How to Survive Spending the Night in Sweden's Ice Hotel

Find two people who have spent the night in Sweden's Ice Hotel above the Arctic Circle and you will certainly hear two completely different stories about the experience. In fact, depending on the when you visit the Ice Hotel it might be more carved out than usual or even close to melting. It's a process that goes on from mid-December to when the freezing temperatures begin to rise around February or in the spring.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Fly into Stockholm and then take a domestic flight north to Kiruna, Sweden.

2. When you arrive in Kiruna someone from the ice hotel will pick you up or you can opt for a dog sled ride to the village of Jukkasjarvi, 160 miles north of the Arctic Circle, where the ice hotel is located.

3. You will only spend one night in the ice hotel. Any other nights you plan to spend above the arctic circle can be spent in the warmth of the Scandinavian bungalows located alongside the ice hotel.

4. The ice hotel will furnish you with a warm snow suit to wear while there. Remember, it is wintertime and not only is it incredibly cold, but it is only light, and that just means twilight, for about one or two hours a day.

5. At around 5:00 p.m. you will be shown to your room in the ice hotel. The beds are made of ice and there are as many as 50-rooms built from about 30,000 tons of snow and 4,000 tons of ice. You will enter the ice hotel through reindeer-skin covered doors. Inside, in addition to the rooms, there is a reception area, hall of pillars, Iceart exhibition, Absolut Icebar, Icehotel cinema and an Icechurch.

6. After you have discovered your room in the ice hotel, which is lit only by candles and heated only by the snug sleeping bags and reindeers skins on your bed, you can do a bit of exploring. It will still be cold so don't plan to take off your coat as the temperature in the ice hotel is usually a steady five degrees below zero.

7. Shot glasses serving Absolut vodka drinks are made from, you guessed it, ice so enjoy a drink in the ice bar before going to bed. There are many vodka shot choices.

8. Crawl into your sleeping bag and under the reindeer skin and stay warm until morning. Most folks who spend the night in the ice hotel say they actually were too warm by the middle of the night because the sleeping bag and the skins really do work.

Tips & Warnings

• Look for the Northern Lights in this part of the world, you are sure to see it if it is not cloudy.
• If you can't make it as far north as the Arctic Circle then at least get to Stockholm where an ice bar exists in the hip hotel called Nordic Sea.
• Be sure and dress warm and expect freezing temperatures.
• Don't expect to get dressed up here as this is not the place you will wear heels and a dress
• If you don't like the great outdoors then this might not be the trip for you