Hotel berhampiran Jukkasjärvi church, Jukkasjarvi

We stayed in the Nordic 'Suite' in July 2024. Since happiness is a function of a gap between expectation and reality, the objective of this review is to temper expectations for anyone that might be considering booking this hotel. The purpose of visiting Jukkasjarvi/Kiruna was to experience the midnight sun and visit Abisko National Park, a 1 hour drive from the hotel. It is difficult to think of a equivalent hotel experience I have had in the past - maybe a really old Red Roof Inn or Super8. However, those hotels/motels have better infrastructure and customer service than what we experienced at Icehotel. The 'suite' has a dingy, poorly lit feel, and feels depressing even in the setting of 24 hours of sunlight. There is no assistance with luggage, so be prepared to carry your luggage if you do not have a car. Parking is available, but the lot is often full. There is a huge discrepancy between what we saw on the website and what the room actually looked like, so kudos to the photographer for reeling us in. I have attached many pictures, but would like to highlight the bathroom. Right next to the toilet is a shower curtain that encloses a 2x2 'shower'. If you are lucky like us, the walls will have mold. If you are brave enough to take a shower, water will spread all over the bathroom floor - but do not despair - they provide a long squeegee that you can use to sweep all the water towards the drain. We came back to the room the first evening, and no housekeeping was performed, despite reminding the front desk that we require services before we left in the morning. On asking, we were told they had left for the day, and that we could try again the next day. We looked through their website and emailed a bunch of people about the issue, and received an email late in the evening offering to switch rooms. Since we were already unpacked, and no assistance with luggage is provided, we declined the offer, and asked for a partial refund instead. They stated that since they had offered a resolution, they will not offer refunds. On querying why a room with mold was released to a customer, there was no response. We did receive housekeeping services the next day, but no attempt was made to clean the mold. Overall the room was poorly designed with no outlets/USB ports at the bedside. There is no air conditioning, so it gets uncomfortably warm indoors at night with lack of ventilation. We did visit the icehotel 365, and the rooms there had spectacular ice carvings. We were glad that we did not pay to stay in one of those ice rooms, since after 15 minutes at negative five degrees, we were ready to get out of there. Overall, I would recommend giving this hotel a miss - for what they offer, you can get something elsewhere at a much lower rate. If you objective is to spend most of the day outdoors, this hotel is for you, since you will never want to come back to the room. Plus, customer service is non-existent if that is important to you.

We found Aurora River Camp a magical place to stay in a winter wonderland. Staying in the glass Igloo facing the frozen Torne River was a lifetime experience for us. We were surprised at how well-designed and high-tech the igloo was with touchscreen controls for everything and more than sufficient amenities, while overlooking the white snowfield all around. It was amazing to find the different lights, the hot plate, enough utensils, a freezer, a running water wash basin, and personal Wifi inside the igloo. Once inside, we never felt that the outside temperature was -25C with the heating controlled by a touchscreen thermostat. The facilities at the common house for breakfast were more than adequate and the both-way transfer was the icing on the cake. Adventurous people could even easily walk over the frozen Torne River to check out the Ice Hotel across.