6 hotels · 3 pairs
Ice Hotels
Hotels rebuilt from snow and ice every winter and lost every spring.
This is the one international section on the site, because Germany has no ice hotels and inventing one is not an option. Six buildings across Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, Austria and Japan, all of them raised from snow and ice at the start of winter and lost by spring. Each pair sets two of them against each other.
Ice bars, single sculpture parks and igloos sold as an evening rather than a night do not go in this section. Nor do warm hotels that keep one cold room as an attraction.
Pair I1 — Two Scandinavian veterans
These two have been rebuilding themselves for decades, one since 1989 and one since 1999. Both stand in the far north, both melt every spring, and both have had long enough to settle into a method. One is a village on a frozen river. The other is a valley outside a small northern town.
09
Icehotel
Jukkasjärvi, Sweden
09 — Icehotel. Jukkasjärvi, Sweden
The hotel
The Icehotel at Jukkasjärvi has been built again every winter since 1989, and it is the reason the whole category exists. The material comes from the Torne river beside the village: ice is cut in spring, stored, and used the following winter to build walls, corridors and rooms. Each season the plan is new, and individual rooms are designed by different artists, so a room that existed one winter does not exist the next. The temperature inside the ice sections stays a few degrees below freezing whatever the weather does outside, and guests sleep in insulated bags on beds of ice covered with reindeer hides. Around the hotel is a small village on a wide frozen river, deep inside the Arctic Circle, where the winter sun barely clears the horizon. The building lasts one season. In spring the structure goes back into the river it came from.
Good to know
The winter structure melts each spring; a year-round section operates separately.
Side by side
- Setting
- Village on the Torne riverRiver valley outside Alta
- Building
- Rebuilt in ice each winter, since 1989Rebuilt in snow and ice each winter, since 1999
- Season
- Winter for the ice roomsWinter
- Getting there
- Fly to Kiruna, then transferFly to Alta, then a short drive
10
Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel
Alta, Norway
10 — Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel. Alta, Norway
The hotel
Sorrisniva stands in the Alta river valley in the far north of Norway, and the igloo hotel there has been built each winter since 1999. The structure is raised from snow and ice at the start of the season, opened for a few months, and lost when the temperature turns. Rooms and corridors are carved, and the interior work changes from year to year, so the shape of the hotel is never repeated exactly. Guests sleep on ice beds with insulated bags, and the warm parts of the operation stand as separate buildings nearby, which is how washing, eating and thawing are handled. The valley setting matters: this is a river landscape rather than a village, with the town of Alta a short drive away and the Finnmark plateau behind. Northern lights are the reason many guests come at all, and the sky over the valley is dark and open.
Good to know
The igloo hotel is outside town, and a transfer or a car is needed to reach it.
The call
Choose Icehotel at Jukkasjärvi if you want the place where the idea started, river ice as the material and rooms designed by different artists each winter. Choose Sorrisniva if you want a quieter valley address in Norway, a shorter guest list and dark open sky as the main reason for coming north.
Pair I2 — Finland against Canada
Both of these start from nothing every winter, and both treat the rebuild as a design exercise rather than a repair. The Finnish one changes its size, shape and theme from season to season. The Canadian one is fully redesigned each year and is the only hotel of its kind in North America.
11
SnowVillage
Kittilä, Finland
11 — SnowVillage. Kittilä, Finland
The hotel
SnowVillage is built in Lapland each winter near the Kittilä ski area, and its defining habit is that it does not repeat itself. Size, plan and decoration are set again every season, sometimes around a theme, so the corridors of one winter have nothing to do with the corridors of the next. The build is mostly snow rather than clear ice, which gives thick rounded walls, soft edges and a light inside that comes through the surface rather than around it. Sleeping rooms sit off the main halls, and the public parts of the village, including the restaurant and the bar, are cut from the same material. Around it is flat forest country under deep snow, with the ski slopes close by and daylight limited in midwinter. The whole village lasts one season only. What is standing in February is gone by late spring.
Good to know
The layout and theme change every year, so photographs from past seasons do not describe the current build.
