Ice Hotel

About Ice Hotel

An ice hotel is a temporary hotel made up entirely of snow and sculpted blocks of ice. They are promoted by their sponsors and have special features for travelers who are interested in novelties and unusual environments, and thus are in the class of destination hotels. Their lobbies are often filled with ice sculptures, and food and beverages are specially chosen for the circumstances.

All of the ice hotels are reconstructed every year, and are dependent upon constant sub-zero temperatures during construction and operation. The walls, fixtures, and fittings are made entirely of ice, and are held together using a substance known as snice, which takes the place of mortar in a traditional brick-built hotel.

Kirkenes Snow Hotel is situated in the eastmost town of Norway, close to the Norwegian-Russian border. The hotel had its first season during winter 2006/2007. This year the hotel has 20 rooms and the largest snow dome in Norway (8 meter high and 12 meter in diameter). All the rooms are individually decorated by the ice artists from Finland and Japan. The west Snow Hall is decorated by a local sculptor Arild Wara. A night in a snow hotel is combined with a special dinner prepared on an open fire, the visitors can also get hot sauna before or after staying at the hotel. There is also a reindeer park and a husky farm in the hotel area.