I have a certificate to boast that I survived a night at the Snowhotel, but it was a great experience rather than a survival. The suites are well decorated with ice sculptures and themed. Lighting is not adjustable so I slept with an eye mask. At breakfast there was a great buzz from other "survivors" talking about their experiences and of course, the all elusive Northern Lights that made our evening extra special.

I had the best time here! The staff who looked after us at the restaurant, both breakfast and dinner, were warm and friendly and took time to answer all our questions and they really enhanced our trip. At breakfast the staff (Svetlana??) was lovely and explained about how the fish was prepared. Some of the comments here are a little unfair - my only criticism would be that the staff are clearly overworked but that seems to be a management problem which could easily be solved by more staff.

The snowhotel carvings are beautiful and I had no problems sleeping. And of course the husky trip was phemonenal!!

All in all - an amazing experience that is once in a lifetime.

I only visited the Snow Hotel during the day rather than spending the night here so I have given it an average score so as not to affect the scores of people who have stayed here, however In my opinion it only deserves poor at best.

I have visited and stayed at several ‘Ice hotels’ and this is by far the worst, the whole arrangement seems to be a simple tourist trap designed to make as much money as possible for the least amount of cost. for example, the gift shop had nothing to sell that was actually branded with the snow hotel accept for one type of postcard depicting the hotel as it was several years ago. Everything else was generic and could be bought anywhere else in Norway for much less.

The hotel has an open reception/ice bar area with nowhere to sit and they don’t seem to bother with making ice glasses instead using disposable plastic cups. This room leads to two wings of bedrooms, the rooms all follow a theme and are pretty similar in design and style, with little in the way of imaginative lighting to really bring out the details. Most of the carving is done in the snow of the walls rather than in the ice which is much quicker and easier to do but also melts away more quickly. By mid March the inside of the Hotel was already getting above freezing, despite this the various guides insisted that it was always -4°C inside the hotel. Whilst we were in the hotel several guided groups were rushed through by different not especially interested guides who gave out often conflicting ‘facts’ about the hotels construction etc.

The staff did not seem to be completely with it and were not very helpful either. Although it could be that we and the various tour parties were just getting in their way whilst they were trying to prepare for the next set of guests.

Most of the people there were visiting the hotel from the Hurtigruten and had paid a lot of money for a short excursion, we just ordered a taxi from the ship and made our own way to the hotel, doing it this way is much cheaper and you can also fit in the Russian border post at the same time if you want to. You can order a taxi from the ship but make sure you have the number to call them to pick you back up again.

The hotel has a large separate wooden dining area with a big open fire in the middle which is likely to be the focus of any stay here until you are ready to go to sleep. I’m sure that you could get a good night’s sleep here, the beds were comfortable and they use the standard four season sleeping bags that I have used at other Ice hotels and out in the open wilderness; however the question is would it be worth it? In my opinion it is not, by all means visit the hotel to look around and have a meal at the restaurant but stay at one of the local hotels where you will get a much better deal.