh blueprint each year, using 5,000 tons of ice taken from the nearby River Torne in the spring and cold-stored over the summer. There is part that is a permanent hotel, but the part with the fabulous rooms is built fresh each year. There is a chapel for those who want to get married in the ice.
Typically, You have one or two nights in the "normal" hotel and one night in your ice room where the air is always at -5. You are given special "onezie" snow suits, gloves, boots, sleeping bags to get you through the night and through any other outside activities you want to do. We chose dog sledding, and seeing the Northern Lights. There is no bathroom in the room, so if you have to go, you walk/run from your room to the "normal" hotel.
When we got there we started out our first night in the main lodge ("normal hotel") and got kitted out with all the cold weather gear. Since it's near the shortest day of the year, it got dark early and we didn't see anything that night. Driving from the airport, the one thing that looked very pretty was the big local mine because it was all alight, but was really ugly in daylight. Dinner that night was a very disappointing venison. It was prepared in a way that made it so tough and unappealing I was very embarrassed that I said how much I like venison.
On day 2 we explored the ice hotel itself. There were about 30 rooms in the part of the hotel that is built annually. These included a space exploration room, King Kong, one modeled like a Faberge egg. Ours had a nice carving on the wall. The kids stayed in room 204 - White Desert. It had something like pointy stalagmites and they felt a bit jipped. One of the best parts of the hotel was the Ice Bar - more on that later. This day we went for a dog sledding adventure. I don't believe I've ever been that cold. We were 4 to the sled plus the driver - I was in front, so taking all the wind and also the dogs had a lot of gas and defecated "on the run". My feet have never been so cold and so uncomfortable. The weather was beautiful and sunny and the views were very pretty with lots of snow. Finally, after about 3 hours, we stopped for lunch and to get warm, then it was back for another few hours to the kennel. I was never so happy to see the end of something like this in my life. I was really looking forward to it, remembering doing this in Northern Finland and that it was like flying, not this time. That evening we went for an outing by car to a lodge like would have been used by the Inuits with dinner in a geodesic dome afterwards. This evening the venison was perfect - just as I remembered! There were about 15 people being cooked for and we sat in a big circle. One couple was from France and the man may have had too much to drink, but he was a funny drunk - at one point taking off his shirt because he was too hot (in fairness it did get pretty hot). This night we stayed in the ice hotel. It was cold, but not overly cold. The bed was hard. The most memorable thing was going to the bathroom in the middle of the night - it was absolutely silent as I walked to the hotel. As I went outside there was the beginning of a silent very light snow fall.
Day three was the northern lights. We were driven out to a ski area while it was still light and took the chair lift up to the top of the mountain. There was a bar at the top where we saw an informational show about the Northern Lights and then we went out after it was dark, lay down on the ground and watched the sky. The Lights were different than expected. The green came very slowly and wasn't as defined as you see in pictures - you really had to concentrate to see it. It didn't help that a group of people from India were taking flash pictures:(
The highlight of the trip was the Ice Bar with Mr Fuzz (lion picture called Mr. Fuzz). We had the bar to ourselves and everything was made from ice, including the glasses. Beer never tasted so good. We tried all the drinks they had in the bar and got so drunk we slide across all the tables. A good time was had by all!
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