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My trip to the Icehotel was great.  I had a fun time on all my activities.  I met a lot of people from Australia, England, Alaska, Florida, and California.  I took a lot of pictures, but I should have taken more.  One room, Tree of dreams,  had a tree of snow and the bed was on top of the tree.  Another room, Broken Surface, had two levels.  The bed was on the upper level.  The entire lower level was a maze of ice.  The ones I did take do not do the rooms justice and, unfortunately, the Icehotel modified their site so you can't see all the rooms from previous years.  But you can see a slide show of  past rooms here.  Now for a little overview of my trip.

I arrived at Kiruna airport around 1:10 PM.  The temperature was -9 ˚F with a clear, sunny sky.  (They go by Celsius in Sweden, so future temp references will be made in Celsius.)  The bus ride from the airport to the Icehotel takes approximately 15 minutes.  But I chose to take the snowmobile excursion from the airport to the hotel.  That takes a little over two hours.

The Icehotel representatives met me at the airport shortly after my plane landed.  They gave me a one piece snow suit, mittens, mask, and helmet.  They also gave me snow boots, but I opted to wear my own.  They took my luggage in a van to the Icehotel and I went with my guide to the snowmobiles.

When I originally signed up for the snowmobile from the airport option, for some reason I thought I was going to be given a ride on a snowmobile to the hotel…  Nope, I got my own to drive.  Quite interesting since I had never driven one before.  After a quick lesson of “This button does this; That button does that; This lever does this” etc., we were ready to go.  It was excellent.  We went through forests.  We went up hills, we went down hills.  We went across the frozen Torne river.  We stopped for lunch.  Then we did it all over again.  Interesting tidbit: Dog sleds have the right of way.  If we came across dog sled(s) along the trails, we would pull off to the side, turn off our engines, and wait until they pass.  We arrived at the hotel over 2 hours later.

After checking in, I went to my warm room for the first night.  For those that don’t know, the Icehotel has both cold and warm accommodations.  The warm accommodation was very nice: TV, wireless internet, heated floor.  If you would like to see pictures of my room, click here:  My room.

After checking in, I went to the ABSOLUT ICEBAR.  The drinks are served in glasses of ice.  They have cold and hot mixed drinks although the only hot drink is hot chocolate.  All alcoholic beverages are made with some variety of Absolut (hence the name), and I think they have them all:

                    Vodka                    Apeach                    Citron
                    Pears                     Ruby Red                 Peppar
                    Raspberri                Kurant                     Mango
                    Vanilia                    Mandrin

They also had some non-alcoholic stuff for the kids.

The Icebar is the place where tourists come to during, and occasionally after, their tour.  Guests usually show up after finishing an activity, or just to kill time until they head off to dinner.  (The difference between guests and tourists: Guests are actually staying at the Icehotel.  Tourists come in a bus, take the tour (of which there are many), then leave on the bus.)

I met many people in the Icebar.  Some from England, a couple from Australia, some from Alaska, Florida, and California.  It was a good place to hang out and occasionally warm up.  (The Icehotel averages -5 ˚C.  It gets much colder than that outside.)

The second night, I stayed in the Icehotel.  This is the 19th Icehotel built.  They have three types of rooms: Art Suites, Ice Rooms, and Snow rooms.  Snow rooms are all the same and only have a bed.  Ice rooms are all the same and have a bed and ice furniture.  Art suites are designed by different artists and vary widely from room to room.  If you chose an art suite, they initially assign you to a room.  However, you can change rooms if others are available.  I had “The Queen of Ice” art suite.

Before you sleep in the Icehotel, you have the option to attend the briefing “How to sleep well in -5 ˚C.”  I attended.  Two important things I learned:  One, find the light switch by the bed so you don’t have to walk to the entry way to turn the lights off.  Two, borrow boots from the hotel for the night so you’ll have warm ones to wear the next day.

Upon check-in to the cold accommodation, they give you a key to your locker (ice and snow room guests) or changing room (art suite guests) where you can store your luggage.  This prevents your luggage from freezing in your room.  Just before going to bed, you leave your boots with your luggage.  Go to the desk and pick up your sleeping bag and another pair of boots to wear to your room.  Go to your room, throw your bag on the bed, take off your boots, crawl into your bag, turn off the lights, and go to sleep.  (You don’t have to go to sleep.  You can read, use your laptop, etc.)

Sleeping in the room was actually very nice.  I only wore thermals and was quite warm.  It was incredibly quiet in the room.  Snow is a great insulator.  I verified that by walking into one of the rooms next to the Icebar.  The bar plays music all day (1:00 AM to 1:00 PM).  I couldn’t hear anything in the room next to it.  I slept very well.  When they woke me up next morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed.  They gave me some hot Lingonberry juice.  I drank it; laid there for about 30 minutes more, got up, showered, changed, then went off to the free breakfast.  (The showers and rest rooms are in a warm building attached to the Icehotel.)  I also got a surprise the next morning.  For “surviving” a night in the Icehotel I got a diploma.

Day three, back in my warm room.  Aurora Borealis tour and dinner at a wilderness camp.  They pick us up at 7:00 PM and take us to an observatory.  We watch a couple of short movies, see a rocket, then do a short hike to the wilderness camp.  (I think the observatory portion is just to kill time until the northern lights show up.  Usually around 10:30 PM.)  The northern lights were a no show, but dinner was great: salmon, moose, some dessert I don’t know the name of and two bottles of wine.  I did get a glimpse of the northern lights on a previous night.  At first I thought they were search lights until I was told they don’t use those in Jukkasjärvi.

Day four, “Ranger Razer”.  We take little 4X4 vehicles and go driving on the river and through the trees.  More fun had by all.  Lunch at another wilderness camp (I think I gained weight on this trip), then back to the hotel.

Day five, dog sledding.  This was supposed to be my mellow activity.  The plan was to sit in the sled and take pictures while the dogs and their handler did all the work.  Taking pictures from a moving dog sled was not as easy as I thought it would be.  It was still fun though.  Just before we start, the dogs are barking and generally going crazy.  As soon as they start running, they’re quiet, they’re happy, life is good.  We stop at another camp.  More snacks and drinks.  Then back to the hotel.

Day six, began my return home.  To read more about that and other stuff, including my Icehotel trip, go here:  http://richard8016.tumblr.com/.  To see pictures from this trip, go here:

                                                        
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