ICEHOTEL

A hotel and an art exhibition made of ice and snow at Marknadsvägen 63 in Jukkasjärvi, a village of about 900 people on the Torne River, 17 km east of Kiruna and 200 km above the Arctic Circle by its own account. It began in 1989, when Yngve Bergqvist opened an art gallery of ice called Arctic Hall and let a group of visitors sleep in it; the story page tells it.

There are 2 ice hotels. The winter one is rebuilt each November and December from river ice, with 12 art suites, between 15 and 20 ice rooms, a main hall and a Ceremony Hall, and melts in spring: the 37th, ICEHOTEL 37, opens on 11 December 2026. ICEHOTEL 365, a permanent building opened in 2016 with, by its own count, 2,100 m² of ice art, keeps 9 art suites, 9 deluxe suites and the ICEBAR at about −5°C all year, cooled in summer by solar panels.

Around them stand the warm Kaamos rooms and Arctic Cabins, whose number the site does not print; Tripadvisor lists 127 rooms in all. The hotel has no star rating on Google Hotels and no Key on its MICHELIN Guide page. Read on 15 October 2026, its winter and art-suite pages say over 200 creators apply each year, the ICEHOTEL 365 page gives the solar system 875 m², and the sustainability page puts the ice cut from the river to build the hotel at around 5,000 tonnes.

10 types on the hotel’s guide to its rooms, in 3 groups. In the winter hotel, December to April: the Ice Room, with 2 to 4 beds, and the Art Suite, each by different artists; both have a curtain for a door, no bathroom and no published floor area. In ICEHOTEL 365, all year: the Art Suite 365 of 27 m², and the Deluxe Suites of 40 m² with a heated private bathroom: Johka with 2 showers, Hilla with a sauna, Jáuvre with a sauna and a bath.

Warm, all year: the Kaamos Hotel Room, the Kaamos Superior and the Kaamos Deluxe, 28 m² each, on the ground floor of low wooden houses, and the Arctic Cabin of 33 m² with 2 bedrooms and a kitchenette. The booking engine calls the cabin Arctic Chalet; the warm accommodation page says it sleeps 3 and its own page 4.

On 8 October 2026 the engine showed, for a night in July 2027 with little yet sold, 9 Art Suites 365, 9 Deluxe Suites, 16 Kaamos rooms, 16 Superior, 12 Deluxe and 30 cabins. Guests describe the warm rooms as plain and comfortable, and the cabins, with 2 bedrooms and a kitchenette, as cosy.

About −5°C, in winter and in summer alike, on the hotel’s page about sleeping on ice; Booking.com gives −5 to −8°C. Outside, midwinter can reach −30 or −40°C, so the room is the milder place.

The bed has an ice headboard on a wooden frame, a mattress, reindeer hides and pillows. At Riverside, before bed, you are handed a sleeping bag rated to −25°C; the clothing page advises a wool base layer, wool socks and a warm hat, and a thick sweater for anyone who feels the cold. The ice has no sockets.

Many sleep through, and one in November 2025 called it the hottest night’s sleep of a lifetime. Sleep does not come to everyone in the cold: anyone lying awake has the heated Riverside Lobby, open 24 hours, a short walk away. The hotel’s own advice is one night cold and the others warm.

At Riverside Lobby, the heated building beside the ice, open 24 hours: toilets, showers, and saunas for women and for men, the same page says. Ice Rooms and Art Suites have no toilet and nowhere for a suitcase. An Ice Room comes with a locker at Riverside, an Art Suite with a private changing cubicle; guests of the Art Suite 365 also have toilets inside ICEHOTEL 365.

Only the 9 Deluxe Suites differ: a heated bathroom opens off the ice bedroom, and luggage stays there. Guests in March 2026 were glad of it for another reason: until the exhibition closes, it gives you somewhere to sit.

On OpenStreetMap Riverside Lobby is 77 metres from ICEHOTEL 365, a walk of a minute or so outdoors. When you change from a cold room to a warm one, cases wait in the luggage room. The 2 packages priced at 25,995 and 29,995 kronor a person include a luggage service; on other rates guests report carrying their own cases.

