A face for dead eyes.
Swedensay Ice hotel for the 2024/2025 season is officially open to guests.
Packed to the brim with stunning ice sculptures, the hotel has been built and rebuilt every year since 1989 in the village of Jukkasjarvi, 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle along the banks of the Torne River.
This year’s hotel is the 35th version of the Icehotel, with 26 artists from 13 countries spending weeks crafting the hotel’s dazzling 12 art suites.
A ‘short-sighted’ rhinoceros, a ‘plunging’ bird’s nest and an ‘underwater world’ are some of the breathtaking ice sculptures created for this year’s hotel.
Sweden’s incredible Icehotel is officially open for business for the 2024/2025 season with stunning new sculptures on display. Pictured above is the Icebar, which this year will ‘take guests on a journey into space’
Twenty-six artists from 13 different countries spent weeks creating the hotel’s 12 incredible suites. Pictured above is the ‘Whoops Wrong Room!!’ suite, which features a ‘short-sighted rhinoceros’
Pictured above is the ‘Come Warm Up’ suite, an ‘engaging experience’ where guests will be situated ‘inside a black-headed chick’s nest’.
Additionally, this year the hotel’s ‘iconic’ main hall will be almost 30m (98ft) long and feature ‘crystal chandeliers made from 220 hand-crafted ice crystals’.
Guests can also look forward to seeing the new ‘Ceremony Hall’, which is ‘filled with icy floral splendor for weddings and events’ and grabbing a drink at the hotel’s Icebar.
This year’s Icebar ‘takes guests on a space journey’ where they can ‘sip on a drink next to a life-sized ice and snow astronaut’.
Each year, the hotel’s construction process begins in the spring when blocks of ice are harvested from the Torne River and then stored in the Icehotel’s ice production hall.
The ‘Give Us A Kiss’ suite offers a ‘vision of what happens in the Swedish forests when we’re not there’
According to the designers, the ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’ suite explores ‘how our future might have appeared if we persisted in designing the world with the aesthetics and principles of the Art Deco and Streamline Modern movements’
Taking inspiration from ‘ancient Greek heroes’, the ‘Ancient Myths’ suite highlights the ‘struggle between good and evil’
Pictured above is the hotel’s ‘iconic’ main hall, which is almost 30m (98ft) long and has ‘crystal chandeliers made from 220 hand-crafted ice crystals’
The Icehotel is then created over the course of six weeks and uses 500 tonnes of ice as well as 10 Olympic swimming pools’ ‘slice’ – a mixture of snow and ice.
The artists were joined by a ‘dedicated team of builders, artists, lighting designers, ice production and (support) staff’ to make their icy masterpieces.
Guests checking into one of the hotel’s stunning suites will need to wrap up warm, as the Icehotel’s temperature is maintained at minus five degrees Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) to keep its incredible sculptures in tip-top condition.
In ‘Whoops Wrong Room!!’, designed by Swedish artist AnnaSofia Maag, ‘a short-sighted rhino crashes through a hotel room wall, symbolizing the sudden and invisible disruptions in our lives’.
Designed by American architects Jaeyual Lee and Daeho Lee, ‘Ice Kiln’ is ‘inspired by the elegance of traditional Korean pottery kilns’ and ‘blends ancient craftsmanship with modern architecture’
‘Change Through Time’ was designed by father and son duo, Rob and Timsan Harding and ‘aims to honor the ‘pure beauty’ of a ‘raw block of ice”
The ‘Zig and Zag’ suite features ‘twists, curves and twists’ representing how ‘the shortest path is not always the prettiest’
Guests checking into the “Flight” suite will sleep on a bed surrounded by birds. “The pillars rising from (the bed) are transformed and released into the air like birds,” say the artists
Carl and Malena Wellander are the brains behind the ‘Give us a kiss’ suite, which features roaming animals and offers a ‘vision of what happens in the Swedish forests when we’re not there’.
Designed by American architects Jaeyual Lee and Daeho Lee, ‘Ice Kiln’ is ‘inspired by the elegance of traditional Korean pottery kilns’ and ‘blends ancient craftsmanship with modern architecture’.
Taking inspiration from ‘ancient Greek heroes’, the ‘Ancient Myths’ suite emphasizes the ‘struggle between good and evil’ and was created by Ukrainian artists Iemelianenko Viacheslav and Bogdan Kutsevych.
The ‘Hideaway’ suite was designed by Dutch artists Pieke Bergmans and Peter De Wit as a ‘shelter’ and ‘protected space where guests can retreat’.
According to the designers, the ‘Yesterday’s Tomorrow’ suite explores ‘how our future might have appeared if we persisted in designing the world with the aesthetics and principles of the Art Deco and Streamline Modern movements’.
‘Akhu Fahcat’ translates as ‘Grandma’s Mittens’ in the Sami language and this suite was created in ‘honor and celebration of knitting’
The Nacken Suite invites guests to ‘an encounter with the magical underwater world of the Nixie’, ‘an aquatic creature’ that lives along streams and ‘dangerous bodies of water’
This year’s ceremonial hall is ‘filled with frosty floral splendor for weddings and events’
Inside the Nacken Suite, created by Tjasa Gusfors and Sam Gusfors, guests are invited to “an encounter with the magical underwater world of the Nixie,” “an aquatic creature” that lives along streams and “dangerous bodies of water.”
The ‘Akhu Fahcat’ suite translates as ‘Grandma’s Mittens’ in the Sami language and was created by Elisabeth Kristensen in ‘honour and celebration of knitting’.
Guests checking into the “Flight” suite will sleep on a bed surrounded by birds. “The pillars rising from (the bed) are transformed and released into the air as birds,” say the artists. In another bird-themed creation, the ‘Come Warm Up’ suite by Isabelle Gasse and Joelle Gagnon offers an ‘impressive experience’ where guests will be situated ‘inside a black-headed chickadee’.
Father and son duo Rob and Timsan Harding designed the ‘Change through Time’ suite to honor the ‘pure beauty’ of a ‘raw block of ice’, while The ‘Zig and Zag’ suite by Nicolas Triboulot and Clement Daquin contains ‘meanders’, curves and crowns’ suggesting how ‘the shortest path is not always the most beautiful’.
Once guests have explored their frigid surroundings, activities offered at the hotel include snowmobiling, Northern Lights tours, saunas, ice sculpting and wilderness dining.
This year’s hotel will be open until April 2025. To book a trip to the Icehotel, visit Discover the world.
The ‘Hideaway’ suite was designed by Dutch artists Pieke Bergmans and Peter De Wit as a ‘shelter’ and ‘protected space where guests can retreat’
