Daily Day Dream: ICEHOTEL, Sweden

You won’t find any IKEA furniture at this Swedish hotel. The ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, is made entirely out of ice and snow. Choose to stay in an Art Suite (decorated with ice sculptures), an Ice Room (a smaller version of the Art Suite), or the Snow Room, a basic igloo-type accommodation. In every room, you’ll sleep on a bed made of snow and ice, inside a thermal sleeping bag. The room temperatures average around 23 degrees, so you’ll need to burrow under the provided reindeer skins. If you can’t hack the cold, the ICEHOTEL offers warm accommodation options that are made from actual non-frozen materials and feature heat. Don’t expect much privacy, either, as there are no ice-doors on the rooms, only curtains, and guests are woken up at around 7:30 in the morning with a glass of hot lingonberry juice.

There’s no en-suite rooms at the ICEHOTEL. You’ll need to leave your cozy sleeping bag and head out to a separate room that houses shared bathrooms, showers, and saunas, but at least that building has heat!

Prefer your accommodations heated? You can just take a daytime tour of the ICEHOTEL and then stop in for a drink at the hotel’s ICEBAR, for all the fun without the frostbite.

Where is it? Jukkasjarvi, Sweden—200 km north of the Artic Circle for optimum coldness!

Where to stay? If you have a sense of humor, stay in the ICEHOTEL’s“Frigid Dare Suite” (which is designed to look and feel like you’re sleeping in a fridge). You’ll sleep next to snow sculptures of milk curtains and ice egg carvings.

What else should I know? An overnight stay starts around $165.

Who’s it for? Art-lovers, winter fans, Snow White.

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