Braving the elements at Sweeden's Icehotel

Rooms at the Icehotel in Sweden are rebuilt every season using tonnes of ice from the nearby Torne Rover. It makes for a getaway like no other, writes Shilpa Ganatra.

Sneaking a look at the glacial slab of ice I’m calling bed for a night, it feels every degree of its -5C. The faint blue hue of the lights in the room only adds to its frosty, ethereal atmosphere, as does the silence that pervades the entire 40-roomed block.

I don’t why I expected anything else but the bedrooms are indeed made purely of ‘snice’, compacted snow that acts like ice, with no other structural support or secret heaters.

“Bring an extra fleece to lay around your feet,” suggests Anna, the instructor who’s briefing me on how to survive the night comfortably.

“And bring gloves. You won’t need them when you sleep, but it’s -37C outside and the door handles are made of metal so you’ll burn yourself otherwise.”

A few hours later and undeterred, I’m brushing my teeth in the warmer changing rooms, looking dapper in thermal leggings, wool socks, long-sleeved top and a fleece hoodie, readying myself for the sleep I fear will elude me.

Running through a shock of outside air then into bed, I can attest to this: cosy it is not. All my faith is on the reindeer hide that separates me from the ice bed, and a heavy-duty sleeping bag supplied by the Icehotel, the first of the few that have popped up around Lapland.

Despite my preparation, I’m immediately taken back to the wetter years of the Electric Picnic festival, cold and miserable in my tent with a low-level need for the bathroom that I ignore because leaving my cocoon isn’t worth the discomfort.

If it weren’t for the 4.30am start and the few glasses of wine at dinner, I fear I may never have fallen asleep. At 2am I awake because of the cold, but I fall straight back to sleep.

At 3am my sister, my travel companion, leaves the room momentarily, but I’m so knocked out I don’t hear. At 6am she wakes me to say she’s had enough and is going into the 24-hour warm reception.

Knowing I’ll be subject to the mandatory wake-up call at 7.30am anyway, I put my chilly snow shoes back on, grab my sleeping bag, and follow, chalking it as a win. Now when do I acquire a warm bed?

Since Sweden’s Icehotel opened in 1989, thousands of everyday adventurers have done the same, staying in rooms that are rebuilt each season using several tonnes of ice from the Torne River, just behind the hotel. At first, the Icehotel was created as a means to ensure the town had visitors in winter as well as summer, but it’s proved popular enough to become a global enterprise: its IceBar concept is also found in London and Stockholm, with other pop-ups in cities for shorter periods.

Even in its original home of Jukkasjärvi, well within the Arctic Circle, improvements keep coming. These changes can be small (guests are now given a lanyard with all the Icehotel’s times and information, which is constantly useful) or large: in 2016, the Icehotel 365 opened, which uses solar power from its long summer days to keep a dozen ice rooms open throughout the year.

And given the popularity of Sweden as a destination – the number of Irish visitors has increased by 66 per cent in the last five years – it’s no surprise the amount of extra-curricular activities the Icehotel offers has risen too.

This season is the first for their Chef’s Table experience: an experiential 12-course meal around a cooking station in ‘the Veranda’, which adjoins the restaurant.

Upon entering, I peel off my snowgear (which they hotel provide for free), step into a pair of cosy slippers, and head into the candle-lit, wooden-panelled room that’s appropriated the Danish concept of Hygge.

Alessandro, the chef for the evening, immediately greets each guest with an introduction and a glass of Champagne.

After that, it’s a cosy evening of convivial conversation with the chefs and other guests – a Dutch couple here for her 30th birthday, a Swedish couple celebrating their 25th anniversary – and high-grade gastronomy from the mind of Alexander Meier, formerly of the two- Michelin starred Le Béarn in Geneva.

Jukkasjärvi is loosely translated to ‘meeting point’, so the menu is based around the meeting of cuisines. Reindeer meat combines with the Swedish love of hotdogs in an appetiser course, the flavourful Sami herb of garden angelica is used to garnish potato cake, and cloudberry ice wine is served with dessert of raspberry sorbet… served on a block of ice, of course.

For Northern Lights-chasers, next season offers a drive-where-the-sky- is-clear safari too – and not a moment too soon given the current options are limited to a Northern Lights photography course or a snowmobile experience.

Of course, you can save yourself the €200 and view the lights a few steps away from the hotel: the Torne River offers an expanse with no light pollution.

Between November and March, it’s so safe to walk on that it’s used as a road. However a great deal of patience and fortitude is needed to stay outside for unknown lengths of time, so it’s a real shame the hotel doesn’t offer alerts if the aurora borealis appears in the skies.

That said, I did appreciate a receptionist braving the cold to inspect what I thought was the Northern Lights, which are notoriously more grey than green in real life. “I don’t think it is

the lights,” she says kindly. “I think it’s a large cloud.” The final activity on my agenda is Arctic Yoga Flow, which takes place either in the breathy coldness of the Icehotel or in a warm conference room – it’s luck of the draw.

There’s eight of us today, taking up the end of a corridor in the Icehotel busy with guests visiting the snice-sculpted art within each room. I’m no expert in yoga, but I’m not sure it reaps its full benefit when I’m conscious of being photographed from behind.

Nor when each flow ends with a few minutes of rubbing your toes to stop them from freezing. By the end of the 60 minutes, my thoughts about the whole experience crystallises like the icicle on my nose.

The Icehotel is a fascinating destination that will stay with me for life, and it provides a few tales to regale at the water cooler afterwards.

How to get there

SAS fly direct from Dublin to Stockholm, and SAS and Norwegian fly daily from Stockholm to Kiruna. Prices for indirect flights start at €279.

Where to stay

A night in an ice room in the Icehotel starts at €560. Warm chalet-style rooms start at €260. You don’t have to stay in an ice room to experience the Icehotel.

What to do

Activities include yoga (€15), ice sculpting (€75), dogsledding (€150), Northern Lights photography evening (€150), snowmobiling (€280) and the Chef’s Table Experience (€280).