Kirkenes, Norway
Snow is often described as something negative. When snow is falling in larger European or American cities, society and life stops completely and traffic is in chaos. We think of it as something positive in Norway. We know snow is coming every winter and prepare for it as in Kirkenes it is part of everyday life. Snow gives us lots of opportunities for enjoying nature, skiing, huskytrips, snowmobiling and icefishing. The Snow is our friend!
Kirkenes Snowhotel uses the snows ability to insulate. Snow is a very good insulator and if it is minus thirty degrees outside it will still be relative warm inside the snowhotel, a stable minus five degrees celsius. This sounds cold but it doesn't feel like it. This special ability of the snow is also known by mother nature, the Ptarmigan makes caves in the deep snow during winter and thus saves a lot of energy inside this shelter. It is exactly the same that can bee seen with the Husky dogs. They let them self snow down to keep warm.
Humans produce a small amount of heat and moisture through breathing, That’s why the rooms have curtains instead of doors, to make the air circulate. In every room there is decorations and sculptures made from ice and snow. These arts are created by artists from the chinese city of Harbin.
In the construction of the hotels ice-bar and sculptures we have used more than 15 tonnes of ice. We have used the expertise of the Chinese iceartists for the construction.
All the ice used comes from the frozen lake next to the Snowhotel. We cut the ice with chainsaws and pull it with snowmobiles into the Snowhotel. In the middle of winter this ice is 70 centimeters ( 25 inches appx. ) thick. The icebar and the sculptures is designed differently every year. It’s always exciting to see what kind of sculptures the artists find hidden in the ice.
You can also enjoy the fantastic Northern Lights while there.
Room and hotel facilities:
Every room in Kirkenes Snowhotel is like a small treasure. The rooms are five metres in diameter, and they are equipped with everything you need for a comfortable night's sleep. You will be sleeping on ice, but that would be too cold and too hard for your back. The beds are framed with ice blocks and have comfortable mattresses with thermal insulation on top. You will sleep in a sleeping bag preprared for -35 degrees Celsius.
All of our 20 snowsuites have a different theme from arctic culture or nature. The lighted ice sculptures gives the snowhotel a very cosy and special atmosphere. Our new cabins are manufactured from the traditional hunting and fishing hut “gamme” that you find in the wilderness in the Sami areas in the Arctic.
Kirkenes Snowhotel have a cosy wilderness restaurant next to the hotel. In our restaurant “Gabba” you can get a taste of the best produce from this regio of Norway. The restaurant building is shaped like a Sami tent, but built in russian style of pine timber.
The restaurant is circular with an big open fireplace in the middle. This fireplace is where we cook all the food. Our chefs make sure you get a taste of our lovely local specialities.
The menu is mostly fish whitch is in abundance in this region. Cod, salmon and arctic charr. The Arctic charr comes from our own fishfarm, and this have won a price for best seafood in Norway in 2009. And our menu includes also reindeer meat.
Kirkenes Snow Hotel
Sandnesdalen 14
9910 Bjornevatn
Norway
Snowhotel includes:
- Double rooms
- 13 rooms
- Total capcity 39 beds
- Breakfast and dinner
- Access to Reindeer, Husky and Puppy farm
- Sleeping bag
- Luggage service
- Sauna
- Transfers (Winter)
- Snowshoes (Winter)
- Bike rental (Summer)
Amenities;
- Showers
- Wardrobes
- Restrooms
- Luggage room
- Saftey lockers