Do You Snow How To Vacation? Sweden’s Ice Hotel Is Resurrected Yet Again!
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Can you imagine building the same hotel every year over and over? Well, that’s precisely what the folks over in the old village of Jukkasjärvi, Sweden do to create their famous “Ice Hotel” every year.
Each year, a new design with new suites and a brand new reception area is created. This hotel is made entirely of snow, sculpted blocks of ice and some steel framing. The hotel is constructed annually by scratch and is held together using a substance known as snice, the snow equivalent to mortar.
“This may not be the vacation for everyone, but those who venture to the snow will truly experience the adventure of a lifetime!”
This temporary structure exists each year between December and April and is the world’s first ice hotel, however other countries such as Canada with its “Hôtel de Glace”, Romania’s “Bâlea Lake Ice Hotel”, and Norway’s “Ice Lodge” have followed in its footsteps.
The crystal clear ice comes exclusively from the Torne River and is added to 30,000 tons of pure snow, compliments of Mother Nature.
Every year the Ice Hotel has an Ice Chapel, an ice sauna and sap, an art exhibition hall, a movie theater and of course the famous “Absolut Ice Bar” that attracts people from all over the world, whether they’re staying at the hotel or not; and just like the hotel, the bar is resurrected every year with a whole new design…even the drinks are newly invented, but still served in glasses made of ice to eliminate the need for ice cubes…genius!
The hotels sleeps over one hundred guests and every guest room is designed differently. Packages for a 6 day/5 night stay will set you back roughly $3000 per person.
The hotel’s temperature ranges from -4 and -9 degrees centigrade and fluctuates depending on the number of overnight guests and the temperature outside.
The hotel provides overnight guests with thermal sleeping bags on special beds made of ice and snow which are then covered in reindeer skins. Suites come with unique ice art and sculptures, and cabins even have televisions and phones!
When you’re not freezing your ass off in the main stay…venture out on any number of tours that include; dog-sledding, a snow-mobile safari that takes you to feed reindeer, as well as an amazing Northern Lights tour complete with an “Aurora Borealis” slide show.
This may not be the vacation for everyone, but those who venture to the snow will truly experience the adventure of a lifetime!
