Looking for an extraordinary stay this winter? Somewhere to cool down with your loved one? Europe’s ice hotels might be just what you need. Rebuilt every year and melting away every spring, no two winters there are ever the same.
The first of them opened in Jukkasjärvi, Swedish Lapland. ICEHOTEL started as an art exhibition made of ice and snow in 1989, before welcoming its first overnight guests a year later. Since then, the hotel has been rebuilt every winter with ice harvested from the nearby Torne River. When the season ends, the ice melts back into the river, an eternal cycle that makes every edition unique.
This year, ICEHOTEL 37 opens on 11 December and will welcome guests until April 2027. Among the new art suites, The Cold Descent (by Edmund Chan and Tan Taitien) features an ice-cold pool as part of the artwork, while The Emperors Suite (by Dennis Taylor and Michelle Taylor) is filled with hand-sculpted emperor penguins. Meanwhile, the permanent wing, ICEHOTEL 365, celebrates its tenth anniversary and lets visitors enjoy ice and snow art all year round. Its newest addition is a podcast studio built entirely of ice and snow, which the hotel hopes will be the first of its kind in the world.
“There is something truly beautiful in the contrast between what is fleeting and what lives on. We have been recreating ICEHOTEL every winter for almost four decades, and every visit leaves behind new stories. The podcast studio gives us the opportunity to gather some of these stories and let more voices become part of ICEHOTEL’s ongoing history,” said Marie Herrey, CEO of ICEHOTEL.
Finland and Norway also offer a wide range of icy experiences. In fact, Norway is home to the world’s northernmost igloo hotel, the Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel near Alta. Every winter, 250 tonnes of ice and 7,000 cubic metres of snow are used to rebuild it around a new theme. Past themes have included Sami culture and the Vikings. From 20 December to 31 March, guests sleep on ice beds, then head out on snowmobile, husky or snowshoe excursions, chase the northern lights or discover Sami culture. For the romantics, Sorrisniva also has an Ice Chapel that hosts weddings and baptisms.
In Rovaniemi, the gateway to Finnish Lapland, the Arctic SnowHotel has been rebuilt every winter since 2008. From 15 December to 31 March, around 20 snow rooms welcome up to 70 guests, alongside an Ice Restaurant with tables and benches carved from ice, an Ice Bar and an Ice Chapel. The hotel is also home to what it says is the world’s only snow sauna, where steam rises between walls of snow. If you prefer a warmer stay, you can book one of the 39 heated glass igloos, where an Aurora Alarm buzzes when the northern lights appear above your bed.
Not ready to sleep at -5°C? Good news: all three hotels can also be visited during the day. An entrance ticket costs 395 NOK (≈ €38) at Sorrisniva, 325 SEK (≈ €29) at ICEHOTEL, and 35€ at the Arctic SnowHotel.
