Ice Hotels
These halls are made of packed snow and river ice. In most cases the building exists for one cold season and is then put up again from nothing the next, so nothing a guest sees is older than the winter around it. Where an operator keeps a cooled building running longer, that is said plainly in the entry.
Icehotel
Jukkasjärvi, Norrbotten, Sweden
Ice is cut from the Torne river in spring, stored through the summer and used the following winter to build the hall again. Artists are invited to carve the suites, so the interior differs from one year to the next. When the thaw comes, the structure goes back into the river it was taken from.
The operator also runs a second, permanently cooled building on the same ground that stays open through the year, along with warm rooms and cabins, a restaurant and a bar. Anyone booked into a cold room is given a heated room as well, for washing and for luggage.
Opening dates for the winter build shift with the weather and are announced by the hotel rather than fixed far ahead. Write to them for what is standing and what is open before travelling, and for how the cold rooms are used.
- SeasonWinter build, plus a cooled building open all year
- SiteJukkasjärvi, by the Torne river, near Kiruna
- Source seenSeptember 2026
Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel
Alta river valley, Alta, Norway
Snow and ice are packed into arches beside the Alta river each winter, and the building is drawn afresh before it goes up, so the plan and the carving change from season to season. Nothing of it survives the melt. Work starts in the early winter and the hall opens once the shell is finished.
A separate heated hotel stands on the same estate and runs outside the winter months, with rooms, a restaurant and a sauna. An ice bar operates inside the frozen building for as long as it is standing.
Dates for the season are set by the operator and move with conditions. Ask them what is open, how the cold rooms are prepared and what is provided for sleeping, rather than working from last winter's arrangements.
- SeasonWinter build; heated hotel on the same estate
- SiteAlta river valley, outside Alta
- Source seenSeptember 2026
Arctic SnowHotel
Lehtojärvi, Rovaniemi, Finland
The snow building at Lehtojärvi, outside Rovaniemi, is raised new for each winter and shaped by hand from packed snow and ice blocks. Its corridors, bar and sleeping chambers are carved once the shell is standing. By late spring nothing of that season's work is left on the ground.
Glass-roofed cabins on the same ground are heated and are not ice rooms; they run outside the winter months as well. Warm cottages, saunas and a restaurant building stand alongside, so the cold rooms are one part of the site rather than the whole of it.
The winter season begins and ends with snow conditions, and the operator publishes the dates it can commit to. Confirm with the site which buildings are open on your dates and what sleeping equipment comes with a cold room.
- SeasonWinter build; heated cabins run longer
- SiteLehtojärvi, outside Rovaniemi
- Source seenSeptember 2026
Snowhotel Kirkenes
Kirkenes, Finnmark, Norway
The snow building outside Kirkenes is held cold by machinery rather than by the weather alone, and by the operator's own account it stands and takes guests through the year, not only in the winter months. The carving inside is renewed on the operator's own schedule rather than by the thaw.
Warm cabins sit around it above the fjord, with a restaurant, a sauna and a kennel of working dogs on the property. King crab from the same waters is served on the site, and the reindeer kept there are part of the operation.
Because the arrangement differs from the winter-only builds elsewhere, check directly what is open on your dates. The operator will say which rooms are cold, which are heated, and what comes with a night in the snow building.
- SeasonKept cold by plant; open beyond the winter
- SiteAbove the fjord, outside Kirkenes
- Source seenSeptember 2026
This site is independent and reference-only. The cold buildings here work only in their season and are rebuilt from scratch each year, so dates, layouts and carvings do not carry over. Details came from open sources and change without notice. Nothing here is affiliated with the operators named, nothing is sold and nothing is reserved; confirm the season directly with the site.
