How to Make Your Swedish Ice House Cozy

The village of Jukkasjärvi is 200 kilometers above the Arctic Circle in Swedish Lapland, and its January temperatures rarely top 19 degrees Fahrenheit. The sun sets about two-and-a-half hours after it rises. It’s wintery in the most extreme sense of the word — and it’s also a world-famous seasonal paradise known for its stay-made-of-ice, the Icehotel.

Born in 1989 as a snow- and ice-based art hall that was repurposed one night when visitors outnumbered beds in heated cabins, Icehotel has been installing guests in extremely chilly accommodations ever since. Its one-of-a-kind seasonal rooms (created from 2-ton blocks of the frozen Torne River) are object lessons in surviving winter just about anywhere: the key, you see, is to cozy up and celebrate it. Consider these artistic perspectives on leaning into a deep, dark freeze.

Tempting as it is crank up the heat when evening temperatures plunge, remember that cold and darkness both signal our bodies to settle in for the night. “I think many of our guests are surprised by how well they sleep,” says Josefin Lindberg, Icehotel’s press and public relations manager. “Suddenly it’s morning and you are served hot lingonberry juice in bed!”

Whether piping-hot coffee and tea first thing in the morning or winter warmers as nightcaps are your thing, determining your BBF (Best Beverage when it’s Freezing) is all-important when the mercury drops. (Ice “glassware” like the pieces served at Icehotel’s Icebar isn’t mandatory, but it’s pretty nifty.)