Side by side
- Setting
- Lapland, near a ski areaOutside Québec City
- Building
- Rebuilt in snow each winter, new form yearlyRedesigned and rebuilt each winter, since 2001
- Season
- WinterWinter
- Getting there
- Fly to Kittilä, then a short transferDrive or transfer from Québec City
12
Hôtel de Glace
Québec City, Canada
12 — Hôtel de Glace. Québec City, Canada
The hotel
The Hôtel de Glace has been built outside Québec City every winter since 2001, and it is the only hotel of its kind in North America. Each year the design starts again: architects set a new plan, the snow and ice go up over several weeks, and the finished building lasts until the season ends. The rooms and themed suites are carved individually, and some have ice fireplaces or sculpted alcoves cut into the walls. Corridors are wide and vaulted, and the chapel and the bar are part of the standard plan even as their shapes change. Guests sleep in insulated bags, with heated buildings alongside for washing and warming up. The setting is Québec winter at full strength, with the city and its old town a short drive away, so a stay can be split between an ice building and a stone one from another century.
Good to know
It stands outside the city, and most guests arrive by car or organised transfer.
The call
Choose SnowVillage if you want deep Lapland forest, thick snow construction and a village that is unrecognisable from one winter to the next. Choose the Hôtel de Glace if you want carved ice architecture on a larger plan and a historic North American city within a short drive of the ice.
Pair I3 — Two mountain builds
Neither of these is in the Arctic. One is high in the Austrian Alps and reached by cable car, the other sits in a resort in central Hokkaidō. Both rely on altitude or latitude to hold their material through the season, and both are cleared away completely when the temperature turns.
13
Schneedorf Igloo
Ötztal, Austria
13 — Schneedorf Igloo. Ötztal, Austria
The hotel
The Schneedorf is an igloo village built each winter in the Ötztal at roughly two thousand metres, and it is reached by cable car rather than by road. That single fact shapes the stay: guests arrive with the last lifts, and the mountain empties around them once the day skiers have gone down. The structures are domes of packed snow, connected in a small settlement with sleeping igloos, a bar and communal spaces cut from the same material. Beds are ice platforms with insulation and cold-weather sleeping bags on top. At this height the surroundings are open snowfield and rock rather than forest, and the light after sunset comes off the snow for a long time. The whole village is rebuilt from nothing each season and disappears in spring. It sits inside a working Alpine ski area, so the mountain around it is busy by day and silent by night.
Good to know
The village is high in the mountains and reached by cable car, so arrival times are fixed by the lift.
Side by side
- Setting
- Alpine, about 2000 metresResort area in central Hokkaidō
- Building
- Rebuilt in snow each winterWinter village of ice buildings
- Season
- WinterWinter
- Getting there
- Cable car up from the valleyTrain to Tomamu, then resort transfer
14
Ice Village
Tomamu, Hokkaidō, Japan
14 — Ice Village. Tomamu, Hokkaidō, Japan
The hotel
Ice Village is built each winter at Tomamu in central Hokkaidō, on ground that stays deeply frozen for months. It is arranged as a small settlement rather than a single hotel: ice buildings stand along a route through the snow, and the accommodation is part of that group. Interiors are cut from ice, including the furniture, and the buildings are lit from within so the walls carry the light. The village belongs to a larger mountain resort, which means the surrounding infrastructure is substantial and the winter programme runs across the whole site. Hokkaidō supplies the conditions: dry cold, heavy and reliable snowfall, and long nights through the season. Everything here has a fixed lifespan. The village is raised at the start of winter, used while the temperature holds, and taken back by the thaw, so its exact contents differ from one season to the next.
Good to know
The village sits inside a large resort, so evenings are shared with day visitors until closing time.
The call
Choose Schneedorf if you want height, a cable car as the only way up and an empty mountain once the day skiers have gone. Choose Ice Village at Tomamu if you want a whole ice settlement to walk through, reliable Hokkaidō snow and a large resort handling everything around it.
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Details change. Everything here is accurate to the best of our knowledge as at August 2026. All hotel names belong to their owners; we have no commercial relationship with any of them.