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The Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel

Sorrisnive Igloo Hotel

Sorrisnive Igloo Hotel

Discover the intimate charm and intricate ice architecture of the Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel

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Ice Artistry

Ice Artistry

View the exquisitely decorated ice bar and a consecrated chapel

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The Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel

Discover the intimate charm and intricate ice architecture of the Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel. Snowmobile across the Arctic tundra; mush your own husky team under the Northern Lights and feast on ptarmigan, smoked reindeer and crab.

With building beginning as the snow falls the Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel opens its door in January each year and melts away again in the spring. The structure includes just 20 or so rooms and a few suites; ice lounges and sculpture gallery; an exquisitely decorated ice bar and a consecrated chapel.

Annexed to the hotel is something akin to a giant, tent shaped, pine cabin with an open fire, sauna, changing cubicles and restaurant serving Sami inspired dishes from aquatic fowl to chanterelle mushrooms.

Surrounding the Igloo Hotel in the heart of Norwegian Lapland is the Finnmark plateau with its undulating tundra marked only by the old trekking trails and lushly scarred by river valleys with their pine, spruce and birch trees. This is where you can hear ‘the sound of silence’; be awestruck by the density of stars on a clear night in the canopy above you; watch the cold air – blue, pink and yellow but never black.

 

DAY 1 UK – ALTA 
Scheduled SAS flight(s) from Heathrow to Alta in Norwegian Lapland via Oslo. Self transfer to the Vica hotel for two nights.
DAY 2 HUSKY SAFARI 
Breakfast and private transfer to local Husky Kennels to try your hand at mushing with your own team of dogs along the banks of the Alta River.
DAY 3 SNOWMOBILING & IGLOO HOTEL 
Breakfast followed by morning transfer to the Sorrisniva Igloo hotel for an exciting day and night. The day starts with a snowmobile safari following a forest and valley trail out and across vast snow covered plains. Late lunch at the Igloo Hotel. Afternoon at leisure in these idyllic surroundings on the banks of the Alta river, take a walk, go for a kick sled ride or spend some time in the outdoor hot tub gazing at the starry skies perhaps even seeing the Northern Lights. Dinner in the Lavvu shaped restaurant specialising in Sami cuisine, followed perhaps by a fortifying drink in the Ice Bar before settling down for one of the more unusual nights of your life; sleeping in an igloo.
DAY 4 ALTA – UK 
Breakfast at the Alta Igloo hotel. Transfer to Alta and the Vica hotel for a last taste of Norway, before self transfer to the airport for return flight(s) via Oslo to the UK.
Vica Hotel Alta
Vica Alta Hotel

After some inhospitable hotel experiences as a young itinerant music teacher, Knut Rydningen firmly believes that a hotel should be ‘home from home’ and it shows. In the sympathetic renovation and extension of the original farmhouse building; in the individual fabrics and decoration of the just 24 rooms; in the ‘Haldde’ restaurant where you can have crab to die for. And, naming the hotel after his daughters Vibeka and Camilla!

Sorrisniva Snow Hotel
Sorrisniva Igloo Hotel

 

The Sorrisniva Igloo hotel is built in its' entirety every year from snow and ice; the rooms, the beds, even the glasses in the ice bar.  Sorrisniva Igloo is decorated with gleaming ice sculptures which form magnicent ice art. The average temperature inside the hotel is constant between -4 and -7 degrees and guests sleeping on reindeer hides inside arctic sleeping bags that can stand -30 degrees - so there's little risk of getting cold.
 
Warm accommodation in Sorrisniva comprises 30 bedrooms, the Igloo Hotel houses suites, the ice-chapel, an ice-bar and several lounges, so there's always somewhere to relax in comfort.
 
Next to the ice hotel, there is a service centre which holds a restaurant, wardrobes/toilets, showers/sauna,  outdoor hot tub, meeting facilities, reception and a small souvenir shop.
Husky Safari

Through the forest and along the banks of the Altaelva river, mushing your own team of huskies. Hotel pick up, protective thermal clothing, cake and hot drink included. 21⁄2 hrs. Mon-Fri mid Dec-April (Evenings Mon-Thu).

£120 pp
Snowmobile Safari

Snowmobile Safari across the Finnmark plateau with traditional Sami lunch included. Hotel pick up, protective thermal clothing and lunch included. 31⁄2 hrs. Twice daily (mornings and evenings) Dec – April.

£125 pp