Yes. By day the cold rooms are an exhibition. Tickets are bought at Riverside Lobby, with no booking, and the tickets page says the hotel is open daily all year. From 13 April to December 2026 an adult pays 325 kronor, a student or pensioner 225, each member of a group of 10 or more 275; the page prints 39 kronor for a child of 4 to 12, and under-4s enter free with a paying adult.

From 13 April to 30 November 2026 the exhibition is ICEHOTEL 365 alone, open from 11 am to 6 pm, and the ICEBAR inside it takes last orders at 5.30 pm. The winter hotel adds its rooms from 11 December; on 8 October 2026 the page had not yet printed winter prices or hours. Cards only.

Day visitors on Google put the visit at anything from 40 minutes to 3 hours. One in December 2025 called it a frozen art gallery worth seeing even without a night. A guided tour cost 395 kronor in January 2026, a visitor noted.

Something is open every day of the year. ICEHOTEL 365 and the warm rooms are sold every night: on 8 October 2026 the booking engine offered both on every date tried, from that week to July 2027.

The winter hotel is seasonal: “December to April” on the site, “mid December – mid April” on the engine. ICEHOTEL 37 opens on Friday 11 December 2026. On the engine its first night on sale was 11 December and its last 10 April 2027; on 10 December and on 11 April the only cold rooms were those of ICEHOTEL 365. The hotel warns that it is finished in sections, so not every part may be ready for the first guests, and its terms offer a warm room or a refund if the weather prevents a cold night.

Around it the season changes what runs. The Veranda served from 12 December 2025 to 28 March 2026 and reopens on 11 December 2026; The Old Homestead is closed until November 2026 on its own page and until 10 December 2026 on the opening-hours page; the lounge serves from December to April; transfers and dog sleds are for winter. From April to November 2026 the main reception is closed and check-in is at Riverside Lobby.

On the bank of the Torne River at the western end of Jukkasjärvi, whose Sámi name the hotel translates as “meeting place by the water”. Kiruna’s new town centre is 14.1 km and 17 minutes by car on OpenStreetMap’s roads; the hotel gives 17 km to Kiruna.

On foot from Riverside Lobby: the ICEHOTEL Restaurant is 180 metres away, the village shop 644 metres and 9 minutes, The Old Homestead 1.1 km and 15 minutes, the wooden church and the Sámi museum Nutti Sámi Siida 1.2 km and 16 minutes. The hotel’s sauna page puts the Homestead at “about 800 metres”.

It is quiet: forest, river and one road through the village. Google Hotels scores the area 4.9 out of 5 for things to do and 3.0 for public transport. For a supermarket or a choice of restaurants guests go to Kiruna, by taxi or on the local bus.

Kiruna Airport is 14.4 km and 16 minutes by car from Riverside Lobby, Kiruna railway station 21.5 km and 23 minutes, both computed on 8 October 2026 on OpenStreetMap’s roads. The hotel says 15 to 20 minutes from the airport and 20 to 25 from the station; one of its pages puts the airport at 17 km, and Booking.com at 8.7 miles.

The hotel sells seats on a transfer from both, by bus or at times by minivan or taxi, in the winter season only. It must be booked before 3 pm the day before, with the flight or train number, and a missed transfer is not refunded. The fare shows only in the booking form; in January 2025 a guest paid 35 euros a person, against 13 on the public bus.

From December to April you can arrive by dog sled from the airport’s arrivals hall: 75 minutes, luggage sent by car, warm clothes handed over at the airport, from 10,695 kronor per sled of up to 4 people, for guests of 7 and over. Outside winter, guests write of a taxi or the public bus from Kiruna, which one visitor in March 2025 timed at about 30 minutes.

To Kiruna itself: SAS and Norwegian fly from Stockholm Arlanda, in 90 minutes on the arrival page and 1 hour 45 minutes on the Swedish Lapland page; in winter 2026–27 there are direct flights from Copenhagen with SAS and from Düsseldorf with Eurowings. The train from Stockholm takes about 14 hours by one page and about 18, for the night train, by the other.

The northern lights: from late August or September to March. The hotel’s aurora page says the season “starts as early as in August, and ends in March”; its Swedish Lapland page says September to March, with February and March the clearest months. The best hours are clear, dark nights between 9 and 11 pm.

Jukkasjärvi lies inside the aurora oval and has little light pollution. Guests report seeing the lights from the riverbank, from the lounge and from their cabin door; one in January 2026 found the far bank better, since the hotel faces south. Cloud decides: a stay of several days can pass without a sighting.

