Step inside a hotel made of ice
Learning Objective: Students will read a short nonfiction article, then practice using a grammar skill featured in the text.
Jim McMahon/Mapman ®
Brrr. You’ve just spent a snowy day exploring northern Sweden. In the winter, temperatures here can drop to -40 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s colder than your freezer! Time to check into your hotel and warm up in front of a crackling fire, right?
Wrong! Tonight, you’re staying at the IceHotel. It’s a hotel made of ice and snow.
Freezing Cold
The IceHotel is one of many hotels made of ice and snow around the world. Most are in the northernmost parts of our planet, where winters are freezing cold.
Ice hotels are built from scratch in the fall once temperatures dip below freezing. In Sweden, that usually happens in November. Builders take big ice blocks from a nearby frozen river. Some are stacked to make walls, while others are carved into icy furniture.
Creating the IceHotel takes about six weeks. Then its doors open to visitors.
imageBROKER.com/Alamy Stock Photo
A bed at the IceHotel
A Night at the Hotel
You get to your room and find a bed made of . . . ice! It’s covered with a soft fur blanket.
To stay warm while you sleep, you’ll wear layers of thick wool clothing and zip into a sleeping bag. Rooms are kept around 20 degrees Fahrenheit so nothing melts.
The next morning, a staff member wakes you up with a hot cup of juice. Do guests sleep well in the icy rooms? “They usually wake up in the morning pleasantly surprised of how good they slept in the crisp air!” says Jenny Andersson, who works at the hotel.
When temperatures rise in the spring, the hotel melts. Then in the fall, a new one is built. See you next winter, ice hotel
This story was originally published in the December 2026/January 2027 issue.
