No reviews for 2 years, and then 3 in a week of each other!!!

We got married in the Snow Castle at the end of March 2009 and it couldnt have been a more wonderful and romantic day. The chapel inside the hotel is a beautifful and was a unique setting for our wedding. During the ceremony the chapel was closed to the public (however we still had 2 gatecrashers!!! - we presume that they were in the chapel at the time it was closed off!). We followed the ceremony with a meal in the Snow Restaurant, and again they had sectioned an area off especially for us.
The staff at the Snow Castle office were brilliant and meant that there was no stress on the day. They arranged for me to have my hair and make up done at a local salon and arranged for a local photographer to take some pictures (the lighting inside the Snow Castle is unusual - so it was definitely worth having a professional!).

The meal in the Snow Restaurant was also very nice, the food was surprisingly good, and remained warm long enough for you to eat it. The restaurant has to be booked in advance, and has only a set menu, but there is enough variety for most people.

The next night we stayed in the Snow Castle Hotel. You can check in at any time during the day and there is a large locker room for guests to store their luggage. At 7pm the Snow Castle is closed to the general public, leaving only hotel and restaurant guests visiting. At 9pm there is a safety briefing explaining how to stay warm during the night and how to use the arctic sleeping bags (which work down to -35C, it is only -4.5C in the Snow Castle). There is someone in the warm bar area all night in case of any problems. They also ask you what time you would like to be woken, as the Castle opens to the public at 10am. After this time you can goto your room. We spent a good half an hour wandering around the Snow Castle, taking a few photos. Prior to going to bed we had hot drinks in the warm bar before retiring to our room. The hard part is taking off your clothes to get into your sleeping bag, but once you are in it you will be toasty warm for the night. Surprisingly I slept very well.

Breakfast is served in the warm bar area and was similar food to what we had been served on the 3 mornings previously at the Hotel Merihovi.

Yes, an overnight stay at the Snow Castle is expensive, but how often do you get the opportunity to stay in a room made of snow! And, compared to other snow / ice hotels around the world the Snow Castle is reasonably priced!

The Kemi Snowcastle is a remarkable construction, built anew each winter and offering a unique environment and experience for those happy to shell out rather a lot of money to sleep in snow-carved rooms at a delighful -4.5 degrees centigrade.

There is obviously no heating in the rooms and lights are eerie and dim. No TVs, radios or any of the usual accoutrements, either. The hotel and its rooms are available and open to visitors/tourists before 7pm, but there is hardly any point in checking in earlier as essentially you sleep in the clothes you are wearing and can't take a shower or bath.

In the morning buses will take you to a nearby hotel where you can sauna, breakfast and generally get the warmth back into your bones - although sleeping bags make the over-night experience a surprisingly warm one, as long as you don't need to go to the loo!

Crazy and wonderful though the idea is, you are paying a lot basically to say that you have stayed there. Why not visit the hotel instead and possibly eat in its restaurant, visit the chapel, labyrinth and snow slides, and then retire to somewhere more comfortable and warm?

The restaurant was worth the experience - just. Prices were reasonable compared to those in Helsinki, for example, but the menu choices were limited and not of the highest quality. Dinner is served at 7pm, and you will be finished by 8.30. Again, as with the hotel, you are eating there mainly for the experience, not necessarily the gastronomic one.

In any event one night and one meal is as much as you will want or need to have.

Wow. You don't get to stay in places like this very often. What an amazing place. Hotel in two parts - the actual snow hotel with guest rooms, snow chapel, ice gallery, ice restaurant and ice bar, children's play area and slide, plus warm area with cafe, toilets and shop. Hotel made entirely of snow and ice with a constant temperature of -5C. It's built on the quayside but the sea itself is frozen solid for miles. The snowcastle is open to the public until 7pm then we had it all to ourselves. There were only 5 guests in total that night so it felt like a very special experience. We had dinner in the ice restaurant, eat fast before it goes cold! The wine chills itself and was colder by the end of the bottle than the start - the other way round to normal! When it's bed time, you sleep in two special arctic sleeping bags, wearing your base layer and a hat. Clothes go between the bags to keep warm for the morning when they wake you for breakfast. We had a really good night's sleep! We were so warm and toasty inside the bags. Snowy views around are breathtakingly beautiful. Staff friendly and warm, unlike the weather! Not cheap, we did gulp at the price when we booked but now having been, it was worth every penny for the unforgettable experience.

I stayed at the ice hotel last February with 3 friends. We did the whole trip to Finland -- arrived in Kemi Friday night, went on the ice breaker cruise on Saturday, went to Santa's village on Sunday, and stayed at the ice hotel sunday night. (Thank goodness for the flight out on Monday!) We had a great time, but bring your mittens -- it's COLD up there!

I found the people at the ice hotel to be great! They helped me arrange the one night there and two nights at a nearby hotel, which were reasonably priced. Since this was my first stay at an ice hotel, I figured we'd stay all nights at the ice hotel -- thank goodness someone who knew better set me straight! We took care of the whole thing by fax (book early!) and it was very easy.

When we got there, we had dinner in the hotel. It's expensive and I'm not sure I'd do it again, but the experience was good. (Careful, the drinks are expensive!) We then spent the evening in the "warm room" before bed. It's much like camping in that there's no bathroom or sink in the room, so you have to take care of all of that before heading out to sleep. Trust me, midnight trips to the bathroom are absolutely no fun.

The next morning they took us back to the hotel for a shower and to collect our belongings. The shower is a group-type thing, be prepared. (Not bad, just a little surprising) We then took a taxi to the airport and were on our way. It was a memorable weekend!