A “cool” place to visit. The ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjaervi, Swedish Lapland

Really, really “cool’ actually. Our Certificate of Achievement states we survived a night in an ice sculpted bedroom with a constant temperature of minus 5. The outdoor temperature on the same night, was -3 degrees celsius, which, we were told by the locals, was fairly mild for late December.

We are at the Icehotel in Swedish Lapland, 200 kilometres above the arctic circle. Every year an empty space on the river bank turns into a magnificent hotel featuring a brand new design; reincarnated out of blocks of ice taken from the local river Torne.

There is a variety of ice accomodation available, but our choice of cold room is one of the individually designed and sculpted Art Suites. Each suite is unique and has been painstakingly carved by artists commissioned every year from all corners of the globe. During the day this part of the hotel is open to the public and serves as a kind of sculpture museum. From 6.00pm each night your room is yours to explore and experience.

The process of checking into an ice room is somewhat time consuming. Most guests combine a night in cold accommodation with a couple of nights in the warm part of the hotel. This involves checking out of that warm room, storing your luggage in a store room, receiving a locker and a change room for your clothes and other belongings and then working out how best to get to the ice room. We listen carefully to instructions and then, dressed only in our thermals, boots and beanies and with the provided sleeping bags wrapped around us for warmth, we make the dash from the Dressing Room to our designated suite.

We have been given the beautiful Art Suite 320, ‘Dancers in the Dark,’ which comes with exquisite icy orbs hanging from the ceiling and piped, floating music which makes the atmosphere inside our icy palace rather fantastical. We wriggle into sleeping bage designed for arctic conditions, and huddle down on reindeer skins. The skins are beautifully soft and add an extra layer of comfort and insulation on top of the mattress contained in the ice box. It is a somewhat bizarre experience. I’m tempted to launch into a rendition of ‘Let it go’ from Frozen but it’s too cold to stick my head out of the sleeping bag and I’m worried my tongue might freeze.

When we are finally settled it is surprisingly comfortable. Comfortable that is, until the call of nature must be heeded a couple of hours later. Sometimes you just don’t want to get up and go. The more I think about it however the more desperate I become. I wish I hadn’t had that final celebratory cocktail in the Ice Bar. I remind myself to get into the spirit of the adventure, and, to be honest, even the freezing journey to the heated bathrooms is full of wonder and amazement. First you switch on the light positioned next to the ice bed. The white floors, walls, ceilings and life sized sculptures slowly become an opalescent blue and the tiny ice crystals start twinkling. It’s almost as if the whole room comes to life. The eerie piped music returns to accompany your dash out the door. In the freezing corridor even the chandeliers are made of hundreds of tiny, chiselled ice blocks. It’s difficult not to be impressed. And difficult not to be slightly bemused by the fire alarm pressed into the ice wall.

It’s tempting to spend the rest of the night sitting on the toilet with the oh so warm seat, or lying on the pristinely clean heated bathroom floor. But that would be cheating. I do, after all, want my Certificate of Achievement and need to survive a few more hours.

Being New Year’s Eve, and having stayed up well past midnight enjoying an incredibly well timed appearance of the Northern Lights, we are spending fewer hours in our ice palace than one might on any other night during the five months that the hotel is open. This is an inspired choice on the part of the holiday organiser (me) I think, as I wait for the knock on door and the delivery of hot lygonberry juice, signalling that it is time to get up and get out.

The first few days of the New Year bring a host of wonderful new experiences including dog sledding, snowmobiling and northern lights photography classes. There are surprisingly good culinary experiences on offer too. We particularly enjoy the Ice Menu served in the hotel restaurant, where some offerings appear on plates and bowls carved from ice from the Torne River.If you’ve never tried reindeer this is the place to do it.

We also venture out in a blizzard to walk the short distance to The Homestead. If you’re not used to ice and snow, this is quite an experience in itself. The welcoming fire and cosy dining room are worth the effort. Last but not least we try salmon chowder and reindeer burgers from the local caravan , standing on the roadside in the dark under a thousand stars.