It’s name is Icehotel32 and it is the largest hotel made entirely of ice in the world but there is a problem: every year it melts and needs to be rebuilt.
The HOTEL that melts every year
# The largest (and most temporary) ice hotel in the world
We are in the small village of Jukkasjärvi, in the north of Sweden, not far from Kiruna, in the magical Swedish Lapland. Here is the Icehotel32: the largest ice hotel in the world.
The name Jukkasjärvi can be translated as “meeting place near the water”, since the village was an important market located on the banks of the Torne River.
And the Torne River has a starring role for the ice hotel I’m about to tell you about.
This river supplies the Icehotel with its ice: in fact, the ice cubes are not created, but simply taken from the river when it is frozen. We could say that the Torne River is used as a kind of quarry.
But what happens when the thaw begins?
# The hotel that dissolves every year: already rebuilt 32 times
As soon as the thaw arrives, the ice hotel begins to melt, in a few days it will be as if nothing had happened and the following year it will start all over again. It seems like a creepy fairytale but it’s not, every year the hotel appears in the same spot and then disappears after a while.
In 2021 it was built for the 32st time, with changes ready to amaze all customers: more than twenty new suites created by important artists and to not miss anything even a room for weddings.
This hotel is rebuilt every year with a particular mixture of snow and ice blocks (over 1,300).
Each time around a hundred people participate in the periodic construction, including builders, artists, designers and electricians.
Icehotel 32 will remain standing until April, after which, slowly, it will begin to melt.
# Sleeping in a room made of ice: even the beds
In the Icehotel32 everything is made of ice: the tables, the walls and even the beds.
But now the most important question: how many degrees are there in the rooms?
In the ice hotel you sleep roughly with temperatures ranging from -5 to -8 degrees centigrade so say goodbye to nights of fire, in the ice hotel there is only space for cold.
The bed is covered in reindeer skins and comes with a thermal sleepingbag that has been tested for extreme temperatures, so yes, it’s cold but you can sleep without a problem.
If you stay at the Icehotel, you will also have included outer clothing: arctic suit, boots, gloves and balaclava.
# The frozen decorations
Credit: @instaworthytravelagent
The hotel lacks nothing: there is a reception, a main entrance hall, rooms and suites, which can accommodate a total of about 100 people.
Inside the hotel there is also a bar where customers can sit and have a drink, we do not recommend hot drinks that could melt the glass.
Who among you would sleep in this ice hotel? What are you waiting for? This is the perfect time to go there!
ARIANNA BOTTINI
