An Independent Hotel Index

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Four kinds of hotel, described plainly.

Chapter Four

Ice Hotels

Hotels built each winter from snow and river ice, and returned to the water every spring.

An ice hotel is the only kind of hotel in this index that has to be argued for twice — once as architecture, once as a place to sleep. It is built from snow and harvested river ice over a few weeks in early winter, opened for two or three months, and allowed to melt. Nothing is kept. The rooms you sleep in have never existed before and will not exist again.

The practical side is less romantic and worth knowing. Cold rooms sit a few degrees below freezing; you sleep in an expedition-grade bag on a bed of ice covered with hides, in thermal layers, with your luggage stored in a heated building. Bathrooms, saunas and breakfast are elsewhere on the site. Almost every property in this chapter therefore pairs the cold night with a warm one, and almost every guest takes that pairing.

Seasons are short and dates shift with the weather. Everything below is written to character rather than to a calendar; confirm the season directly with the property.

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  1. No. I

    Icehotel

    Jukkasjärvi, Sweden

    The original, and still the most ambitious. Since the late 1980s Icehotel has been rebuilt each winter beside the Torne River from ice harvested from the river itself, with artists invited from around the world to carve the art suites — each one a different idea, executed once, and gone by summer. A year-round section, kept cold by solar power through the Arctic summer, now runs alongside the seasonal building.

    A night in a cold room follows a well-rehearsed routine: you are briefed, given an expedition sleeping bag, and sleep on a bed of ice under reindeer hides while the room holds steady a few degrees below freezing. Bathrooms, saunas and a warm building sit a short walk away, and most guests book one cold night and spend the rest of the stay in a heated room.

    It is a hundred miles or so above the Arctic Circle, which puts the aurora, the dog sleds and the long blue winter light within reach of the same trip. The building's annual disappearance is not a gimmick — it is the whole design.

  2. No. II

    Hôtel de Glace

    Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier, Quebec, Canada

    North America's ice hotel is rebuilt every winter near Quebec City and opens for a season of roughly two months, with vaulted corridors, a chapel used for real weddings, an ice bar and themed suites carved fresh each year. Its proximity to a major city makes it the most accessible entry in this chapter: you can reach it from a Quebec City hotel in well under an hour.

    Many visitors come only for a daytime tour, which the hotel handles well, but the overnight stay is the point. Guests are given thermal instruction, bag and hide, and use the heated pavilion next door for changing, showering and the outdoor spas before turning in.

    Quebec in deep winter supplies the rest — the old walled city, the Carnaval season, and a great deal of snow, all within easy reach.

  3. No. III

    Kirkenes Snowhotel

    Kirkenes, Norway

    Far up in Finnmark, close to the Russian border and the Barents Sea, Kirkenes Snowhotel is rebuilt each December with carved rooms, an ice bar and a restaurant, and is run alongside a working husky kennel and a herd of reindeer. It is the most animal-centred of the ice hotels, and the least polished in the best sense.

    The site also keeps heated glass-roofed cabins on the water, which is how most guests arrange it: a night in the snow hotel for the experience, then a night in a Gamme cabin where the aurora can be watched from the bed. Meals lean hard on local produce — king crab pulled from the fjord is a fixture rather than a novelty.

    Everything here is shaped by latitude. The polar night runs through midwinter, and activities are built around it instead of apologising for it.

  4. No. IV

    Arctic SnowHotel & Glass Igloos

    Rovaniemi, Finland

    Set in the forest outside Rovaniemi in Finnish Lapland, this is a snow hotel with a strong Finnish accent: a snow sauna and ice restaurant alongside the carved sleeping rooms, and a well-drilled routine of sauna, ice bath and warm room that makes the cold night feel less like an endurance test.

    The glass igloos on the same site are heated year-round and angled at the northern sky, with an aurora alarm for guests who would rather be woken than sit up waiting. The mix — one night in the snow, one under glass — is the standard booking and the sensible one.

    Rovaniemi's airport is close, which makes this the easiest of the four to attach to a short trip rather than an expedition.

  5. No. V

    Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel

    Alta, Norway

    Sorrisniva has been rebuilding its igloo hotel beside the Alta River since the late 1990s, and the craftsmanship shows: heavily sculpted walls, an ice bar and chapel, and a set of suites carved to a new theme each winter. The hotel is small enough that the staff know who is staying, which changes the tone considerably.

    It runs as part of a wider lodge operation, so the cold rooms are backed by a warm restaurant, a riverside hotel building and a full programme of snowmobiling, dog sledding and river trips through the season. Alta's position under the auroral oval gives it a long-standing reputation for northern lights.

    Of the five, it feels most like a family-run house that happens to be built from ice — which is an odd thing to be able to say, and the reason it is here.