Surviving the night at an ice hotel!
It feels like every Women Who Explore trip offers multiple unique experiences that are special to the city or country the trip takes place in. One of those special experiences of the Lapland trip is staying the night at the Arctic SnowHotel in Sientta, Finland. There’s something remarkable about staying somewhere that only exists for about 3 ½ months, while it’s built again every year it’s never the same.
The Arctic SnowHotel is built every year from scratch with a different theme and completely new designs each year. It takes 3 to 4 weeks of round the clock work to build each year. Ice carvers and artists from around the world come to help build the hotel. The hotel consists of 20 unique rooms, an ice restaurant, ice bar, and ice chapel. Inside the ice hotel there are two rooms that are not carved out of ice - the bathrooms (toilets and sink only) and a room that has lockers for storage, the sleeping bags, liners & pillows and bunk beds in case you get too cold in the night. The temperature inside the hotel is between 0 to 5 degrees celsius, talk about a true arctic experience!
When you arrive at the hotel and check in there is a luggage room to store big suitcases and anything not going in your locker. You’ll get a tour of the hotel & get a rundown of how to survive the night. The hotel provides zero degree sleeping bags, sleeping bag liners, and pillows. You also get to decide if you want to get a northern lights alarm (someone comes to let you know if the lights are active) and your wake up call, which includes warm berry juice!
The hotel is open to tours during the day, each room has a unique theme with carvings, lights and sometimes sculptures, you’re encouraged to visit all of the rooms to see the amazing artwork. The ice bar is its own unique experience, grab a warm drink or a shot that’s poured in an ice shot glass, after your shot it’s traditional to throw the empty shot glass at one of the walls. Dinner on Ice is also quite the experience, the benches & tables are carved out of ice, with reindeer pelts to sit on. The 3 course dinner is completed with a dessert served on a snowflake plate carved out of ice!
After the hotel closed to tours in the evening the time had finally come, bedtime. I won’t lie I was a bit apprehensive of how the evening was going to go and it wasn’t because of the cold. Here’s the thing - I cannot stand sleeping bags, when I’m camping or backpacking I use a sleeping quilt - I toss and turn most nights and sleeping bags are awful for those of us who sleep like a “rotisserie chicken” for lack of a better term. I struggled to even get into the sleeping liner & bag, pouting a bit more than I’d care to admit. Once in and zipped up, I closed my eyes, and after a few minutes of switching sides I dozed off to sleep, I’ve always been able to fall asleep almost anywhere, a superpower that came in handy this night. I woke up once in the night to use the bathroom, but otherwise slept through the “night”, then 5 am came and I was awake. In my body needing some freedom I slept with my hands near my head, with them exposed and I woke up cold. Resigned to the fact that I was now awake and had no chance of getting comfy enough to sleep again I got up well before the wake up call. Bonus though I got some quiet time alone to myself in the sauna that morning. Was it the worst night of sleep I’ve ever had? No.
When it comes to clothing, the hotel recommends that you start with one base layer and add more as needed since the bags are so warm and add more layers if you’re not warm enough. I wore my wool base layer (to be fair with a synthetic underneath because my skin is sensitive and reacts to all wool) and wool socks. I also made sure to bundle up the parts that I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep fully in the sleeping bag - I wore a beanie and a balaclava to bed and I wore gloves since I knew my hands would end up out of the bag and near my head. Overall I made the right decisions for clothing and am glad I didn’t go with more layers.
If I were to do it again the only changes I would make is to use the larger sleeping bag (an option for taller or wider bodies) so that I would have a bit more wiggle room. I would also probably take something to help me sleep. It’s one of those experiences that I’m glad I did, happy I got the diploma for staying the night but I’m not seeking out other ice hotels.
Post by Jamie Lyon | Portland Ambassador & Trip Host
Jamie grew up in the Central Coast area of California. She fell in love with the outdoors while living in the Bay Area and frequenting Yosemite & the stunning areas surrounding San Francisco . She has been living in Portland, Oregon since 2013 after visiting several times and falling in love with the access to so many gorgeous places - the coast, the mountains, high desert, the gorge & beautiful areas of Washington.
Jamie has been a Woman Who Explore ambassador since 2022 after attending a few events & wanting to connect with women in nature even more! She leads hikes, backpacking trips, campouts & more. She loves seeing friendships bloom & women feeling empowered to get outside.
