How do they actually make the Snow hotel?

Entrance to Snow Hotel Kirkenes by Kirkenes Snow Hotel

About the Snow Hotel in Arctic Kirkenes, Norway

The Arctic town of Kirkenes is located far northeast in Norway, close to the Russian border.
The town is located in the middle of the Northern Lights belt. This tiny town offers you unique & authentic Arctic experiences, as far from the world’s big cities as you can get!
Kirkenes Snow hotel is one of the main reasons for a visit – located by a narrow fjord, outside the light pollution of the town.
Read more about Kirkenes

Spend the night at Kirkenes Snowhotel by Kirkenes Snowhotel

Room at the Snowhotel

So this is what they do:

How do they actually make a snow hotel? For many years, the entire hotel with 20 rooms melted down during the summer months. So, when the winter came around again, they had to rebuild the hotel!
However, new technology has changed the story – the Snow hotel is now open all year!

Winter in Kirkenes

Building a snow hotel

Starts by making snow with snow-making machines. They have to make a lot of snow before they can start the actual building process.

When they have sufficient supplies of snow, first thing they blow up is a giant balloon, basing the construction for the ice bar room. They cover the balloon with snow, then let the snow set for a few hours before they remove it, and then the ice bar room is ready to be decorated!

Snow room at Kirkenes Snowhotel by Kirkenes Snowhotel

Snowhotel room

Snow hotel rooms

After they have made the large ice bar room, they blow up the balloon for the hotel rooms – one balloon for two rooms, cover the balloon with snow, let the snow set, remove the balloon and continue with the next two rooms and so on.

Ice art at Kirkenes Snowhotel by Pixabay

Snowhotel decorations

Artwork decoration

When the snow hotel construction is finished, the time comes for the decorating process – an important part of the entire building process, forming the “finishing touch”, offering an amazing and exotic experience for the guests.

Questions about tours to the Snow hotel?

Contact us:
• Use our contact form,
• By e-mail to [email protected], or
• Call us on +47 (55) 131-310
(Mon-Fri 09:00 to 15:30 local time)

What our customers say:

On behalf of the group I would like to thank you and your colleagues for organizing our wonderful tour of Norway. Everything went very well including the weather, which was spectacular. We enjoyed all the hotels, the central locations you chose and the amenities, especially the lavish breakfasts. Three extra days in Oslo allowed us to tour the city at our leisure and to enjoy more of the important sights including the newly opened National Museum. The Norway in a Nutshell tour was amazing and made much easier by using your recommended porterage service between hotels in Oslo and Bergen. Both the train journeys and the boat trip were spectacular, and combined with a night in the beautiful Kviknes Hotel made for an unforgettable two days. We were very impressed by the Hurtigruten cruise, particularly the way they combined a working ship with a cruise ship, the comfortable accommodations, the food and service. It was fascinating to visit all the various ports, islands and fjords and the two included tours were excellent and informative. In the end we were glad to have the extra night in Kirkenes, to visit their lovely museum and take a trip to the Russian border. It was a good way to end the tour. Again, thank for staying with us through 2 years of pandemic postponements and changes. We certainly will recommend Fjord Travel in the future.

Marilyn, United States
We just recently completed the Tromso, Northern Lights & Arctic Coast tour. I am writing to say what an amazing tour we had. Everything ran smoothly without an issue, the accommodation was fantastic and the tours were brilliant. We cannot fault the package at all. I would also like to thank Franziska and Lene, they both were fantastic in answering all my questions promptly, whilst booking the tour. Thank you for a wonderful and memorable holiday!

Robert, Australia
Thank you for assisting us with our trip to Norway. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Kirkenes and the Snow Hotel. The arrangements you made for us were perfect. The lodging was comfortable and the excursions were fun. Tom and I rarely use the services of a travel company when we travel; you enriched our trip and made the planning easy.

Alison, United States