Sometimes on a very chilly night, the cold creeps in. It creeps beneath the thickest blankets, through the warmest pajamas, inside the coziest socks, until...Brrrr! It finds a set of toes to nip.
At the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjaervi (You-kus-yair-vee), Sweden, the cold doesn't have to sneak in. Guests who spend the night at the hotel expect the cold to nip at their toes. And their fingers. And their noses. That's because the entire hotel, from the floor to the ceiling to the walls and some of the furniture, is made of ice and snow!
Why would anyone spend money to stay in a snow fort? Kerstin Nilsson, a manager at the hotel, says its natural beauty attracts many guests. "It is pure winter: white and fresh snow, cold, beautiful northern lights in the sky and absolute quiet," she says. Guests who survive the 20° temperatures receive a printed Ice Hotel certificate to prove they have conquered the cold. Says Nilsson: "After they spend the night, in the morning they feel like Tarzan or He-Man because they slept in there."
For eight years, a shiny new Ice Hotel has been built from fresh ice and snow each winter. Last year about 4,000 people checked in for a night at the Ice Hotel. Included in the $80 room charge are an extra-warm snowsuit and a mummy-style sleeping bag. Guests need all the extra padding they can get: the hotel's 100 "beds" are actually ice blocks covered with reindeer skins! One hotel visitor, Kim Kovel of New York City, said she had started to have second thoughts about spending the night there. "It's freezing!" she said. "Apparently everybody makes out O.K. But after I saw the beds, I got a little worried."
By May, warmer temperatures will melt the hotel into a giant puddle. But it's not gone for good: builders will start chipping away at another Ice Hotel in October.