Ice Hotels to Heat Your Passion
Welcome back!
Ice hotels are the latest craze in a recent trend for destination hotels. In essence a colossal-sized igloo turned hotel, they’re magnificent structures of beauty surrounding you in ice carved into furniture and sculpture, and massive blocks that make up the walls, ceilings and floors. With room temperatures of 17 to 23 degrees F (-5 to -8 C) as part of the allure and experience, you’ll need to devise activities to keep warm.
Photo Peter Grant
Diffused and colored lighting coalesce with the elaborate ice furniture, ice bars and structures, creating an ambience of nothing short of glittering, crystalline magical snow castles.
Photo Peter Grant
The hotels are built by rivers where they can draw water, freeze it into ice and cut it into large blocks. More complex large capacity ice hotels take about 5 to 6 weeks to construct. After spring arrives, it all melts away and the hotels must wait once more for winter to rebuild, but Arctic resorts that once had to shut down over winter can now attract tourists year-round.
With tourists craving more than standard fare vacation retreats, ice hotels have become destinations in their own right. Some describe the experience of waking up after a night in an ice hotel as one of utter exhilaration.
Photo Peter Grant
Located On the River Torne, 124 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, is the ICEHOTEL — pioneer and originator to ice hotels. The startup began their days as summer river tourism for whitewater rafting and nature hikes. In 1990, they built a massive 197 square foot igloo — the Arctic Hall — as a site for an art show.
Visitors to the Arctic Hall initiated the trend to sleep overnight in the igloo with their fur skins and sleeping bags. Raves about their thrilling night inspired ICEHOTEL to create a lodge for the next season.
Guests have a drink at ICEHOTEL’S ABSOLUT ICEBAR. Photo Peter Grant
ICEHOTEL now features distinctive rooms, a church and the ABSOLUT ICEBAR, where the bar and the glasses are all made from ice. The hotel is open during the day to visitors who tour the rooms without staying the night, and closes at 6 p.m. for their overnight guests. Luggage is left with a porter, who takes it to a heated storage area. Bathrooms and changing rooms are also heated. Most retire to their rooms by 9 p.m. Guests wear long underwear and sleep in mummy bags on ice blocks covered by mattresses and reindeer skins.
Photo ICEHOTEL / ICEHOTEL Lobby 2007
Guests awaken to a hot cup of lingonberry juice brought to their rooms by hotel staff. For those who can’t cut it through the night, nearby heated chalets and lodges are available. The hotel actually encourages guests to combine warm and cold accommodations, spending their first night in the ICEHOTEL and relaxing in warmth for the rest of their stay.
Basic rooms start at about $169 and go up to $800 for a package that includes an ice sculpting class.
Photo ICEHOTEL / ICEHOTEL Club 2007
ICEHOTEL is renowned for its fleeting art — all crafted from ice. The hotel invites artists and designers to create the entryway, suites and public spaces each season. An Art and Design Jury reviews applicants’ resumes and renderings and selects a group. The artistic directors and ICEHOTEL architect supervise technical issues. As the hotel rebuilds annually, the designs are never the same, creating a unique experience every year.
Although ICEHOTEL draws its water from the River Torne and uses geothermal energy for its electricity, not all ice hotels are environmentally friendly. Some even use electricity to make their ice.
Photo ICEHOTEL / ICEHOTEL Lounge 2007
Photo ICEHOTEL / ICEHOTEL Stained Glass Bedroom 2007
Photo ICEHOTEL / ICEHOTEL Church 2007
Sources: How Stuff Works and ICEHOTEL
Tags:bizarre holidays ice hotels ICEHOTEL odd tourism unusual vacations
Are these pictures real? I am really amazed
wow Deborah !!!
but this takes the cake brrrr
that’s incredible….I thought our underground houses at Coober Pedy were pretty unique
ps have dugg
How amazing! An open fire would complete the picture
I agree Kim, thee Coober Pedy cave houses are pretty special too. I think there are shops and at least one hotel underground too.
Hi! I´m Mariano from que-curiosos.blogspot.com
I´ve made a new post!
It´s interesting, pass if you want to…
Nice blog! Bye!
These pictures are great. I would love to see that hotel. When I was in New Zealand, I went to an Ice Bar…you could only stay in there for about a half hour and you had to wear those parkas. But it was pretty cool. I’ve always liked ice sculptures, art, etc. I can’t imagine sleeping there, though. BRRRRRRR.
Great blog. Very interesting assortment of subject matter. I will be back.
http://www.ithappenedinplainfield.com
Yes Myspace, these photos are very real. You can see more from the link to ICEHOTELS at the bottom of this post.
That’s the first I’ve heard of the underground homes at Coober Pedy, Kim, I’ll have to check them out. And thanks!
An open fire would be beautiful Sue, but I’m not so sure it would be beneficial to the surroundings in the hotel
Thank Mariano, you have an interesting site, But many of us are unable to read it since it is not in English. Have you considered installing the translator widget as I’ve mentioned before? It would increase your readership.
That must have been quite an interesting experience for you Henson. There is an annual winter festival in Quebec, Canada where they bring in artists to compete for ice sculptures. It’s quite amazing. Thank you, great to have you on board here
[...] points posted 1 day ago by all_ways_thinkincomment1159.Ice Hotels to Heat Your Passion (lifeinthefastlane.ca)3 points posted 1 [...]
Man… If it really hurts to get your tongue stuck to a frozen light pole, then imagine of all the parts of your body that could really hurt in a place like this…
WOW, thats crazy. I like the pics also, however still to cold for me to enjoy the night there.
I don’t even care to think about that one Texas
It wouldn’t be my cup of tea either Dallas. Give me a balmy beach any day for vacation
So the lights and stuff are from actual electricity, or is it some non-electrical effect? I just really need to know if my Play Station will work here – LOL
From what I could tell, the ICEHOTEL is fully powered, Cory. Haha, we couldn’t truly call it a vacation without our games could we? I couldn’t live without my laptop with me as well
This looks like the place Superman went to when he was trying to talk to his expired parents! I don’t know about spending the night here, I mean, it might be cool to walk through like how you do a museum, but I don’t know about spending a whole weekend and actually falling asleep on those crazy looking ice beds, hope they got extra blankets! … and yea, I completely hear you on the Play Station – need the games – LOL
Haha, it does seem a lot like Superman’s homeland doesn’t it Game? I’m with you, I’d much sooner simply take the tour
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These ice hotels look fantastic on the eye but realistically they are cold and miserable. I was in an ice bar. I had to pay $500 to enter. The drinks were cold and everything was bad.
Andy
I nearly choked on my drink when I read you had paid a $500 entry fee Acne. You could have had the use of a room for a night at that. Sorry to hear it wasn’t a great experience for you. I’ll take a tropical vacation any day over one filled with extreme cold
Thank Mariano, you have an interesting site, But many of us are unable to read it since it is not in English.
[...] stories: Amazing Ice Hotel Quebec – Hotel de Glace Ice Hotels to Heat Your Passion Tags:bizatte features Finland Ice Hotel igloo igloo hotel Igloo Village igloos Kakslauttanen Kemi [...]
Stumbled across this while looking for a hotel to stay…. While I don’t think I’ll be staying in any ice hotels soon (can’t take the cold!) they look pretty awesome… fantastic to see how people are so creative at living options!
if i recall there was an episode of dinner impossible where they had to do a dinner in one of these types of hotels. i would agree with many posters, not my cup of tea, but they really are amazing to look at.