Imagine a dwelling place which is made completely from ice including the walls, the beds and even the tables and the chairs. Seems too good to be true? Then welcome to the ice hotel in Sweden. The whole hotel is made from ice brought from the Arctic regions. This hotel is located about 200 kms south of the Arctic Circle adjacent to the Torne river. The place in Sweden where the hotel is located is called Jukkasjarvi which means a meeting place. There are different types of rooms available in the hotel and you can visit the hotel’s official website to find out the room facilities and the room tariffs. The concept of this hotel was born in 1989 when they snow architects made a big igloo on the Torne River for exhibition purpose. The visitors who came to see the igloo were amazed at the art galleries made of ice inside the igloo. Many of the visitors stayed back inside the igloo for a night and that’s when the concept of the ice hotel came to their minds.

The snow architects build the ice hotel every year in winter. The hotel stays till spring when the ice begins to melt down. The architects start cutting big blocks of ice on the Torne using special ice saws. The blocks of ice are then transported to the Ice Hotel Art Centre where they are given shape as per the requirements of the rooms. The building of the hotel begins around the month of October. There are about a dozen each of artists and workers who begin their work on the hotel. The ice blocks are then given shapes using chisels and other tools. The arches of ice are supported by ice pillars to make the outer foundation of the hotel.

The interiors of the hotel are made in the cold months of December when the temperatures are well below zero degrees. In this stage the doors, windows, desks, chairs and everything else that is required in a room are created. All the rooms are then decorated in their own discreet way and the ice sculptures reflect the gleaming light giving a beautiful effect. The ice hotel begins to melt down in April but the artists like to preserve the huge chandelier made of ice. All the other ice objects melt away.

In the beginning the Ice Hotel had only one room. However today it is a hotel which has 60 rooms and even a bar serving drinks along with a cinema. In case you want to do an unusual wedding then you can do it in the church made of ice. The beds inside the rooms are made of ice and you have to sleep in hot sleeping bags provided in the rooms. The temperature inside the room can hover around -4 to -9 degrees and this depends on how many people are present in the room. The temperature outside can be as low as -40.