Ice Hotels

Every winter, the Torne River supplies the building material. Its ice is harvested, stored and carved into a new hotel at Jukkasjärvi, about 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle. By spring the walls are melting back toward the water they came from.

Artists chosen each year design the art suites, so no two seasons look alike. Inside the ice, rooms hold at roughly minus five degrees, and guests sleep in thermal bags laid over reindeer hides. Icehotel 365, a permanent part of the complex cooled by solar power, keeps ice suites and an ice bar open in summer. Warm rooms and cabins nearby take care of the nights in between.

• Torne River ice
• Rebuilt each winter
• Artist-designed suites
• Icehotel 365