1 Hotels can make a person’s stay away from home as restful as possible. Hotels provide warm beds to allow guests a peaceful night’s rest. In addition, some hotels offer guests special services such as newspapers to read in the morning, fresh coffee, and even breakfast. Hotel workers want their guests to feel warm and welcome when they stay in their hotel.

2 One hotel near the Arctic Circle, however, is different. This hotel gives its guests a cold welcome. The Ice Hotel, in Sweden, is made entirely of ice. The Ice Hotel might sound strange, but in some ways it is a typical hotel. It has a front lobby where guests check into the hotel, plenty of rooms to sleep in, and even room service, which guests can use to have food delivered to their rooms. The Ice Hotel is different, though, because most of the items are made from ice.

3 It takes more than 30 tons of ice and snow to build the Ice Hotel. It melts in the summer and is rebuilt each winter. Different builders and artists create the Ice Hotel, so each winter this famous hotel has a new shape and design.

4 The effort of building the Ice Hotel is worth it, however. Walking into the Ice Hotel is like walking into a diamond. The walls reflect even the smallest bits of light. The inside of the hotel gleams a bluish color. Ice pillars support the roof. The floor below shines like glass. Almost every inch of this hotel sparkles inside. Visiting the Ice Hotel is truly an unusual experience.

5 Guests also find that sleeping in this hotel is an adventure they will never forget. Instead of sleeping on a regular bed, guests are given an insulated sleeping bag to keep them warm. The sleeping bag is laid on top of a layer of ice and snow. Although this sounds chilly, guests feel quite comfortable.

6 Temperatures inside the Ice Hotel are usually below freezing. Guests wear warm jackets, hats, gloves, and thick boots. Even the owners of the Ice Hotel know that staying in a building with walls of ice four feet thick can be a bit cold. They have a solution though. The Ice Hotel has a sauna for its guests. A sauna is a room filled with steam, where guests can warm themselves. While a sauna is warm enough to heat a chilly person, it will not melt through the walls of ice. Guests can use the sauna to store heat for a night’s stay or to thaw from the previous night. In a way, then, one could say that the Ice Hotel does give their guests a warm welcome after all.