Ice Hotels

Icehotel stands at Jukkasjärvi in Swedish Lapland, roughly two hundred kilometres inside the Arctic Circle. Ice is cut from the Torne River in spring, stored, and used to build the winter hotel, which is drawn again from scratch each season. Artists are selected to carve the individual art suites, so the rooms are commissions with a shelf life of a few months. In spring the structure melts and the water returns to the river.

Guests sleep on ice beds on reindeer hides inside expedition-grade bags, with warm rooms, saunas and a restaurant in the buildings alongside. A separate year-round section is held cold by solar power through the summer, so part of the operation never closes. Of the six ice entries, this is the oldest and the one that treats its rooms most openly as an exhibition. The village around it is small and the river runs past the door.

Hôtel de Glace is built each winter on a site near Québec City. The plan is drawn again from scratch every year, so the arches, corridors, themed suites and slide are never repeated. Snow is blown over curved forms and left to set, then ice is cut for the walls, the columns and the furniture. When the season closes, the whole structure is left to melt.

Overnight guests are briefed first, then sleep in insulated bags on ice beds, with heated pavilions, a sauna and hot tubs on the same site. Day visitors walk through while the hotel is open, so the afternoon is busy and the night is not. Québec City is close enough that a night here works as an addition to a city stay rather than a trip of its own. It is the most straightforward ice hotel to reach from a major airport.

Sorrisniva sits on the bank of the Alta River, a short drive from the town of Alta in Norway's far north. The igloo hotel has been rebuilt every winter since 1999, which makes it one of the longest-running in the world. Snow and ice are shaped into corridors, a bar, a chapel and sleeping rooms with carved walls and ice beds. The site is out of town, with forest behind it and open ground on the river side.

A lodge on the same property carries the heated rooms, the sauna and the restaurant, so nobody is expected to spend a whole trip in the cold. Snowmobiles, dog sledding and river trips leave from the site. Compared with the other ice entries, this one leans on its setting rather than its carving programme, and the silence outside is the difference. The aurora season overlaps with the months the igloo hotel is open.

SnowVillage is built each winter in Kittilä, in Finnish Lapland, close to the Ylläs and Levi ski areas. The layout, the footprint and the theme all change from season to season, so returning guests do not get the same building twice. Snow rooms, an ice bar, a chapel and a restaurant are carved into the structure, and past themes have been drawn from films and books.

Guests sleep in snow rooms held at a steady temperature below freezing, with warm cabins and glass-roofed accommodation on the same site for the nights either side. The village also opens to day visitors, and the two flows are separated by the hour rather than by a door. Among the ice entries, this is the one where the theme shifts most from year to year. The season ends when the structure does.

The Hotel of Ice stands at Bâlea Lake, above two thousand metres in the Făgăraș Mountains. It has been built every winter since 2005, using ice cut from the frozen lake it sits beside. The Transfăgărășan, the road that climbs to the lake in summer, is shut for the season, so the last stage of the journey is a cable car from the valley floor. The building is a low ring of ice rooms with a bar and a restaurant attached.

A small ice church is built alongside each year and services are held in it during the season. Guests are issued cold-weather gear and sleep on ice beds under heavy bags. Weather at that altitude can close the cable car for a day, which moves arrivals and departures whether or not it suits you. Of the ice entries here, this is the one where the mountain, rather than the design, sets the terms.

Schneedorf is built each winter in the Ötztal in Tyrol, at roughly two thousand metres. Lifts from the valley carry guests up to the site, which sits among the ski runs instead of away from them. The village is a group of domes joined by tunnels, holding sleeping igloos, a bar and an outdoor sauna in the snow. The whole thing is shaped again from the start every season.

Guests eat in the village, spend the evening inside the domes and sleep on insulated mats under expedition bags. Because the site is on the mountain, skiing runs past the door during the day and stops when the lifts close, which changes the place completely between four and five in the afternoon. Of the ice entries, this is the one tied to a ski area rather than to a town, a river or a lake.