Like the rest of ICEHOTEL, ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL Jukkasjärvi, takes on a new guise every year.
By Ruksana Hussein
If you can build a hotel of snow and ice in a village 200 kilometers above the Arctic Circle, -nothing is impossible. Those are the famed words of Yngve Bergqvist, the founder of ICEHOTEL.
ICEHOTEL is a hotel in Sweden built entirely from ice and snow found in the region each winter. The first snow building was built in February 1990 – a 60 square meter arched building for an art exhibition. The first guests stayed overnight in 1992 and the story goes: One of the clients wanted to visit us with his company. But lodging had run out of availability that particular week and the guests stayed overnight in the snow house. Every single guest had survived a night in -5 C. That’s how ICEHOTEL came about.
This years´s ICEBAR, aptly named Tribute, was designed and built by Elin Julin, Marinus Vroom and Jens Thoms Ivarsson.
This years´s ICEBAR, aptly named Tribute, was designed and built by Elin Julin, Marinus Vroom and Jens Thoms Ivarsson.
Located in Jukkasjärvi next to the river Torne, the ICEHOTEL afford each visitor a chance to experience the cold arctic climate, the natural phenomena of the Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun. Jukkasjärvi is a small village with only 1000 inhabitants, 200 km north of the Arctic Circle. Jukkasjärvi means meeting place, one where locals gathered once a year to swap and sell crafts, leather, fish and meat to vital goods like salt and iron. The water of the free flowing Torne River is among the purest in Europe. The seasonal changes of the Torne River provide the yearly rhythm for people living nearby.
As soon as winter begins, a team of snow builders, architects, designers and artists from all over the world gather under the direction of the ICEHOTEL Art & Design Group to create each year’s version of ICEHOTEL. It’s true; the hotel is built from scratch each year! The hotel features a main hall, several snow rooms, an ice bar and an ice church.
It’s the first hotel I know of that offers cold accommodation and warm accommodation! Let’s move on to the nitty-gritties of getting here. The closest airport and train station are in Kiruna, between 15-17kms from the hotel. Of course, like any other destination hotel, getting here and booking accommodation is going to set you back a few bucks but it sure will be an experience well worth the effort. Activities at the hotel include snowmobiling, horse riding, fishing, hunting, trekking, reindeer sleds and more. The best time to go for a winter experience is between December and April so you can truly witness the manmade marvels of ice and snow crated by the very talented and artistic architects.
This season, winter 2016, will be the 15th year celebration of the existence of ICEHOTEL. The hotel is also conscious of its dependence on natural resources and gives back to the environment, part of the efforts being to accomplish CO2 negative status. #wishlist for 2017.
-RH
