Ice Hotel Adventure in Jukkasjarvi

Someone reminded me that today is the day of writing, so I decided to make a blog post even though I made one yesterday. This post is not about Leonbergers or dogs but about our visit to the ice hotel in Jukkasjärvi in northern Sweden. It was 2005 and the kids were still small. It was the first ice hotel in the world and is the biggest one.

I should say that Jukkasjärvi is located north of the arctic circle and is typically very cold in winter. The ice hotel itself does not have any bathroom, but they have an adjacent wood building with bathrooms, showers, and rooms for anyone who can’t stand the cold for too long. If you are OK with being a  bit cold, you sleep in sleeping bags on top of blocks covered by reindeer hides. Below are some selected photos that I took.

Elaborate beautiful white structure made of ice and snow.
This is the ice theater. It was located next to the ice hotel (not in the picture).

The ice hotel had put out lots of kick sleds, referred to as “spark” for people to use as a mode of transportation on the snow and ice, or just to sit on. As my dad, Stig, was sitting on one of them, our son came up to him and told him “Stig the hotel put out these sleds for children to play with. It is not for adults to sit on.” My dad was so surprised that he just handed him the sled.

He is standing and kicking with his feet to move forward with the sled. He is passing in front of the ice theater.
Our son David with one of the kick sleds called “spark”.
Photo is of a large ice table and ice chairs located in the middle of the lobby, which is filled tall pillars made of ice.
The lobby of the ice hotel. Our kids are sitting around a table of ice. A chandelier of ice is hanging above the table. The light is from fiber optics, so the ice won’t melt.
Another photo of the lobby at the ice hotel. My son David is barely visible behind one of the ice pillars.
My oldest son sitting at an ice table in the lobby.
Photo of men with a machine cutting ice blocks.
They got the ice blocks for the structure and for the art from nearby Torneå river.
Photo of my wife with our three children standing in front of the ice bar where two servers are standing. Everyone is holding glasses made of ice filled with juice.
We started the evening with a visit to the ice restaurant and bar. Everything in the ice restaurant was made of ice, the tables, the chairs, the counter, the glasses, the plates, and the art.
A photo of an ice table and 7 instruments made of ice standing on an ice stage.
This is a photo of the ice instruments standing on the ice stage.
A close up of an ice cello and an ice guitar.
Stig left and Ulla right sitting on an ice bed in their room.
My dad Stig and his girlfriend Ulla came with us on the trip.
We are all laying on top of our ice bed. We are inside our sleeping bags except my head and part of my body is out of the bag.
We are going to bed in our room. I think it was my wife Claudia who took the photo.

The day after I took some photos of the other rooms.

A close up of an elaborate ice bed
An ice room with an ice motorcycle and other ice art.
A very large ice bedroom.
An ice bedroom with an ice statue of a moose.
A long white icy hallway in the darkness.
This was the hallway where our room was located.
We are going on a dogsled tour. The ice theater is in the background, and you can see part of the ice hotel on the right.
You can see ten dogs and the sled with us on top of it. On the left is a kåta, a movable Sami structure (indigenous arctic Scandinavian people). It is similar to a Tipi.
The kids had a lot of fun during the dogsled tour.

Would you stay at an ice hotel?

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Author: thomasstigwikman

My name is Thomas Wikman. I am a software/robotics engineer with a background in physics. I am currently retired. I took early retirement. I am a dog lover, and especially a Leonberger lover, a home brewer, craft beer enthusiast, I’m learning French, and I am an avid reader. I live in Dallas, Texas, but I am originally from Sweden. I am married to Claudia, and we have three children. I have two blogs. The first feature the crazy adventures of our Leonberger Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle as well as information on Leonbergers. The second blog, superfactful, feature information and facts I think are very interesting. With this blog I would like to create a list of facts that are accepted as true among the experts of the field and yet disputed amongst the public or highly surprising. These facts are special and in lieu of a better word I call them super-facts.

60 thoughts on “Ice Hotel Adventure in Jukkasjarvi”

    1. I liked the ice moose too, and there was an ice bear. It was a bit cold, -8 centigrades, but the sleeping bags were very warm if you closed them up. That was not enough for some people though, who walked over to the wooden warm building in the middle of night.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words Sue. You are right I had fun too, and my brother and his family, and my dad and Ulla (it was a family trip). However, my wife was not happy with the cold. The hotel must be -8 centigrade or colder for it to be safe to stay inside, and it was. I can add that this year they open December 15 (a little later), and they usually stay open until early April.

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  13. It looks lovely. I’d like to stay there, but I know myself too well. I’d have to make a dash to the outdoor facilities in the middle of the very cold night. I’ve been in weather colder that -8C and lived to tell the tale, but not for a long time.

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    1. I understand, and -8C is just the warmest temperature allowed. Sometimes you get colder than -40C (which is -40F). However, some people opted for renting a room and sleeping in the wooden building and just visit and walk around the ice hotel. That way they had a regular hotel experience but still could see the art.

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      1. -40F is something I haven’t had to deal with. When lived in upstate New York, I remember checking the thermometer before leaving for school. If it read 20(F), I wore my winter coat. But we never got down to -40. The worst I can recall is maybe -10F, and that was pretty miserable.

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    2. Yes 40 below is miserable. When I did my Swedish army service we slept in tents in the very dark forest, went to the bathroom in the snow, and rode in the back of trucks, yielding -120C with windshield. I would have loved to stay in the ice hotel then.

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    1. Yes I am used to the cold and the sleeping bags were warm if you closed them up. My wife was not able to sleep so she went to a wooden building that was next to the front entrance of the ice hotel. That building had heating, unlike the ice hotel.

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    2. I am not sure I am tough, but I am used to cold weather (northern Sweden) as well as hot weather (Texas), but not everyone is used to cold weather. The most important thing at the ice hotel is you dress correctly and that you pull the sleeping bag over you, even the head.

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  18. Oh my. It’s beautiful, Thomas, and maybe I would have enjoyed the adventure of a stay there when I was younger. Now, I’m not so sure. I’d be hanging out in the warm buildings. Great photos and it looks like you all had a fun time. Thanks for sharing!

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