Ice hotels, if you want to try a hotel concept out of this world.
Ice hotels exist in a number of countries with a cold winter climate like Canada, Sweden, Austria etc. It is counter-intuitive and it is brilliant. It is also hot as in “the thing to do”. You get a hotel room built by ice or “snice”. And very likely the design is top notch and the experience is very different. Are you ready? Do you dare? Let’s look at how it is to sleep in a hotel with below freezing point temperatures – on purpose.
You sleep in warm blankets and exquisite furs. Guests tell us that they sleep like babies in spite all worries to the contrary. As a bonus, ice hotels often have beautiful ice sculptures. and what is amazing is, the hotels are literarily built and torn down every year. There are a few exceptions like an ice hotel in northern Sweden in Kiruna. They use solar energy to cool down the hotel during summers, so they have a year-round hotel going. Quite innovative?
You may even be served dinner from plates and glasses made of ice. This concept is very thorough and true to the whole idea!
“Icebar” from Northern Sweden is a derived concept, already existing in a number of cities around the work. It is a bar as we know it, but with below-freezing temperatures, so this is the place to chill out.
It is “snice” to build ice hotels
The material to build ice hotels, like walls and ceilings, etc. is not “ice” as we know it, and sorry to break any illusion, it is a so-called snice. Snice you may know from artificial snow on skiing slopes. It is simply water cooled down and is a hybrid between ice and snow. It is softer than ice but harder than snow and totally natural.
Ice hotel Sweden
Igloo villages
Another related concept is “igloos” as in Inuit sense know from Greenland and Northern Canada. Snow huts built in a very intelligent shape to prevent it from collapsing with up to 5 rooms. This is taken further by as a few examples Austria and Switzerland, you can find whole “villages”, where you get your very own igloo to stay in for your vacation. Read more about igloos and the fantastic construction, maybe go there someday?
https://vacationtalks.com/brixental-rent-vintereventyr/
Where do I find an Ice hotel?
Here is a very famous ice hotel in Sweden.
The concept is growing, so here is the present (2019) suggestion:
- Canada
- Finland
- Sweden
- Norway
- Austria
Stay tuned for more stories on unusual hotels around the world. Here is one more:
Sleep in a barn on your vacation?
