Sweden’s Ice Hotel (Part 1)

If ever you are lucky enough to visit Sweden in the winter and are able to fit in a few days holiday then one trip that should be considered is a 90 minute flight North of Stockholm which takes you to Kiruna. This remote town is 200 km inside the Arctic Circle.

Here the winters are very long with the sun barely rising above the horizon during December. Until recently the nearby village of Jukkasjärvi and the wilderness that surrounds it were purely a summer retreat offering outdoor experiences such as walking and kayaking. However by the end of the 1980s travelers began to look for new experiences and the raw beauty of the arctic elements offered something new.

So from 1989 onwards for four months every year a impressive and surprising structure arises from the silent and frozen banks of the Tome river, The Ice Hotel.

The path of the Tome River was formed over 10, 000 years ago when the glaciers of the ice age carved their way through the landscape. The Tome forms the foundations and material of the hotel, which is built every December from ice which has been harvested from the river.

The hotel opens from Mid December until the spring, in about April, as the temperatures rises and ice begins to melt and return to the river. It is the only hotel in the world that disappears every year and then emerges again 8 months later. The hotel' s creative director is responsible, every year, for its evolution in this harsh environment. It is a big challenge because of the location which is so far north of the Arctic Circle and only a short distance from the very top of Sweden.

The construction takes November and December in what seems like a hostile environment. The weather is getting steadily colder and the natural light is getting less and less. However nature, the weather conditions, and the light bring some of the atmosphere into the hotel even if you are working at -20 centigrade.

The challenge each year is to create a new adventure and an experience that should not be too hostile but should still be a challenge for the guests and builders.

They like to make it comfortable but not too much so otherwise it would not be an ice hotel. It is 25 years since the Swedish Ice Hotel was the first of its kind in the world. Since that time over 30, 000 guests have been welcomed through the doors with bookings for rooms and special events for some years ahead.