A bed made of ice (Icehotel, Sweden)
Since our hotel was a 10 minute walk to the Central Stockholm train station, we took the Arlanda Express to the airport. This is the recommended mode of transportation because it’s an 18 minute train ride from the center of Stockholm to the Arlanda airport. Even with no traffic, a taxi ride would take around 35 minutes, and cost twice as much.
There are multiple ticket booths on the platform in front of the train, making the entire process of buying and boarding the train very easy. And for us, the next train was already at the station, so we got on and waited ten minutes before we departed for the airport.
Once at Arlanda’s Terminal five, it was quite easy to find the very large SAS check-in section. We used their easy self bag check option by printing and attaching the luggage tags ourselves. While that process is pretty standard nowadays, we were surprised that the bag drop was also done by us with no actual SAS agent at the belt. You basically walk up to an open bag drop, touch the screen to start the process, place one bag on the belt, and then use the attached bag scanner to scan the luggage tag. Once verified, the bag zips up the belt to the main conveyor belt and you’re done. The entire process of getting our luggage tags and going through bag drop took all of five minutes—so efficient!
Security was also very fast, and soon we were in Terminal 5. We were prepared to sit in the main area until our flight started boarding, but while we were walking, we saw a sign for an Amex lounge, and were pleasantly surprised that we could use it. It turns out that Terminal 5 is currently undergoing some renovations, but they opened up a newly remodeled area a couple of months ago, and this Amex lounge probably opened as part of that remodel.
Anyway, we walked up the stairs to the lounge and after checking-in, we were each given a menu and then instructed to walk inside. It was then that we realized that this lounge was basically a sit-down restaurant with a small menu of made-to-order dishes. We weren’t really hungry at the moment, but we did take advantage of the free coffee. It wasn’t super crowded when we arrived, and we had a great view of the central bar:
Eventually, after sitting for a bit, we decided to share the crispy Brie salad (with carrot purée, cranberries, and walnuts), which was delicious:
It was soon time to board our flight to Kiruna, and it was a fairly full flight. In my mind, I thought the Icehotel was located by itself in some faraway isolated place in Northern Sweden. Turns out, Kiruna has almost 20000 residents, and that there are many lodging options in the area, so a full flight from Stockholm isn’t abnormal.
Once we landed, I was obsessed with how cute Kiruna airport is, with it’s red exterior and snow covered roof:
There’s no jetway, so we got off the plane and walked down to the tarmac, where many of us took some photos. The camera may not show it, but it was quite dark for 2pm!
While we had pre-booked transportation to the hotel with the Icehotel, there was some slight miscommunication because we and others were left waiting outside in the cold for 15 minutes for the bus to arrive. Eventually it did, and a short drive later, we all arrived at the Icehotel to check-in:
This has already set the tone for the copious amounts of ice art that we’ll be seeing during our stay.
When booking our stay, we followed their recommendation and are spending our first night in an ice room, and the next two nights in a normal hotel room. To prepare us for our night in our art suite, they gave us a key card that opened up a small dressing/storage room in the lobby that leads into the Icehotel rooms. We were instructed to store our luggage there for the evening because it’s the only secured area for us to use. At 4:30, there would be a presentation on how to sleep in the provided sleeping bags and liners. But before that, we had to pick up some boots, balaclavas, mittens, and a jumpsuit for us to use on our outdoor excursions. We were surprised that they had boots in Nick’s size!
After the presentation, we decided to check out our Art Suite: Change Through Time:
We were excited to see what that meant, and once we were inside…we were a little underwhelmed:
I guess the pillars standing tall at one end of the room and falling over on the other side with the bed is supposed to signify how the world can change over time? The drilled holes in the ceiling were pretty cool though. There’s a QR code on each sign with a description by the artist, so Nick scanned it to read more about it. The artists wanted to maintain the natural shape of the ice blocks as they were carved out of the river, which is why they’re basically in pillar form in the room.
There are two versions of the Icehotel: Icehotel 365, which is a year round ice hotel, and the Winter Icehotel, which is rebuilt every winter. I wanted to be surprised, so I booked an art suite in the Winter Icehotel (named Icehotel 35 because this is the 35th version of it). There are 12 art suites in Icehotel 35, each carved by different artists, so they’re all unique. There are also normal ice rooms, but they don’t have an artistic theme to them. Icehotel 365 also has art suites carved by different artists, as well as deluxe suites, which have bathrooms attached to them.
Before our actual night in Icehotel 35, we needed to get into our outdoor gear for our snowmobiling excursion! I felt like the Stay-Puft man with how ridiculously poofy I looked:
But I was willing to sacrifice aesthetics in order to maintain warmth in the sub-freezing temperatures. After a brief introduction on how to drive a snowmobile, Nick and I were off with the group. We shared one snowmobile, and Nick did most of the driving:
We drove on the frozen Torne river and through some woods to some cabins, where we would have dinner: moose stew, blueberry panna cotta, and hot lingonberry juice.
We were then back on the snowmobiles to find a clearing to hopefully see some Northern Lights. Unfortunately for us, the sky was too cloudy to see them:
We headed back to the Icehotel, making one stop before the end, where I switched with Nick and drove the rest of the way. Neither of us had ever driven a snowmobile before, and steering it took some getting used to. I actually didn’t turn hard enough at one point and veered off course, but Nick guided me back onto the trail. It was a fun experience, but we were disappointed that the weather didn’t cooperate with us.
It was now time for us to go to sleep in the Icehotel. To prepare for our night in Icehotel 35, we were told to basically wear our thermal underwear and wrap ourselves in the large sleeping bag to keep ourselves as warm as possible for the walk to our respective rooms. And then, once in our rooms, we needed to place the sleeping bag on the ice bed, take our shoes off and place them on the ground, scoot onto the mattress with the sleeping bag, and then get into the liner and the bag, and zip up and cover almost all of the face:
I was actually surprised how warm this was, and I didn’t feel too encumbered by the sleeping bag. Nick, on the other hand, was a little too tall for the sleeping bag, and his mild claustrophobia didn’t help; he got like maybe 1.5 hours of sleep.
One of the quirks about the Winter Icehotel is that there is no actual bathroom inside, so if you need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, you need to walk through Icehotel 35 to a door that leads to a small outside courtyard, and then walk through that to go into the main hotel lobby to use the bathroom. I had to use the bathroom twice, so I can attest to the fact that it is a cold walk, but I got really good at getting myself back into the sleeping bag and liner. And while in the lobby, I noticed a few people sleeping in the couches there. The Icehotel actually has two rooms with bunk beds called Emergency Rooms for those who find sleeping in the ice rooms too difficult. I also think there were some people using those rooms as well.
However, we made it through the night in our room, yay! I don’t think Nick will ever do this again though. We were told that we needed to be out of our room by 8:30, but our morning excursion was at 9:30. During this time, we needed to repack our luggage to be put in a different storage closet until our hotel room was ready, find breakfast, and dress up again for another outdoor excursion: dog sledding!
