Icehotel Opens for 30th Anniversary

A Night at the Theatre by Jonathan Green and Marnie Green. Photo by Asaf Kliger.

The iconic Icehotel in Swedish Lapland opened its doors this weekend for another winter season, celebrating its 30th anniversary with unique new layouts, suite designs, activities and features including a special ice-carved observation deck built above the hotel.

It has been 30 years since Icehotel founder Yngve Bergqvist started a journey that would lead to the world's first hotel made entirely out of snow and ice and during this time over one million guests  from all continents of the world have visited.

After 33 artists from 16 countries spent an intense couple of weeks creating the hotel under the guidance of the hotel’s new Creative Director Luca Roncoroni, the new designs can finally be revealed and they include a West End theatre production, an ice-carved kaleidoscope, a knitted universe, a frozen feline lair, a bed surrounded by bones and an icy amusement park. Two British teams were amongst the artists this year; father and daughter duo Jonathan and Marnie Green and professional sculptor Robert Harding, both of which have created Art Suites for Icehotel before.

To mark the 30th anniversary, the hotel has also built a special ice-carved observation deck, offering views of the surrounding frozen landscape across the Torne River, from which the ice is harvested, and a sculpture at the enterence to the winter hotel; a four-metre tall tower that guests can climb.

A stay at the Icehotel offers the chance to combine sleeping ‘on ice’ in one of these unique suites with various winter adventures including husky sledding, ice sculpting, snowmobiling, reindeer sleigh rides, Northern Lights photography classes, wilderness dinners and guided Swedish sauna rituals. Visit with Discover the World and take advantage of the operator’s direct flight from London Heathrow to Kiruna. Visit www.discover-the-world.com/icehotel for more details.