Luxury bespoke hotel holidays to Snowhotel Kirkenes, Norway
Facts in brief
Location In the countryside about 20 minutes’ drive from Kirkenes
Annual opening All year
Closest airport Kirkenes
Distance from airport About 20 minutes by taxi
Hotel facilities and services
Restaurant, snow restaurant, transfer service, range of local activities offered included king crab fishing, husky farm, mountain hikes, dogsled rides, fishing, Northern Lights, visiting locals.
Out and about nearby
Kirkenes lies about 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle and on the north-eastern coast of Norway, just 14 kms from the Russian border and just under 60 kms from the Finnish border. The area is renowned for the midnight sun and also the Northern Lights in the winter months. Activities in the area include fishing for king crabs, hikes, snowshoe walks, rides with huskies, sea fishing and watching the Northern Lights.
Sports nearby
Hiking in summer, snowshoe walks in winter, fishing. Snow yoga and winter puppy walks.
It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a Gamme cabin or ice hotel room for 5 nights
From about
£2,640 Summer
£3,650 Winter
Holiday Code EXH46343
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers. This hotel is usually visited as part of a tailormade touring holiday and the duration and travel arrangements will be changed to meet your personal requirements.
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury bespoke hotel holidays to Snowhotel Kirkenes, Norway
The Snowhotel Kirkenes is a total Arctic experience 365 days a year. Come here not only to experience the intriguing concept of sleeping in a room made of snow and ice, but also to find out about this fascinating region on the Barents Sea, with its tundra, dense pine forests, thousands of lakes and activities all year round. The winters are long and cold with lots of snow, offering husky sledding, king crab fishing on frozen waters, snowmobile rides under the Northern Lights. In the summer you have the land of the Midnight Sun from mid-May until the end of July, and on offer are mountain hikes, fishing on the Barents Sea, and husky wagon rides. In the autumn, the landscape is a profusion of orange, yellow and red, and the midnight sun gives way to the magic lights of the Aurora Borealis. The Snowhotel is situated about 20 minutes outside of Kirkenes in the natural landscape. There is a main building with the main restaurant, Laven, serving as much locally sourced produce as possible with dishes perhaps containing smoked reindeer and lingonberry, Arctic char, king crab, wild mushrooms, salted cod and cloudberries. There is also a snow restaurant where you can enjoy an Arctic lunch in a restaurant made from ice and snow. There is a choice of accommodation. You might want to experience one night in an ice room before transferring to a Gamme wooden cabin for the rest of your stay. The Gamme cabins are inspired by the traditional hunting and fishing huts of the region and offer rustic comfort and amazing views. In the ice room, the temperature is about -4 degrees Celsius but a warm, thermal sleeping bag should ensure a good night’s rest. The ice bar is open for an hour at 13.00 hrs and 21.00 hrs to serve you ice cold special Arctic drinks. Not only does the accommodation itself offer an extraordinary experience, but during your stay there are many Arctic experiences and excursions to enjoy. You can arrange all manner of local activities including king crab fishing, hiking, sea fishing, husky sled rides, excursions to watch the Northern Lights – all depending on the season. In the summer months bicycles are available for your use and rowing boats with fishing gear can be hired. In the winter snowshoes and skis can be borrowed.
Room descriptions
The Snowhotel Kirkenes has 14 ice rooms all year round and several Gamme wooden cabins, with bathroom, air-conditioning, hairdryer and underfloor heating. For the ice rooms there are lockers for valuables, showers and wcs and sauna in an adjacent building, and there is access to a warm lounge 24 hours a day. A warm, thermal sleeping bag is provided.
It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a Gamme cabin or ice hotel room for 5 nights
From about
£2,640 Summer
£3,650 Winter
Holiday Code EXH46343
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers. This hotel is usually visited as part of a tailormade touring holiday and the duration and travel arrangements will be changed to meet your personal requirements.
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury bespoke hotel holidays to Snowhotel Kirkenes, Norway
The journey and how you get there
For a holiday to the Snowhotel Kirkenes, we include a scheduled flight from London to Oslo and Oslo to Kirkenes. You may need to overnight in Oslo but often a visit to Kirkenes will be part of a tailormade touring holiday and you might arrive and leave on the Hurtigruten boat. The hotel is about 20 minutes by car from the port and the airport.
