Visit Scandinavia

18 Years with the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi

October 5, 2007

The Torne River in Swedish Lapland has slowed down and is tardily freezing. ICEHOTEL is for the eighteenth year taking form in the little village Jukkasjärvi. Each year a new embodiment of the world famous hotel is created.

Thanks to visiting artists and creators from around the globe ICEHOTEL is a unique place to visit year to year. It is a parenthesis in time, which you can travel as long as it takes to reach.

ICEHOTEL is power of innovation and modern design crossbred with genuine knowledge of architecture. It is a project with lofty ambitions, which leaves no one unmoved. To create in snow and ice is a new art form that allows you to explore, experiment and challenge your skills. Let yourself be inspired by spending time amongst the art.

To live at ICEHOTEL is an experience that finds no resemblance. It is a must for the modern adventurer. As the outside temperature drops, the warm air in ICEHOTEL meets you as you set your foot in the doorway, dressed with reindeer skins. It never gets colder than –23° F (-5° C), regardless of how cold it may be outside. Before you climb into bed, you dress in warm thermal underwear, pull the hat over your ears and slip down into a comfortable sleeping bag on a bed built of blocks of ice, a thick mattress and reindeer skins. The phantasmagorical night is best spent with someone special.

During daytime ICEHOTEL is open to the public and everyone who wants can join a guided tour through the pillar hall, the suites and the ice rooms. ICEHOTEL 2007/2008 will have about eighty rooms and occupies an area of 5000 square metres. The building material – nearly 700.000 cubic meters of snow and 1.000 tonnes of ice – is borrowed from the nature.

The hotel is open from the 7th of December until the middle of April. When winter turns into spring, the loan is returned to the nature and once again ICEHOTEL turns into the world’s most modern ruin. Visit www.icehotel.com for inspiration and ideas.

2-Russian Art Noveau by Rashid Sagadeev & Leonid Kopeykin, photo by Big Ben 2007