Ice Hotel, Sweden

Sweden's very own Ice Hotel is the type of place you'd want to find yourself in during the next Ice Age. Made of ice, visitors can choose between "cold accommodations" or "warm accommodations," depending on how adventurous they're feeling. Even if you choose not to stay in an ice suite, the hotel's ice sculptures, artwork, and architecture are sure to blow your mind.

 

The Icehotel is a hotel built each year with snow and ice in the village of Jukkasjärvi, in northern Sweden, about 17 kilometres ( from Kiruna. It is the world's first ice hotel.
After its first opening in 1990, the hotel has been built each year from December to April.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 made by ice. Besides bedrooms, there is a bar, with glasses made of ice and an ice chapel that is popular with marrying couples. The structure remains below freezing, around −5 °C.

 

The entire hotel is made out of snow and ice blocks from the Torne River, even the glasses in the bar are made of ice. Each spring, around March, Icehotel harvests tons of ice from the frozen Torne River and stores it in a nearby production hall with room for over 10,000 short tons (9,100 t) of ice and 30,000 short tons (27,200 t) of snow. The ice is used for creating Icebar designs and ice glasses, which are used for ice sculpting classes, events and product launches all over the world while the snow is used for building a strong structure for the building. About 1,000 short tons (900 t) of what is left is used in the construction of the next Icehotel.

 

When completed, the hotel features a bar, church, main hall, reception area, plus about 100 rooms for guests. The room rate starts at $1,500. The hotel hosts also an ice restaurant. The furniture is sculpted blocks of ice in the form of chairs and beds. The thick walls, floor and ceiling are made of ice. Even the beds, the fittings and decoration are carved from ice. No two rooms are the same; the rooms are unique works of art. At the Icehotel the beds are bedded with reindeer furs and people are given special equipment to use while sleeping in the hotel. The guests sleep in polar-tested sleeping bags. There is no heating and the bedroom temperatures are constantly around 23F (-5C). There’s no plumbing at the hotel, but there's a sauna that is run on the premises of the Icehotel with hot tub outdoors.

 

The ice suites do not have any bathroom facilities but bathrooms for guests are found in a warm building close by. There is also warm accommodation available next to the hotel. The Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi is known to be the biggest hotel of ice and snow in the world, spanning over some 6,000 square metres (64,600 sq ft). Each suite is unique and the architecture of the hotel is changed each year, as it is rebuilt from scratch. Each year, artists submit their ideas for suites, and a jury selects about 50 artists to create the church, Absolut Icebar, reception, main hall and suites. When spring comes, everything melts away and returns to the Torne River. The Icehotel only exists between December and April, and has been listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Sweden. The northern hemisphere's aurora borealis can be seen during the winter month in the location.