Travelogue My Arctic Snow Hotel Experience

This is an op-ed written by an external contributor. All views expressed are the writer's own.

Rovaniemi, Finland:

I have always believed that our capacity for creativity is endless, and perhaps that is the most human thing about us.

During my visit to Rovaniemi, Finland, in Dec 2025, I had the chance to witness this creativity up close when I visited the Arctic Snow Hotel, which is located about thirty minutes from the Santa Claus Village.

Like many others, I was waiting for the bus to arrive at the village, and after ten to fifteen minutes, I got to know that there was a specific pickup point reserved only for the Arctic Snow Hotel in the Santa Claus village. When the bus finally came, I boarded it with quiet excitement.

The driver was checking the names of the passengers with a smile. When we arrived at Arctic Snow Hotel at 18:00, a woman named Nora welcomed us and introduced herself as our guide for the day. I observed that a lot of the tour guides in the area were women.

They confidently led groups through bad weather and new places, and it was very empowering to see. It made me stop and think about whether this is what women's empowerment looks like in real life, confident without being questioned.

Since it was a group tour, we began together, listening to a short presentation about the history and construction of the snow hotel. As we stepped inside, I realised this was not just a hotel, it was an entire ice city.

There were around twenty to thirty rooms, some with two single beds and others designed as three- or four-bedroom spaces. Each room had stools, tables, chairs, and even armchairs, all sculpted from ice.

Out of curiosity, I lifted the bed cover, sat on the bed, and touched the furniture. It was real ice, the same kind we casually pull out of our home freezers, transformed into architecture.

Following the signboards, I entered the restaurant, where some guests were finishing their dinner while others were placing orders. I stood there in disbelief. The plates were made of ice. The dining tables and chairs were ice.

A fully functioning restaurant carved entirely out of ice felt UNREAL, as if imagination had temporarily defeated nature. Then came the snow chapel. For a moment, I could clearly imagine a wedding taking place there, right in front of Jesus.

The structure resembled a church, with long benches covered with reindeer-skin mattresses. The level of artistry and cultural depth was overwhelming. People moved around with curiosity and excitement, and I noticed a steady flow of guests heading in one direction.

When I followed them, I discovered the bar. Standing inside an ice bar, above the Arctic Circle in Rovaniemi, with temperatures dropping to minus twenty or even lower, and sipping a drink made the experience feel surreal. It was cold, breathtaking, and strangely comforting all at once.

The creativity didn’t end there. When I asked a staff member about the igloos shown on the website, they smiled and guided us outside the ice city, just to the left of the hotel. There they were, igloos built entirely from blocks of ice.

I remembered the presentation video that showed how the ice was carefully stored, transported, and assembled last year, this year’s architecture. It amazed me how humans use concrete and bricks to build homes, while here, entire structures were created from ice cubes.

The snow hotel was not just about ice; it was about art. Designers from all over the world were invited to shape the interiors, and every wall told a story: wolves, husky dogs, butterflies, themes of recycling, clocks, and abstract landscapes.

You couldn’t simply glance at them; you had to stop, observe, and absorb the emotion behind them.

And beyond the hotel, Rovaniemi’s snow itself felt like art. Outside the snow hotel, the snow rose almost to my knees, making every step slow and deliberate.

Walking through it felt like a reminder that in places like this, humans don’t dominate nature; we move with it, carefully and respectfully. The cold stayed with me long after in my breath, in my thoughts, and in my hands, which were cold after wearing the gloves. Hahaha!

In one of the harshest environments on Earth, people had chosen to create beauty rather than resistance, art rather than excess, imagination rather than comfort. The Arctic Snow Hotel was not a defiance of winter, but a collaboration with it.

Lesson:

Rovaniemi taught me that creativity does not always require comfort, ease, or abundance to exist. Sometimes, it emerges precisely because conditions are harsh. Walking back through the snow, my breath visible in the cold air, I felt that lesson settle quietly within me.

The Arctic Snow Hotel was not built against winter, but with it, a reminder that even in the most unforgiving landscapes, human imagination finds a way to belong.