One of the most exotic and unique activities you can do in a nordic location like Finland is experiencing Ice hotels and the world famous igloos to see the stars, and if you are lucky enough to see also the Northern lights! – I have something unexpected to say about that.. wait for it-
I planned a special trip to Kemi and Rovaniemi in Finland, with the main objective to stay in different places and experience such accommodations at least once in my life 😊 because.. you know..
“Travel as much as you can.. you will be here only 2 years”
Me, 2017.. justifying my decisions
Spoiler alert, and perhaps not so spoiler is that these experiences ARE expensive, so your friend here literally booked just one night in the ice hotel and one night in the igloo, for this in Spanish we have a say that says it better: “lo importante es participar” 😉 something like.. the important thing is to participate… to justify an action no matter the outcome, and that´s exactly how I approached this. I just wanted to know what the fuzz was about, and now I can share it with you.
Kemi Snow Castle
The good news is you don´t have to sleep in an ice castle / hotel but you can simply visit! Obviously my night in Kemi Castle gave me access to see the entire place and all the rooms but at certain point of the day it´s only for guests…
Guests who are actually willing, and even better: paying to stay on an ice bed, surrounded by ice walls, with ice decorations, with ice….. you name it!
… seriously “I´m always cold” Nataly? “ oh well 😉
Before you jump to conclusions though, I´m actually NOT regretting any second of it, but it´s just fun to rationalize the fact that you really pay some good cash to be cold! The irony is just fantastic, but let´s come back to the story.
As far as I know the sculptures and themes of these castles are different every year. So even if you see my photos it´s cool, literally, to know you will have a different experience every year because at the end of the day it´s still ART. People who work on this every year are not just ice builders but true artists!
The Snow Castle has been built in Kemi ever since 1996. Construction starts in December and the outdoor Snow Castle is open typically from mid-January to mid-April. Nowadays there is one all-year round ice exhibit, but this is an “outdoor” castle in open space, so it can only stand naturally during the coldest months.
I visited In 2017 during the 100th anniversary of the Finnish independence, so the theme was very Finnish 😉
This trip I convinced my dear friend Stan Marinets to travel North with me, he was my first friend in Finland that had nothing to do with my job and remains a good friend until now. The type of friend you may not see in months but you know will be there anytime 😉 Small appreciation parenthesis..
Ice Restaurants
There is usually a restaurant (yes, it works) but at certain times also. Remember I did the poor version 😉 so I didn’t officially have dinner there, we just bought pulla (typical Finnish bread) and coffee.
There was another area dedicated to famous Finnish people, with beautiful designs all over. I only knew Sibelius and Kimi Raikkonen at that point to be honest 😉 Also a very cool library.
Ice bar
The Ice bar is a must 😉 We only had one drink but we spent a good time there in the cold just because it´s damn cool and different.. not much to add. In fact, I believe there are ice bars in big cities like New York or Stockholm, so we can argue there are more places to experiende this for some time. In this case this is just a small part of the whole experience when it is really a bigger complex with different things to see.
My friend and I visited the bar a little early so we had it to ourselves for the pictures, later there was more life there. None of us are real drinkers so it was more for the anecdote..
The rooms!
As any hotel concept, there are “fancier” rooms, prettier, more decorated, more spacious, etc. The great thing again is that you can visit during the day and admire all the art and different designs. See below the nicest ones, the second one is just epic! If I had stayed there, I would have been laughing all the time until I could not feel my cheeks anymore 😉 oh wait.. that would have been the ice! Oops! Come on, I look at it and I find it funny again especially being 3D sculptures!
Some other rooms with light decoration!
Then there is what I call “tourist class”, they are smaller.. still decorated on the lateral walls but much more discrete, still the concept is the same.
Ice chappel
As a nice touch there was also a small chappel with a gorgeous angel sculpture.
And the moment nobody was waiting for.. (drums!!!……..)
Spending the night!
That funny cocoon there is me! Good morning picture from my friend Stan. The hotel provides a very warm sleeping bag, you are supposed to put your warmest jacket on top of the reindeer fur , and get in the sleeping bag on top of that, and obviusly wearing something comfortable to sleep but very warm. As obvious as it may be, the room temperature is minus (hello, it´s ice! have I NOT mentioned that already?)
They show you where to go to the bathroom in the middle of night if you need to, which is not in the room or even in the castle but you have to go outside, buuuuut I managed to drink as little water as possible to avoid that. Imagine that process during the night! It was enough to get out of my sleeping bag already once to change clothes in the morning!
Once you leave the room there is another area right outside the castle where you leave your heavier luggage, you can take a shower and everything you need in civilization. To go to the room you are supposed to take only the essencial things you need to spend the night
Bonus pic: Game of Thrones Ice Hotel
I still share my Game of Thrones Ice Hotel photos in a different blog, but I cannot resist sharing already one. I only visited this one but it was super awesome!
Glass igloos
These hotels are becoming more and more popular nowadays. The ceiling is made of special glass and that is literally your roof. Thankfully I did have a clear night and it was awesome to see the sky just like that from my bed. Our room was relatively big for 2 people with all the comfort you need. It was on the outskirts of Rovaniemi and close to open space to go out and see the northern nights if they are there.
My comment in the beginning of the blog? As an experience it´s lovely, but assuming there are northern lights then you should go outside! or well that is my opinion 😉 Maybe for some people it´s more than enough to limit your view and add noise to your photos! But again, in principle it is totally possible to be that lucky and see bright northern lights as you see in this kind of hotel advertisments.
Here the other igloos are close to eath other, when you are on the bed you don´t see your neighbors (don´t worry), but you cannot control the lights from other igloos. If you are a crazy fan of the northern lights chasing, then true darkness is your best friend and here you may have some light interference. I know, this is being picky and that´s why I said it would be unexpected 😉 I mean, if you give me a million dollars of course I would love to stay in igloos, but I would make sure I do have the option to just walk away to a place where I can avoid other igloos and people´s light. The experience alone without this little detail, IS amazing
Disclaimer: Here I did not have a nice camera for northern lights yet, but it does give you the idea! This was using my old Sony.
One blurry picture taken from the igloo! Stan shot this with his mobile while I was already out!
Waking up in our igloo, on a clear night and morning the stars and sunrise colors are really special.
And yet, looking at the stars from your room facing directly overhead, THAT is something else! Also waking up to that beautifil purple-ish light you see in the North, is absolutely worth it.
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Other igloos and glass hotels (not stayed in, but seen myself)
Wherever I go, inevitably I walk around. Just by doing that in my hikes in Lapland I have ended up being very close to fancy accomodations. Reason? They tend to be in the middle of nature that is free for everyone, next to a lake, etc so it´s not impossible to get close to it and that´s the beauty of it. I know it´s not the same as actually staying but just being there is really nice to see with your own eyes.
This was also in Kemi,different type of accomodation with open view.
On my visit to Inari, Finland.. I walked around a very nice hotel that had beautiful villas as well as glass igloos facing the north. Again, with unlimited resources I wold have loved to say there. This was a bigger complex with a big restaurant and different types of rooms. Putting all elements together it was absolultey beautiful in the autumn, I can only imagine how magical it gets in winter all covered in white.
While putting this blog together,I realized I´m missing some photos of nice glass hotels I saw in Rovaniemi. I usually back up and categorize my photos but I don´t know what happened 😉 Some other time then! Probably it´s destiny telling me to go once more, what do you think?
Cheers, Nat
