Our main reason to come to this far northern town was the Snowhotel Kirekenes, one of just a handful in the world (most of them, of course, in northern Europe, especially Scandinavia). Years ago I visited Quebec´s Hôtel de Glace, found it a fascinating experience, and proposed to a group of friends always looking for special places to spend New Year´s Eve to have it this year at the Snowhotel. The property´s centerpiece is a former barn turned complex, whose hallway is lined with an “ice bar” (above) and about a dozen rooms featuring snow sculptures depicting a range of images, from Vikings (like we had) to Arctic fauna to characters from Disney´s Frozen. That´s supplemented by the modern reception building (with some appealing Arctic art); 21 more conventional cabins with all the comforts, as well as picture windows out onto the snowy landscape; another large building with a dining room, a bar/lounge, a lounge without bar,  showers/bathroom facilities, and a sauna; a reindeer enclosure, and a large kennel area housing the huskies for the dogsledding that´s a major activity for guests (though we found it kind of sad to see them chained up in the freezing cold). The beds are of course carved out of ice but also have foam mattresses, upon which we slept cocooned in cold-weather sleeping bags – frosty yet cozy at the same time! I remember my main issue in Quebec was getting up in the middle of the nights to find the common bathrooms to pee, and since I need to go more often these days, that wasn´t something I was looking forward to here – but miraculously, my body said “no thanks!” and let me sleep through the night without having to get up once (and what a relief!).

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