Ice Hotels

Seasonal hotels rebuilt each winter from snow and river ice, with warm lodging alongside.

Icehotel

Jukkasjärvi, Sweden

The original, rebuilt every December since 1989 from ice harvested out of the Torne river and from snice, a snow-and-air mix sprayed over forms. Artists are selected each year to carve the art suites, so the interior is never twice the same; the structure melts back into the river each spring. A year-round wing, cooled by solar power through the midnight-sun months, now stands alongside the seasonal building. Warm accommodation, a sauna and changing rooms are separate.

Setting Torne river, Swedish Lapland Season Seasonal hall rebuilt each winter; year-round wing Of note Art suites carved by invited artists

Hôtel de Glace

Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Quebec, Canada

North America's ice hotel, raised each January near Quebec City and open for roughly three months before it is taken down. Vaulted corridors are cut from snow, with ice furniture, an ice chapel that is genuinely used for weddings, and a bar where the glasses are ice too. Guests are briefed on sleeping in an arctic bag on an ice bed, and most spend part of the night in the heated pavilion — which is normal rather than a failure.

Setting Valcartier, near Quebec City Season Roughly January to March Of note Ice chapel and vaulted snow corridors

Kirkenes Snowhotel

Kirkenes, Norway

Built each winter on the shore of a fjord in the far north-east of Norway, close enough to the Russian border that the town has always been a crossing point. Rooms are carved and decorated with ice sculpture, and the site also keeps timber cabins with glass walls for guests who would rather watch the aurora from a warm bed. There is a husky kennel and a reindeer herd on the property, and the fjord itself is used for king crab fishing in season.

Setting Fjord shore, Finnmark, Norway Season Rebuilt each winter Of note Huskies, reindeer and glass cabins on site

Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel

Alta, Norway

Raised annually beside the Alta river, which is best known for the rock carvings a little downstream. The igloo hotel is compact by comparison with the Swedish original — carved suites, an ice bar, an ice chapel — and it sits next to a conventional year-round lodge, so a stay can be split between the two without moving site. Alta's location makes it a common base for aurora watching from December through March.

Setting Alta river, Finnmark, Norway Season Rebuilt each winter beside a year-round lodge Of note Ice bar and chapel; aurora base