Disclosure
Jade Peak writes about places, experiences, and the people behind them, so hotels, operators, and companies come up often. We have no financial relationship with any entity named in this article. If that ever changes, we'll say so plainly, right here at the top.
We already know some of you reading this are about to add this straight to your bucket list, because that is exactly what happened to us. The moment we discovered a hotel built entirely from ice, sitting in the Arctic wilderness, it immediately earned a place among those experiences that sound slightly ridiculous until you realise you absolutely want to try them. And then there is the small detail that you are voluntarily sleeping in a room kept at -5°C, which tends to redefine your idea of a comfortable night away.
When we first came across it, our immediate reaction was simple: surely nobody actually sleeps well in a room made entirely from ice.
As it turns out, thousands of people do.
What is it all about?
If you have never heard of it before, ICEHOTEL sits in the far north of Sweden, above the Arctic Circle. Each year the hotel is rebuilt from scratch, which means every edition looks different from the last. New artists, new rooms, new sculptures, new ideas. We like to imagine that if somehow ice architecture followed interior design trends, one year it would be all clean Scandinavian minimalism and the next someone would decide the frozen walls desperately needed a retro phase. Fortunately, the artists involved tend to have slightly better judgement than the rest of us.
What Guests Are Saying
We read far too many guest experiences before writing this and discovered something reassuring: almost everyone arrives convinced they won't sleep. Then most people realise the real challenge isn't being cold at all.
Before going to bed, guests are given a thermal sleeping bag rated to around -25°C, which is honestly quite impressive considering that similar temperature ratings are used in serious high-altitude environments such as Everest. Inside it, the system is surprisingly simple: base layers, thick socks, a hat. That is, it is like an onion with a lot of layers.
The most common complaint is actually feeling like the Sahara in August. Many guests say their body stays warm while their face is the only thing exposed to the cold. Not exactly the survival situation most people imagine when they hear the words "hotel made of ice."
Not Just a Hotel
And if things become too uncomfortable, there are always warm spaces nearby. Showers, toilets, changing rooms, luggage storage and, perhaps most importantly, a sauna.
A very welcome invention after spending the night voluntarily sleeping inside a freezer.
The hotel itself feels less like accommodation and more like a giant art project that people happen to sleep inside. During the day, visitors walk through ice corridors and art suites created by international artists. Then, once evening arrives and the doors close to day visitors, the hotel transforms back into somewhere people actually spend the night.
We also discovered you can get married here, which honestly produces the kind of wedding photos that make everyone else's look slightly unfair. And while we have no official data to support this theory, we suspect drinks probably taste slightly better when the temperature outside is below freezing. Not necessarily because it is a wedding, but because at some point everyone starts convincing themselves that another glass is simply a practical solution to the weather.
Most guests recommend staying in an ice room for just one night and booking warm accommodation for the rest of the trip. Even the hotel recommends this. Which feels like a good and honest sign.The good news is that there is plenty else to do while you're there. Dog sledding across the Arctic landscape, snowmobiling, cross-country skiing, northern lights excursions and ice sculpting workshops all form part of the experience. Several travellers we read about spoke just as enthusiastically about the activities as they did about the hotel itself.
In Jade Peak, we think that if someone ever asks you "what's the strangest place you've ever slept?", this is the kind of answer you want to give. Not a story that starts with one too many drinks, a series of increasingly questionable decisions, and waking up wondering where exactly you are. A proper answer. A hotel made entirely of ice.
Originally published at jadepeak.com.
