By DPA
Kiruna (Sweden) : In Lapland, the winters are long and cold and if there is anything in abundance, then snow and ice are it. The stuff can be used not only to build snowmen, but entire buildings too – and not just little Eskimo-style igloos.
More and more often, real hotels of snow and ice are coming up, such as in Jukkasjarvi, in northern Sweden above the Arctic Circle. In Kemi in Finland and most recently in Hunderfossen Winterpark, near Lillehammer, Norway. The ice hotel in Hunderfossen lays claim to being the southernmost one in Scandinavia.
The best-known structure of its kind goes by the name ICEHOTEL and rises anew each year, as soon as the outdoor temperatures are consistently below freezing point.
The hotel is in Jukkasjarvi, less than 20 km from the northern Swedish town of Kiruna. For several weeks beginning in late autumn, the small village of Jukkasjarvi is a big construction site.
Huge blocks of ice weighing about 10,000 tonnes are taken from the Torne river, which flows past Jukkasjarvi and freezes over in winter. The ice, together with 30,000 tonnes of snow, is used as building material.
ICEHOTEL consists of 65 rooms and suites, an ice church, an ice bar, and a sauna that, for obvious reasons, is located in a separate building. Ice artists from various countries come to create the complex. The “ice rooms” are made completely of ice and snow.
So are the “design suites.” What is more, they are all different and decorated with ice sculptures, just like the “art suites,” where the ice designers’ imaginations are also given free rein to decorate the ceiling and walls. All of the beds are made of ice and topped with a thick mattress covered with reindeer skins. Children usually sleep in their parents’ bed.
The hotel is rebuilt every year and always looks different. The disadvantage is that construction cannot begin until the weather is cold enough. The hotel generally opens around December 1 and remains habitable till the end of April. Then it starts to melt.
The Snow Castle in Kemi, Finland, does not open until the end of January and closes during the first week of April. In addition to rooms and suites, it has a chapel and a restaurant made of snow. To take a shower or use sauna facilities, guests can go to a nearby hotel of the traditional kind.
Near Urho Kekkonen National Park, 10 km from the northern Finnish village of Saariselka, lies the Hotel & Igloo Village Kakslauttanen. It has 20 snow igloos and five glass igloos. The latter allow viewing of the Northern Lights. There is also a snow restaurant that seats 150 people. According to the Finnish Tourist Board, the complex is open from the beginning of January until the end of April.
There are also several ice hotels in Norway. Besides the new one in Hunderfossen, there is a hotel in Kirkenes that is now in its second year. The Igloo Hotel in Alta is entering its ninth season already, according to Hilke von Hoerschelmann from Innovation Norway (Norwegian tourist board) in Hamburg.
“Demand rises every year,” Hoerschelmann noted. She said that guests usually stayed only one or two nights, although they could stay longer.
“We don’t recommend that, though,” said Dino Steinkamp, who handles the Nordic countries for the Dertour tour operator in Frankfurt. After all, ice hotels are not meant to be long-term lodgings, he noted.
For one thing, the prices are relatively high – generally 125 euros (177 euros) and upwards for a night. Suites can cost twice as much. Second, the temperatures alone make an overnight stay extraordinary. With the mercury hovering between five and eight degrees below zero centigrade, guests sleep in thermal sleeping bags.
“It’s not a test of courage. Bungee jumping is definitely worse,” Steinkamp said. And if the night-time cold proves too much to take, guests usually have the opportunity to move into normal quarters.
For tour operators, ice hotels are becoming an increasingly important part of tours to northern Scandinavia. Specialists like Nordic Holidays offer the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjarvi, as do Dertour and TUI Wolters. The last named tour operator takes bookings of overnight stays as well as a package tour in which the hotel is a highlight along with a snowmobile safari and dog-sled excursion.
The TUI Wolters catalogue also lists the Igloo Hotel in Alta, where guests sleep in thermal sleeping bags on reindeer skins, just like in the Ice Hotel. Dertour’s winter offerings include the Hotel & Igloo Village Kakslauttanen, the Snow Castle in Kemi, and the Kirkenes Snow Hotel. So you have a choice of cool places to stay.