Day 9: Ice Hotel

Today is all about staying at the Ice Hotel in nearby Jukkasjärvi – a short 17 km drive from our hotel in Kiruna.

Packing up the car in a now familiar routine – thought we've not done it for the past three days here in Kiruna – our longest stay in one spot on this trip.

Before heading to the hotel, we drive to a nearby ski slope.

That overlooks the iron ore mine that is the reason this town exists.

Driving the short distance to Jukkasjärvi to the Ice Hotel.

It's busy here, but we find parking near the reception – which is quick and efficient.

We're not going to sleep in a "cold" room – while they are certainly a unique experience and a novelty, they are not particularly practical.

You can bring in very little with you, you can only get into the room at 18:00 in the afternoon and must leave them by 08:00 the next morning. You keep your belongings in lockers at the reception.

We decided when booking this last year – they we'd be happy to see the rooms but would actually sleep in one of the hotels cozy cabins overnight. The hotel themselves recommend you only stay a maximum of one night in their ice rooms.

The Ice Hotel is re-built every year for the winter season – and year is the 36th hotel.

The ice rooms are available to the public to view – for a fee – but all guests staying at the hotel – regardless of accommodation types are welcome to visit each room before 18:00 when they will be occupied.

You access the Ice Hotel via a dedicated lobby (where showers and lockers are for ice room guests), where our room key is checked to make sure we have access.

One through the lobby we're into the courtyard – through which both ice hotels are accessed.

There is a "permanent" ice hotel – which is open all year round – even in summer. This is essentially a large warehouse that acts as a fridge and is kept at -5c. It houses some of the more impressive ice room architectures.

Then also there is the "true" ice hotel that is manufactured entirely out of ice from the nearby river and which is rebuilt each year.

When you are inside each hotel – it is not easy to tell which one is "permanent" and which one is "temporary". They are both very well done and are both much larger than we expected.

On entering the permanent ice hotel, we are greeted with the ice bar.

It has a "space" theme – for some reason.

There are various ice seats to enjoy your drinks. Though the novelty factor is much higher than the comfort – both due to the lack of padding but also the low air temperature inside and the bulky warm clothes everyone is wearing.

And there were people buying brightly coloured cocktails.

We walk into the corridor through which the ice rooms are reached.

All the rooms off here are "art suites" and each is unique and has its own theme.

Here are some of the other suite designs that grabbed our attention.

Each of the rooms has a "Name" and lists the one or two artists that created it.

We think some of them would be pretty freaky to try and get some sleep in!

We leave the "permanent" hotel and enter the "seasonal" hotel via the courtyard – as the light fades.

Everything we see here will be gone by the summer when the temperatures are too warm to avoid the ice melting.

This hotel has similar rooms, though with less facilities due to the entire ice contruction. For example, there are no doors on the rooms.

The rooms continue to be very imaginative and creative.

Many with interesting lighting. Good luck getting a wink of sleep though!

The library was one of our favourite rooms – the detail was incredible and it had a very "relaxing" feeling in there.

Some others that caught our attention.

There is a "ceremony" room – guess weddings are a thing here.

Night has arrived by the time we exit the ice hotel.

We decide to head out again for a while to see if we can capture the northern lights again.

We head for the nearby Esrange Space Center, which is both remote and has very little light pollution.

Unfortunately – despite our best efforts – the sky is too cloudy tonight for the aurora to shine through and we fail to capture anything.

The space centre was pretty cool to see though – even if we did visit it at midnight at the dead of winter in the freezing cold.