Category 4 of 4 · 4 hotels

Ice Hotels

An ice hotel is the only kind of hotel with a deliberate expiry date. Each of these four is cut fresh between autumn and midwinter, opened for a season of roughly three months, and then allowed to melt back into the ground or the river it came from. That means the room you book has never existed before and will not exist again. Every one of them keeps warm accommodation close by, because the ice night is a thing most guests do once, on purpose, and then talk about.

The four entries

Ice Hotel Norway

Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel

Alta, Norway

Rebuilt every winter beside the Alta River, well inside the Arctic Circle, from snow and river ice and nothing much else. The hotel exists from roughly January to April and then returns to the water it was cut from, which the owners describe without ceremony as the normal course of things.

Suites are carved fresh each season by invited sculptors, so the reliefs on the walls are a one-year design. Guests sleep on ice beds under reindeer hides in expedition-grade bags, at a steady temperature a few degrees below freezing.

There is a warm building alongside with beds, showers and a restaurant, and most visitors use both — one night in the ice, the rest in the heat. Alta is one of the more reliable places on the map for aurora.

In brief

Rebuilt each winter
Ice bar and chapel
Warm lodge alongside
Alta River

Ice Hotel Switzerland

Iglu-Dorf Zermatt

Zermatt, Switzerland

A snow village built at altitude each season on the Gornergrat side above Zermatt, with the Matterhorn standing in full view from the door. Reaching it means a lift and a short walk, which filters the crowd usefully.

Sleeping is in snow domes rather than a single block — shared dormitory igloos and carved romantic suites, some with a private whirlpool dug into the snow outside. Fondue is served in the evening, which at that temperature stops being a cliché.

The operator builds several of these villages across the Alps; the Zermatt one is the best known, chiefly because of what it points at.

In brief

Matterhorn view
Snow domes
Outdoor whirlpool
Rebuilt each season

Ice Hotel Finland

Lainio Snow Village

Ylläs, Finland

A whole village of snow in Finnish Lapland, rebuilt annually to a new theme — some years cinematic, some years abstract — with a hotel, a restaurant, a chapel and a bar all cut from the same material.

Guest rooms hold ice beds dressed with hides and sleeping bags rated for the job, and every surface is sculpted rather than assembled. Warm cabins sit a short walk away for guests who want a shower and a heated second night.

Ylläs means fells, cross-country tracks and long blue winter light. The village melts in spring, and the following season's design is drawn from scratch.

In brief

New theme each year
Ice chapel
Warm cabins nearby
Lapland fells

Ice Hotel Finland

SnowCastle of Kemi

Kemi, Finland

Built on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia every winter since the mid-nineties, and never twice to the same plan. The castle is a public attraction by day — walls, towers, a chapel, a restaurant — and a hotel at night for those who booked a room in it.

Snow rooms hold sculpted beds and hides; a separate group of warm glass and timber rooms nearby suits anyone who would rather look at the cold than sleep in it. The restaurant serves at ice tables under carved ceilings.

Kemi is a working harbour town with an icebreaker moored in it, so the castle sits within a landscape that takes winter as a practical matter rather than a novelty.

In brief

Rebuilt since 1996
Ice restaurant
Warm rooms nearby
Gulf of Bothnia