The midnight sun: from mid-May to mid-July on the summer page, from late May to mid-July, 47 days in a row, on the other. The 2 never overlap, the hotel points out, so one trip sees one of them. In midwinter the sun does not rise above the horizon at all.

The ICEHOTEL Restaurant is in a warm building 180 metres from Riverside: a buffet breakfast from 6.30 to 10 am; lunch from 11.30 am to 1.30 pm, with fish, meat or a vegetarian dish, a salad buffet, soup, dessert and coffee; dinner à la carte from 5 pm, last orders at 8.30 pm. The ice menu has 4 courses, some on plates of Torne ice, in pescetarian and vegetarian versions but no vegan one, and is not served at lunch. The hotel recommends booking a table for dinner; lunch needs no reservation for parties of up to 10.

The Veranda is a chef’s table of 12 dishes that follow the 8 Sámi seasons, Tuesday to Saturday at 7 pm in the winter season, for guests of 16 and over: from 2,895 kronor a person with a non-alcoholic pairing and 3,695 with wine, on the winter activities page read on 8 October 2026. A vegetarian menu exists; a vegan one does not.

The Old Homestead, a 15-minute walk into the village, serves a rustic menu and oven-baked pizza; its own page says closed until November 2026, the hotel’s opening-hours page until 10 December 2026. The lounge behind the lobby serves snacks, hot drinks, beer and cocktails from December to April. For the restaurant, no menu prices are printed on the pages read.

Guests like the food. Of the 55 recent Google reviews that mention breakfast, 84% are pleased. They write well of dinner too, the menu served on ice included; the evening, they say, costs more than lunch: a guest in February 2026 found the lunch buffet good value.

Breakfast, entry to ICEHOTEL and ICEHOTEL 365, and the loan of winter overalls, boots and gloves, for every room, cold or warm, by the hotel’s booking terms. The booking engine lists “Breakfast included for each guest” and “Entrance included for each guest” under each rate. Cold rooms add the sleeping bag, the Riverside sauna and the morning lingonberry juice; Wi-Fi and parking are free.

Lunch, dinner, drinks, transfers and activities are extra, and the lent clothes may be worn only in Jukkasjärvi and on the hotel’s own outings.

The hotel’s own booking engine, read on 8 October 2026, for 2 adults and one night with breakfast: a warm Kaamos hotel room cost 1,795 kronor on 20 October 2026, 5,170 kronor on 19 December and 5,170 kronor on 13 February 2027; the cheapest cold room cost 3,595 kronor on 20 October (an Art Suite 365), 10,095 kronor on 19 December and on 13 February (an Ice Room of the winter hotel) and 4,920 kronor on 3 April 2027.

Cold costs about twice as much as warm, and winter far more than autumn. On 13 February 2027 the same engine asked 12,095 kronor for a winter Art Suite, 10,795 for an Art Suite 365 and from 16,095 to 17,995 for the Deluxe Suites with a bathroom; on 20 October 2026 those were 8,895 to 10,795. For New Year’s Eve 2026 an Ice Room was 14,595 and a Kaamos Superior 7,590, the standard Kaamos room being sold out.

Google Hotels, read the same day, showed a lowest price for each of the 115 nights from 9 October 2026 to 31 January 2027: from 1,256 kronor on 8 November to 14,595 on 31 December, taxes and fees included, as Booking.com’s link on the card shows (a total of 2,180.00, of which 233.62 tax). On the card for 9 October the hotel’s own site stood at 3,595 kronor: that is the Art Suite 365. The engine sold a Kaamos room that night at 1,895, below every other seller.

The engine shows one amount per room, with no tax line, on a “Daily” rate: free cancellation for 72 hours after booking, and the whole stay charged to the card at once.

On 8 October 2026 Google gave 4.6/5 from 5,212 ratings, 73% of them 5 stars; Booking.com 8.9/10 from 2,220, with staff at 9.2, location at 9.1 and value for money at 8.5; Tripadvisor 4.4/5 from 2,494, with location at 4.6, sleep quality at 4.1 and value at 3.8; Expedia 9/10 from 892.

