Sweden’s Icehotel has become a famous landmark since its creation in 1989, starting as a small art gallery and expanding into a unique hotel experience that has attracted visitors from across the globe.  The Icehotel is rebuilt from scratch each year, so with its 31st design currently being brought to life, it really is a once in a lifetime experience – but what makes this destination so amazing other than it’s stunning craftmanship?

However, though the eccentric experience of sleeping in -5 to -7 degrees is exciting in itself, there’s much more than the Icehotel has to offer those who come and stay. In addition to its newly recrafted design each year, here independent travel specialists Discover the World share the most incredible features that the Swedish wonder has offered its visitors. 

The hotel’s stunning designs

As the snow begins to settle in Jukkasjärvi, northern Sweden, the creation of the 31st Icehotel has begun, with this year’s design being crafted by a total of 19 teams with the involvement of 35 wonderful artists. These teams have created six new Deluxe Suites in Icehotel 365 as well as 12 Art Suites in the 31st winter Icehotel all at a cool minus five degrees. Guests visiting Icehotel from February can expect to see a room filled with typographic art, as well as having the chance to sleep in a quirky forgotten hotdog stand made of ice and snow. 

Previous stunning art suite designs include the magnificent ‘Feline Lair’ in 2019, the ten-foot tall ice mammoth ‘Elephant in the Room’ in 2015 and the stunning ‘Once Upon a Time’ in 2016, which offered an other-worldly atmosphere among the breath-taking sculptures.

Artists Lotta Lampa and Julia Gamborf Nielsen explain "It`s wonderful to be back at Icehotel and work with the most sustainable materials; ice and snow that melt and return to nature. In this year`s art suite, guests will enter an organic world, a potential future with transformation, balance, and reflection in focus." 

The Icehotel restaurant is ranked the top restaurant in Kiruna and named in the top three in Swedish Lapland in White Guide - Scandinavia’s most comprehensible restaurant guide. The culinary team here take influences from nature, creating unique dishes and drinks with flavours such as fir and cloudberries combined with locally sourced delicacies including Arctic char, reindeer, and moose to make the Icehotel restaurant a magical arctic culinary destination. 

Guests can choose from the Ice menu, the a la carte menu, or a 12-course chefs table tasting menu cooked in front of guests at The Veranda, all offering an escape from sub-zero degrees that still allows the ice to take centre stage. Fresh ice from the Torne River is also included within the dining experience, taking shape as the table décor, dishes, and bowls to create a fully immersive experience.

One-of-a-kind day trips and experiences

A stay at the Icehotel is a must for a winter retreat, with so many unique experiences to relish. While celebrating the new year here, there is the chance to enjoy an ice sculpture course using ice from the Torne River, and even take a husky sled ride through the winter landscape. Other arctic activities include a delicious three-course dinner in the wilderness, a snowmobile adventure, a moose safari on horseback, and, of course, the chance to experience the northern lights. 

A different kind of New Year celebration

New Year’s Eve 200km from the North Pole is a unique and special experience to be remembered forever. On New Year’s Eve, visitors can enjoy a specially composed menu in the restaurant with continued celebrations at Icehotel 365’s ice bar, where a toast is accompanied by lanterns sent up into the evening sky to create a light spectacle at the chime of the new year. 

With the 31st Icehotel opening its doors once again, visitors can expect a magical experience like no other holiday in the world at the original winter wonderland.