A Guide to Constructing an Ice Hotel

In the small Arctic town of Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, twilight dominates the day during this season. Set against a breathtaking, ever-changing sky painted in hues of pink and purple stands a unique building that blends the elegance of a modern nightclub with the charm of a futuristic igloo: Lapland’s legendary IceHotel, the largest and most enduring luxury hotel entirely crafted from ice.

Built each year on the untouched shores of the Torne River, the IceHotel is now in its 23rd edition. In the late 1980s, Yngve Bergqvist, who organized summer rafting trips on the Torne, collaborated with ice sculptors to create a winter attraction. This led to the creation of an ice gallery—a small igloo on the frozen river showcasing art. A few years later, a daring group requested to sleep in the igloo. Their enthusiastic feedback inspired Bergqvist to construct a full-fledged hotel. The inaugural IceHotel opened in the winter of 1989-1990. Today, it welcomes 60,000 visitors annually, offering stays in 65 rooms, including 15 exclusive “art suites” featuring unique designs like a UFO-themed room and a magical forest, crafted by international artists.

Staying at the hotel feels akin to camping in a walk-in freezer, with the interior temperature holding steady at 23 degrees Fahrenheit. Even the bedframes are sculpted from ice, though a mattress, reindeer hide, and a warm sleeping bag ensure a surprisingly comfortable night’s rest. In the lobby’s Ice Bar, guests bundle up in heavy coats, thick gloves, and snow pants. Nearly every surface, including the cocktail glasses, is made of shimmering ice, with only a few cushions providing a hint of softness.

The hotel embodies the minimalist elegance characteristic of Scandinavian design. Its icy architecture creates a tranquil atmosphere, even when bustling with visitors. During my visit on a strikingly clear and frigid winter week, the most fascinating aspect was the behind-the-scenes activity: the IceHotel team was already meticulously preparing for next year’s construction. Each year, the hotel requires 1,000 tons of pristine river ice and 30,000 cubic meters of a snow-ice mixture called “snice.” In a few months, everything from the king-sized ice beds to the bar stools will melt and return to the river.

THE BIG FREEZE

Constructing the ice hotel is less of an annual event and more of a continuous cycle. The process begins around November, when the river freezes. Production manager Alf Kero and his team mark a 14,000-square-foot area of ice using red plastic rods, typically used for road marking. Throughout the winter, they carefully tend to this section, which will serve as the foundation for the next year’s hotel.

Over the winter, the village is typically covered by about two meters of snow. However, workers use a front-end loader to clear this specific section of the river, preventing snow accumulation. This method encourages the ice to form downward into the calm river waters rather than upward, producing ice that is exceptionally clear, free of bubbles, and flawless. This pristine, glass-like ice has become the hotel’s signature feature.

During December, when the sun remains below the horizon, the entire river, which is over 60 feet deep, freezes completely. This abundance of ice makes Jukkasjärvi 10 to 20 degrees colder than Kiruna, a mining town just 11 miles away. By February, as daylight increases, the river begins to thaw from the bottom up. This signals the team to prepare for harvesting ice for the next year’s hotel, carefully tracking its thickness. Once the ice reaches about three feet thick, typically in early March, the harvest commences.

BUILDING BLOCKS

The ice section is divided into 20-square-foot grids, and the team cuts the ice using a custom vertical saw attached to a front-end loader, designed in collaboration with a local construction company. Each massive block, weighing nearly two tons, is extracted with a forklift. “The river’s current is mild where we harvest,” Kero explains, “but the ice can be slippery, and strong winds are common. Proper safety gear and teamwork are essential to ensure safety.” In total, the team collects 5,000 tons of ice this way.

After extraction, the rough top layer of each block is removed, and the ice is sorted by clarity. The clearest blocks are reserved for crafting hotel rooms and bar glasses, used in the IceHotel’s bars in Stockholm, Oslo, and London. During the summer, when temperatures rise and the sun barely sets, the ice blocks are stored in massive sub-zero warehouses.

Even in the summer, the IceHotel remains accessible. Currently, the production team is constructing an IceBar and sample rooms within the hotel’s expansive art center, which opens annually. After completing the ice harvest, the team shifts focus to planning the next winter’s hotel. “The initial phase involves creative brainstorming sessions to outline the architectural and artistic vision,” explains Sofi Routsalainen, a member of the Art and Design group responsible for the hotel’s production. Throughout the summer, they select 40 artists from 200 applicants to design the upcoming year’s art suites.

WINTER IS COMING

As winter approaches, preparations for the new hotel’s construction begin. A team of around 100 individuals, including builders, artists, lighting experts, snice specialists, tractor operators, and the art and design group, collaborates on the project. In October, as the river starts to freeze, the production team sets up the site, prepares wall molds, and ensures utilities like electricity and sewage are functional while awaiting colder temperatures. A steel vault support wall is also constructed.

Once the ground freezes and temperatures remain below 19 degrees Fahrenheit for a week, the team begins spreading snice for the hotel’s floor. Snice, resembling the icy buildup in a faulty freezer, is created by spraying river water through snow cannons, producing a mix of tiny ice particles and air. This material is stronger and more sun-resistant than pure ice, with the insulating properties of snow. A hotel made entirely of ice would be colder inside and melt faster in spring.

To build each hallway of the hotel, a series of steel vaults shaped like arches are set up, coated with snice, and left to freeze for several days. Once solid, the vaults are placed on skis and towed away by a tractor. Interior walls are created using the same method. After dividing the corridor into rooms, doors are carved with a chainsaw, and LED lights are added. (There’s no plumbing—guests needing the bathroom at night must head to a nearby heated building. Remind me to share that story later!) Once the rooms are finished, some are stocked with extra ice blocks, which will be transformed into art suites.

For over two weeks each November, the selected artists craft the year’s art suites in the frigid rooms, using chisels and chainsaws to bring their designs to life. By early December, once the reception area, bar, and at least one section of rooms are complete, the hotel officially opens. From then until April, when the structure becomes unsafe, guests enjoy activities like ice sculpting and snowmobile rides. Some even attend one of the 150 annual weddings held in the ice chapel. Nights are spent on the frozen Torne River, gazing at the Northern Lights and appreciating the warmth of a high-quality sleeping bag.