Each has one listing for the whole place, so a score mixes nights on ice, nights in a cabin and, on Google, day visits. Read one by one, the 500 most recent Google reviews with text, from August 2024 to October 2026, speak best of the location and the staff: 85% of those who mention the location are happy with it, and so are 77% of those who mention staff and services. Guests who find the bill fair say a night like this does not come twice; reviews also mention the price of a cold room and the 325-kronor ticket.

What recurs: the ice art astonishes nearly everyone; the cold night is something to do once; the cabins are cosy and the hotel rooms plain; the restaurant is good. Also recurring: the prices of the restaurant and of the activities, which are extra, and the hours with no room between a cold night and a warm one.

Yes, and it is free: “Free parking” is on every room’s list on the hotel’s site, and Booking.com lists free private parking on the premises. The MICHELIN Guide page shows “self service parking (charges apply)” beside “free private parking”; no official page mentions a charge. Expedia lists a charging point for electric cars.

Motorhomes can take a pitch for 1,045 kronor for 2 people, with breakfast, entry to ICEHOTEL 365 and the showers and sauna at Riverside, the summer page says; it cannot be reserved.

ICEHOTEL is inland, on the Torne River: 520 km long, one of Sweden’s 4 national rivers, running to the Gulf of Bothnia, as the hotel tells it. In winter the river is the white plain in front of the hotel, where the ice is cut and the dog sleds run; in summer it is for fishing, rafting and the boat to the wilderness dinner.

For swimming, the sauna ritual ends with a plunge in the river, and the hotel suggests the lakes around the village for a dip under the midnight sun. There is no beach with loungers or service.

There is no swimming pool. Google Hotels lists a hot tub among the amenities: what exists are the heated outdoor tubs of the Jukkasjärvi Culture Sauna, in the village beside The Old Homestead, used during the hotel’s private sauna ritual, and the bath in each of the 4 Deluxe Suites Jáuvre. Booking.com describes the same thing: a bookable sauna with a wood-fired hot tub and an ice bath, for a fee.

They are heated, and in summer one of them is filled with iced water for the cold plunge, the ritual’s page explains. The ritual is on both the winter and the summer activity lists, from 4,775 kronor for a private group of 1 to 6. No water temperature is given.

No spa in the usual sense: the site has no treatment rooms and no massage list. What there is: saunas for women and for men at Riverside Lobby; a private sauna in the 8 Deluxe Suites Hilla and Jáuvre; and the Jukkasjärvi sauna ritual.

The ritual takes 2.5 hours at the Jukkasjärvi Culture Sauna, which the hotel calls the cradle of the Swedish Sauna Academy: 10 steps with a guide, 2 saunas, tar soap, an ice plunge in the Torne and the heated outdoor tubs, with finger food, a towel, a bathrobe and spa products. You walk there yourself, about 15 minutes, and bring swimwear.

The Riverside sauna is on the list of what every cold room includes, from the Ice Room to the Deluxe Suites; the warm rooms’ lists leave it out. A motorhome pitch includes it too. A day ticket covers the ice exhibition only: no day pass to the saunas is published.

The sauna ritual is a paid activity that anyone can book, guest or not. Bringing your own alcohol into a sauna is forbidden by the hotel’s terms.

Riverside Lobby is open 24 hours a day all year, the tickets page says, and no separate hours are printed for its saunas, which need no booking. The sauna ritual is reserved for a set time; children under 13 must come with an adult, and the cold plunge is not advised in pregnancy or with heart disease.

None on the pages read: no massages, no facials, no price list. The Deluxe Suites are supplied with “organic Arctic spa products”, and the sauna ritual with locally made ones by C/O Gerd.

At the hotel: a shop at Riverside selling base layers, hats and wool socks; the Experience Room in ICEHOTEL 365, with films on the hotel’s history; an ice-sculpting class all year, from 795 kronor; a tour behind the scenes to the ice store and workshop, 1.5 hours, from 495 kronor; and 3 meeting rooms for 10, 16 and 65 people.

In winter: dog sledding from 2,050 kronor, the northern lights safari by snowmobile from 2,795 (drivers must be 18 with a car licence), reindeer visits, cross-country skiing. In summer: rafting, fishing, a challenge park, walks and the wilderness dinner from 1,995 kronor. Guests rate the guides highly; one Swede in February 2026 reckoned about 4,000 kronor for 2 per outing.

