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The Ice Hotel

Embrace the cold, and indulge in some good old-fashioned fun in the snow at one of Sweden's famous hotels made entirely of ice!

As we landed at Kiruna airport in the north of Sweden, I noted no attempt had been made to clear the runway. It was positively covered in snow. Had this been the UK, inbound planes would have been diverted, all outbound flights cancelled, holidays would have been ruined and we would all have been advised to stay housebound and turn up the heating.

But this was Sweden and the Swedes are made of sterner stuff. This further hit home during the 20-minute transfer to the hotel; the roads were also caked in a thick layer of snow, but this did not deter our driver. We got to the hotel in 15 minutes.

The other thing we noticed was the light, or rather the lack of it. We landed at 1.30pm to a sort of grey gloom. This was the day at its brightest, and you only got about two hours of this, before you were plunged into darkness.

In the summer, it goes to the opposite extreme and you get 24 hours of daylight, and while I wouldn't fancy living with either, it was all part of the experience for a long weekend.

Childhood revisited
There were only a few children among the guests, the rest were adults of varying ages, but the snow seemed to turn us all into big kids. We had an overnight snowmobile trip booked so my husband Bill and I hurried down to the warm changing rooms (not all of the hotel is frozen) to dump our bags, don our thermals and pick up our snow suits and boots. We had about an hour to kill and we couldn't wait to explore the Ice Hotel proper.

Inside it was like a something from Hans Christian Anderson's Snow Queen. The ice pillars and sculptures glowed (all the lighting is set into the ice) creating an ethereal, other worldly quality to the whole structure. Built on the frozen River Torne, when spring comes, it simply melts away.

Exploring the hotel We ran round the Design and Art suites like excitable children, taking photographs of ice beds shaped into dragons (pictured), giant chess boards and horse-drawn sleighs. Then, a quick vodka in the ABSOLUT ICEBAR, before donning fleece balaclavas, helmets and goggles for the snowmobile tour.

Snowmobiling
I've driven quads and jet skis before, but nothing beats zooming across a frozen lake on a snowmobile. It was pitch black, but we had headlights and heated handle bars and foot plates, which were very welcome. It was about minus 9. We drove for about an hour before setting up camp at one of the wilderness lodges.

We then whiled away the evening by the stove chatting with two other couples over beer and wine as our guide prepared supper.

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