Index / Ice Hotels

Ice Hotels

One hotel, built again every winter from the frozen Torne River, with a permanent building beside it that keeps some ice rooms all year.

1 entry
  • No. 01Jukkasjärvi, Sweden

    Icehotel

    Every winter, Icehotel is built again from ice cut out of the Torne River. Jukkasjärvi lies about 200 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, and the first version went up here in 1989.

    Artists apply each year to design the art suites, so the rooms are never the same twice. Guests sleep on beds of ice in thermal sleeping bags, well below freezing. Beside the seasonal building stands Icehotel 365, a permanent structure that keeps ice suites frozen all year and has warm rooms too. In spring the winter hotel melts back into the river it came from.

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

Why one entry? Hotels built wholly from ice are rare, and most exist for a single season. This list holds the one the index can describe with confidence from year to year, and it will stay that way until another earns a place.