The packages page lists about 10. ICEHOTEL 37 Opening, from 9,995 kronor: 2 nights for 2, one cold and one warm, with an ice-sculpting class and a drink at the ICEBAR. The Winter Package and Northern Lights Winter, from 1 December: a cold night, a warm night, dog sledding and the snowmobile aurora safari. Northern Lights Autumn, from 15 September: a night in ICEHOTEL 365, a warm night, the ice menu and a northern lights dinner at a wilderness camp. There are Christmas, summer and birthday packages too.

The terms: the full price is charged at booking, with free cancellation for 72 hours. Cancellation insurance costs 895 kronor a booking and is never refunded; with it, from 1 December to 13 April, a room can be cancelled free until noon 2 days before arrival. Without it, once the 72 hours have passed, the winter stay is charged in full. From 14 April to 30 November a room without insurance can be cancelled free until noon 3 days before.

Yes: about 80 ceremonies a year, most of them in the Ceremony Hall of the winter hotel, which is carved anew each year, stands from December to April and seats 35 to 40 guests on benches of ice. Ceremonies are civil or religious, and the hall also takes vow renewals, christenings and naming ceremonies, the weddings page says; same-sex couples are welcome.

The Arctic Wedding package comes in 3 sizes, for up to 10, 20 or 40 guests, and nothing can be taken out of it: the ceremony, a coordinator, a dog-sled transfer from the airport, winter clothing, a rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, the bouquet, the wedding dinner, a northern lights safari and a warm night. Prices are on request. Couples from abroad must send a certificate of no impediment, passports and birth certificates at least 14 weeks ahead.

Yes. On 31 December the ICEHOTEL Restaurant serves a festive dinner, with a vegetarian version, to be booked ahead; The Old Homestead keeps its usual menu. Afterwards each guest is given a flying lantern to release from the river’s edge, the holidays page says. The dinner’s price was not on the pages read.

The Arctic Reset package for 30 December 2026 to 1 January 2027 costs 29,995 kronor a person and has 14 places: a dog-sled transfer, a northern lights safari with dinner and a night in an Arctic Cabin, then ice sculpting, a snowmobile tour, dinner at The Veranda and the night of the 31st in a Deluxe Suite of ICEHOTEL 365. On Christmas Eve the restaurant serves a Christmas version of the ice menu.

No. Golf appears on none of the hotel’s pages; what it sells are the outings of river and forest listed for winter and summer.

Children are welcome. They may sleep in the ice rooms and suites, though the hotel recommends they be over 7; dog sledding is from 5 and the sled transfer from the airport from 7. The Veranda takes guests from 16. For a day visit a child of 4 to 12 pays 39 kronor and under-4s go free.

Booking.com charges children of 13 and over as adults and prices an extra bed at 300 kronor a night. A Kaamos room takes one extra bed, by the hotel’s pages, where Expedia says rollaway beds are not available. Families write most often about the ice slide in the ICEBAR.

Yes, in 2 room types: the Kaamos Hotel Room and the Kaamos Superior are marked “dog friendly” on the hotel’s pages, the Kaamos Deluxe and the Arctic Cabin “dogs not allowed”. Booking.com’s fine print adds a charge of 300 kronor a stay and asks for notice well ahead, since few rooms take pets; Expedia gives 300 kronor per room per stay. Nothing on the site says a dog may enter the ice.

Warm rooms: from 3 pm, and out by 11 am according to Booking.com and Expedia. Cold rooms: from 6 pm, when the exhibition closes to the public; before that you are given a locker or changing cubicle at Riverside. Expedia has check-out from cold rooms starting at 7.30 am, and guests report leaving them early in the morning. For warm rooms, do not count on getting in before 3 pm: guests in December 2025 and January 2026 write that the time is not brought forward.

In winter the hotel lends snowmobile overalls, warm boots and gloves with any room. You bring what goes underneath: a wool base layer, a fleece or wool mid-layer, several pairs of wool socks, a hat that covers the ears. Its clothing page advises shoes a size too large, for thick socks, and warns of −30°C; the seasons page says −40°C. In March and April bring sunscreen, for the glare off the snow. A guest in January 2026 adds flip-flops, for the shared showers. The pages read print no dress code for the restaurants or The Veranda.