Photo: Tom Corser
Ever wondered what it’s like to sleep in an igloo? There are eight
ice hotels in the world but arguably the original and the best – the
daddy of all ice hotels, if you will – is Jukkasjarvi’s Icehotel in
Sweden, 200km north of the Arctic circle, which has been going since the
early 1990s. Like all ice hotels, it is reconstructed every year,
mainly using frozen water from the Torne river, which is collected in
the spring (up to 40,000 tons of it) ready for the ‘ice hotel’ season
(between December and April). Everything – absolutely everything – is
made of ice, frost or snow, down to the glasses serving (chilled) drinks
at the (ice) bar. If you’re not a fan of feeling chilly, this could
well be your worst nightmare. But the sub-zero temperatures inside the
hotel feel positively tropical compared to the outside air, which during
the winter season can drop to -20˚C or more. As you might hope, the
beds are equipped with thermal sleeping bags and cosy reindeer skins,
and the suites are pretty spectacular, filled with ice sculptures and
fantastical artwork. But if you choose this as a honeymoon destination,
it is worth bearing in mind that you will need to wear a long-sleeved
thermal vest, a knitted hat, gloves and woolly socks to bed, so in terms
of erotic fulfilment it may not exactly tick all the boxes. You will
definitely need to leave your lacy ‘barely there’ Ann Summers
paraphernalia at home.
That said, the ice hotels have proved popular alternative wedding
venues and there certainly is something special and romantic about these
dazzling arctic constructions. A morning sauna is usually included in
the room rate – and boy, will you need it. You’ll also get a trip in to
the forest in a snowmobile or by dog sled – certainly a different kind
of experience if you fancy a change from the usual ‘sun, sea and sand’
break.
There are other ice or snow hotels to choose from: Kakslauttanen’s
Snow Village is located in Finnish Lapland, Canada’s hotel within the
Duchesnay winter resort, and Europe’s northernmost ice hotel, the Alta
Igloo Hotel in Norway. Lapland is bigger the UK but its population is
under one million – so that’s the place to go for some Christmas-time
solitude and to do some serious ‘chilling out’.
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