Ice Hotel

I visited Kiruna in January 2014. While there for a long weekend, I was able to go to the Ice Hotel, dog sled, tried cross country skiing in search of the elusive Northern Lights, and checked out the town/hostels/hotels. Clicking on the different activities will bring you to their respective webpages.

The Ice Hotel is located in Jukkasjärvi, which is 200 km above the Arctic Circle and only 15 km from Kiruna Airport (17 from Kiruna train station).

The Ice Hotel is definitely worth seeing. It’s a decent bus ride from Kiruna (maybe 30 minutes or so), but well worth it. Click here to find information on how to travel to the Ice Hotel.

Touring the Ice Hotel plus gift shop takes about 1.5 hours. So paying attention to when the next bus arrives is important, so you’re not stuck in the cold for another hour.

For some reason I envisioned a castle at the Ice Hotel and was let down. It’s just a hotel. But an amazing and unique one! The interior doesn’t disappoint. They keep the indoors at -4 C, which was much warmer than outdoors that day (-23 C).

There is also an ice chapel there, where a few dozen people marry each year.

Even in the Ice Hotel, safety is always important.

Each room has it’s own designs, and for a fee, you can pay to spend the night on the ice beds, but I didn’t. Some rooms are more elaborate than others and there may be a price divide between rooms. Going outside to use the restroom—not a fun 3am venture, if that issue arose–is not very much for me. But there is a traditional hotel there as well, along with several cabins–if you’re an Ice Hotel guest, you’re allowed to use their heated showers 🙂

Obviously it’s cool (pun intended) to stay overnight here. But the downsides, besides it being chilly and having to use an outdoor toilet, are that there are no real amenities inside each room. It’s just you (and your partner) and the cold. There are no light switches and they use curtains as doors, so you don’t even have complete privacy. Still, it could be worth it for the experience, but visiting does give you an experience as well.

Another really fun experience is to go to the Ice Bar, which is also elaborately decorated. And ordering drinks will get you an Ice glass (that you’re allowed to keep…for however long it’ll last).

Interesting side-note, if you get a drink without alcohol, it will be cheaper, but the drink will stick to the sides of the glass, whereas liquor doesn’t freeze, and so you have that much more to drink 🙂 Can you tell which one had alcohol and which one didn’t?

Click here to read about dog sledding in Kiruna, click here to read about Cross Country Skiing in Kiruna, click here to read about how to see the Northern Lights, and click here to read about the city and my hotel/hostel accommodation experience.