ICEHOTEL Visit
A guided visit to the world-famous ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, including ICEHOTEL 365.
You push through a heavy door and the air changes completely. Not the sharp outdoor cold - something softer and stiller, at around minus five, with no wind and no sound at all. Ice absorbs noise. Your own voice comes back flat and small, and everyone instinctively starts talking more quietly.
Rebuilt from the Torne River every winter, and different every time.
Then you start actually looking. A wall you assumed was frosted glass is a metre of clear river ice with bubbles suspended inside it. A chandelier is hanging above you, cut by hand. Each art suite has been designed by different artists and carved from scratch this winter, and none of them will exist next year - it all goes back into the Torne River in spring and gets harvested again in March. Knowing it is temporary is what makes it hit.
A chandelier cut from clear river ice, and the corridors between the art suites.
By the ice bar you are holding a glass made of ice, your fingertips are going numb through your mittens, and it is genuinely funny. Then you walk out into daylight, get back in a warm minibus, and go to a warm hotel with an actual bed. That contrast - an hour inside a sculpture, then a hot shower - is the whole point.
Every suite carved by hand
Different artists, every year, and all of it allowed to melt back into the river come spring. Ninety unhurried minutes inside at about minus five.
Why we visit with a guide
You can walk into the ICEHOTEL as a ticket holder and see rooms. With a guide you understand what you are looking at: how two tonnes of ice are cut from the river, why the snow and ice mixture holds up an arch, how each suite is designed and carved, and which pieces are worth doubling back for.
We also handle the boring part. The transfer from Kiruna both ways, the timing so you are not there with three coach parties, and your winter clothing set so you can stay inside as long as you like. Then we take you back to a warm bed - you are never sleeping on ice unless you ask us to arrange it separately.
Fifteen minutes outside Kiruna, in the village of Jukkasjärvi, the ICEHOTEL is rebuilt from the frozen Torne River every winter - and every winter it is different. We visit it with a guide, so you understand what you're looking at: how the ice is harvested, how the art suites are carved, and why the whole thing is allowed to melt back into the river each spring.
Your visit includes ICEHOTEL 365, the permanent, solar-cooled wing that stays open all year. Inside are hand-carved art suites, the ice sculptures and ice art gallery, the ceremony hall, and the ice bar - everything from the walls to the glass in your hand cut from river ice.
To be explicit: guests do not sleep at the ICEHOTEL. We visit it as an excursion, and you stay in our own warm 4-star hotel accommodation in Kiruna - which, after an afternoon at minus five indoors, is exactly where you'll want to be.
- Return transport from your hotel in Kiruna to Jukkasjärvi, roughly 15 minutes each way
- A guided walk through both the seasonal ICEHOTEL and the year-round ICEHOTEL 365
- Hand-carved art suites by different artists, the ice art gallery, the ceremony hall and the ice bar
- The story of how the ice is harvested from the Torne River and how the structures are built
- Around ninety unhurried minutes inside at about minus 5 °C, with warm capes available on site
- A warm 4-star hotel bed back in Kiruna afterwards, not an ice one
- Duration
- Approx. 3 hours, including transfers
- Difficulty
- Easy - indoor walking at around minus 5 °C
- Season
- December to March
- Included in the Feel Good Week
ICEHOTEL Visit in Kiruna - your questions answered
No. Our guests sleep in a warm 4-star hotel in Kiruna every night of the week, and the ICEHOTEL is a guided daytime visit. That is a considered choice: after a full day outdoors in the cold, almost everyone would rather have a hot shower and a normal bed. If sleeping on ice is something you have always wanted to do, tell us and we will look at arranging one night separately as an add-on.
Around minus five degrees Celsius, all year, in both the winter ICEHOTEL and the permanent ICEHOTEL 365. It sounds harsh but feels mild, because there is no wind and no damp - most guests find it more comfortable than standing outside. You wear your winter clothing set inside, and capes are available on site. Fingertips get cold before anything else, so keep your mittens on between photographs.
About three hours door to door, with roughly an hour and a half inside. That is long enough to walk the art suites, the ice gallery, the ceremony hall and the ice bar without rushing, and about as long as most people want to be at minus five. If you want longer inside, tell your guide on the day and it is usually possible.
The photographs do not carry the two things that make it: the silence and the scale. Ice absorbs sound completely, so you walk into a stillness that is genuinely unusual, and a wall you assumed was frosted glass turns out to be a metre of clear river ice with bubbles frozen inside it. It also changes every year, because it is rebuilt from scratch each winter by different artists and melts back into the Torne River in spring. Guests who go in sceptical are usually the ones who stay longest.
The classic ICEHOTEL is built fresh from snow and river ice each winter and melts away in spring, so the suites you see exist for that season only. ICEHOTEL 365 is the permanent wing, cooled by solar power in summer and open all year, with its own art suites and the ice bar. Our guided visit covers both, and the guide will explain how the ice is harvested from the river in March for the following winter.
This experience is included in The Feel Good Week, our four-night Kiruna package, along with every transfer and the full winter clothing set. Planning details such as flights, packing and weather are on the practical information page.
Every experience in the Feel Good Week
The Arctic is waiting.
Four nights in Kiruna, arranged end to end. You only book your flights.
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