瑞典冰酒店

Think you’ve had a cold winter? Try visiting the Icehotel—a frosty hotel hugging the Torne River in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, 124 miles above the Arctic Circle—for esoteric bragging rights. Icehotel is just that, a venue built of massive blocks of ice harvested from the Torne River when its water flow slows during winter months. The first iteration was conceived by Yngver Bergvist in 1989 and Icehotel has been celebrated ever since as a multi-hyphenated art gallery, events space, and lodging location. Come spring, the structure melts. But in the meantime, temperatures may drop to 23 degrees Fahrenheit, but the hospitality is extraordinarily warm.

This year, the international coterie of guests entered a structure built from 550 tons of ice by 76 people in six weeks. Interiors include a ceremony hall, meeting rooms, a cinema, a trio of restaurants, specialty bar, swimming pools, and an array of accommodations including 12 art suites. As if Icehotel as a whole weren’t already sui generis, these new features add a different kind of uniqueness. Each room exhibits an ice sculpture by artists who, under the guidance of creative director Luca Roncoroni, all hail from all points of the globe: Ukraine, South Korea, Spain, France, South Africa, Bulgaria, Canada, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia. Imagine, for example, guest quarters defined by zig-zag walls or sleeping in the company of a rhinoceros, soaring birds or a grandmother figure knitting. Sleep, by the way, comes when snuggled warmly in a thermal sleeping bag covered by reindeer skins.

Explore Design Details In The Icehotel 

Whoops Wrong Room! by Anna Sofia Maag, Sweden.

Interested in more experiences? Icehotel offers a slew of them. Try snowmobiling, the sauna ritual, dog sledding, or a tour of the Northern Lights to heighten the immersion exercise. As for dining, restaurants introduce a whole new culinary repertoire with several of the courses served on ice.

Still more options exist to make this a year-round property. During spring, when the winter’s hotel has melted back into the river, part of it remains so visitors can get a taste of the ice and snow. Icehotel 365 is a permanent structure with an ice hall, ice bar, and experience room enabling a deep dive into the hotel’s storied history.

Those with cold feet craving a room or suite with temperatures above the freezing mark can check into any one of 44 traditional hotel rooms, each furnished with traditional materials and a calming white, gray, ecru palette, an apartment-like “Arctic Cabin” that is Scandinavian inspired with whitewashed wood paneling and birch details, or even some outdoor tents. Whatever the choice, this inimitable site gives new meaning to the phrase: four seasons.

Discover Icehotel Theme Rooms

Icehotel 365 is a permanent structure.

Dancers in the Dark, by Tjåsa Gusfors and Patrick Dallard.

Zig and Zag by Nicolas Triboulot and Clement Daquin, France.

Don’t Get Up, a deluxe art suite by Wilfred Stijger and Edith van de Wetering.

The Breach, a deluxe suite by Annie Locke Scherer and Tobias Kiefer at the Icehotel 365.

The Ice Are The Window To The Soul by Tim Linhart and Giovanna Martinez.

Come Warm Up, by Isabelle Gasse and Joelle Gagnon.

Not A Fan Of The Cold? Check Out These Alternative Options

Lavvu tents next to Icehotel 365. Photography by Rebecca Lundh.

Soaking up invite guests to unwind in Icehotel 365.