It was an excellent holiday - due to excellent planning on your side. Super efficient, very professional.Mrs F, Holiday to Norway, Oct 2023
Holiday price guide Sample prices are per person based on two people sharing a Gamme cabin or ice hotel room for 5 nights
From about
£2,640 Summer
£3,650 Winter
Holiday Code EXH46343
The prices displayed here are a guide only. Each holiday price will be tailor-made at the time of booking to reflect all actual costs including up-to-date special offers. This hotel is usually visited as part of a tailormade touring holiday and the duration and travel arrangements will be changed to meet your personal requirements.
Call us on 01392 441245
Luxury bespoke hotel holidays to Snowhotel Kirkenes, Norway
About Norway
Norway is a fascinating destination for a luxury, tailor-made holiday. The land and the culture of Norway lend themselves to a diverse and rich array of holiday experiences and a choice of mode of transport. At first glance, Norway offers magnificent, dramatic, severe and wild natural surroundings in its glaciers, Arctic snow and ice, majestic fjords, crashing waterfalls and mystical natural phenomena such as the Aurora Borealis and Fata Morgana. However, Norway also offers cultural ties, a shared history dating from the days of the Vikings, a cosiness in its orchards and pastures, brightly-painted wooden houses, folk tales and mythology, world-class art, literature and music in the works of Munch, Ibsen and Grieg, to name but three, and international philanthropy as exemplified by the Nobel prize. Many towns have superb museums, ancient wooden stave churches are well-preserved, the heritage of the Vikings is visible not just in major centres such as Oslo but all around, and seemingly small places are rich with music and drama festivals. Whilst the length of Norway with is 2518 km poses a challenge to the visitor, this also means that it makes sense to use a variety of transport modes to travel around; scenic trains, sleeper trains, boat rides, coastal cruises and car-hire can all be incorporated. The landscape lends itself well to hiking and cycling and there are many national parks that offer a variety of conditions depending on your ability. Norway’s cities are vibrant and manage to blend modernity with tradition. The iconic Oslo Opera House sits a short distance from the Akershus fortress, the Old Town Hall dating from 1641 is a stroll away from the Akrobaten pedestrian bridge, a near-futuristic construction of steel and glass.
Highlights of Norway
The numerous fjords: Eidfjord – branch of the Hardangerfjord, Geirangerfjord – precipitous, one of Norway’s signature images, Hardangerfjord – rolling hills and pretty villages, Jossingfjord – vertiginous fjord in the flatlands of the south, Lysefjord – plunging cliffs, cruises and look out points, Naeroyfjord – narrow and very pretty, Sognefjord – Norway’s longest and one of the most beautiful, Trollfjord – very steep fjord on Lofoten, Vestfjord – sheltered bays and pretty villages separating Lofoten from the mainland. The Hurtigruten ferry that covers over 2500 km from Bergen to Kirkenes with over 30 stops. The Midnight Sun and the Northern Lights. Stave churches, beautifully preserved in wood, dating from Viking times, for example at Borgund, Lom, Ringebu and Urnes. Viking ships and artefacts, burial mounds and trinkets in museums throughout the country. The red, wooden houses perched stilts over the sea on the Lofoten Islands. The modern architecture of Oslo. Picking wild blueberries, sampling aquavit made from potatoes and caraway, and tasting reindeer steak with cranberries. The charm of Oslofjorden with its pretty, arty village and towns, harbours with sailing boats, islands offshore and beaches. Hike over the Jotunheimen and relish the natural landscape of this stunning National Park.
Cultural highlights of Norway
The architecture of stave churches dating from the Viking era and Viking treasure in museums around the country. The literature of Henrik Ibsen and Knut Hamsun. Folk tales and mythology. The music of Edvard Grieg and the art of Edvard Munch. Contemporary jazz and folk music.
Gastronomy of Norway
Norway’s gastronomy is a clear reflection of its land and sea. From the land come reindeer, venison, lamb, cured meats and potatoes of all types: boiled, roasted and fried. From the freshwater lakes and streams come salmon served grilled and smoked, and freshwater fish. Sea fish is a vast array of cod, haddock, shrimps, mackerel, fish soup, fish balls, salt cod. From the orchards particularly around the Hardangerfjord come apples, cherries and plums as well as berries of all sorts including blueberries, cranberries, bilberries and, a great delicacy, cloudberries. Cheeses include Jarlsberg and brown cheese. Coffee is almost certainly the national drink, followed by beer, of which there are all sorts of craft beers brewed locally, and Aquavit is the national spirit made from potatoes and caraway.
Facts in brief
Capital OsloAirport Oslo Gardermoen
Size 323,878 sq km
Population 4.4 million
