Category · 4 entries

Ice Hotels

Seasonal hotels rebuilt each winter from snow and clear river ice.

Buildings with a lifespan of one winter

The entries

An ice hotel is not a hotel that gets cold. It is a structure raised from snow and river ice at the start of each winter, carved out over several weeks, used for a few months and then allowed to melt. The four below are the established names, and none of them is quite the same building two years running.

Icehotel, Jukkasjärvi

Jukkasjärvi's Icehotel is the original of the type and still the reference point for all of them. Each winter the structure is raised again from snow and from ice cut out of the Torne River, and each winter a different set of invited artists carves the individual art suites, so no returning guest sees the same building twice. A year-round section, chilled by solar power through the summer, now sits alongside the seasonal halls. Warm accommodation and the usual services stand a short walk away, because nobody spends an entire stay at minus five.

Hôtel de Glace, Québec

North America's ice hotel is rebuilt each winter near Québec City, opening in early January and melting back into the ground by spring. Its halls are vaulted in packed snow with ice used for columns, furniture and the deep-cut wall reliefs; a chapel and a bar with ice glassware are fixtures of every edition. Guests are briefed on how to sleep properly in an arctic bag on an ice plinth, which is less obvious than it sounds. Day visitors outnumber overnight ones by a wide margin.

Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel, Alta

Sorrisniva is built each season beside the Alta River in northern Norway, far enough above the Arctic Circle that the winter sun does not clear the horizon for weeks. The plan is straightforward — a long central corridor with sleeping chambers off it, an ice bar, and a chapel that sees a steady run of winter weddings — and the carving is renewed annually. A permanent lodge nearby supplies warm rooms, meals and the sauna that most guests want immediately afterwards. Snowmobile and dog-sled trips run from the same site.

Lainio Snow Village, Finland

Lainio Snow Village is raised each winter in the fell country of Finnish Lapland and takes a different theme every season, which shapes the carving, the lighting and the layout of its halls. Alongside the sleeping chambers there is a restaurant and a bar under snow vaults, both kept a few degrees below freezing regardless of what the weather outside is doing. Warm cabins are available on the same site for guests who want one night in ice and the rest in a bed that does not require a thermal liner. In spring the whole thing is allowed to collapse.