Kiruna: The Sinking Mine Town of Sweden's Lapland

Kiruna Church and bell tower.

Kiruna is sinking, literally.  Sweden’s northernmost town located in Swedish Lapland, a remote area with a harsh climate within the Arctic Circle, came to be because of the rich iron ore being mined nearby.  The same mine that brought the people and the town and the money is what is now causing the town to sink.  

The situation isn’t a complete disaster, and it isn’t a surprise either.   When LKAB, Kiruna’s mining company, was founded in 1890, the founder ran the calculations and knew that if the mine continued, the town would have to be moved in 125 years.  That time has come and Kiruna needs to move.

You may be wondering why a mining town that is slowly sinking is a sought after tourist destination.  Kiruna is a popular place to visit for people who are traveling to Swedish Lapland to enjoy outdoor winter activities like snowmobiling, dogsledding, and seeing the Northern Lights.

Kiruna City Hall.

While Kiruna is oftentimes used as a home-base for enjoying outdoor activities, the town itself has something to offer visitors to this remote part of the world.  The main attraction is the mine, which travelers can visit on a guided tour.  There is also Kiruna Church, a wooden church voted the most beautiful public building in Sweden, and Kiruna’s city hall, with its unusual clock tower.  After the city’s big move, some of Kiruna’s attractions will still be in the same place, some will be moved, and some will no longer exist.

Kiruna's iron mine.

A visit to Kiruna should include a tour of the mine.  After all, the town wouldn’t even be there if it weren’t for the mine.  This isn’t your gold rush era old-timey kind of mine like we visited on Arizona’s Apache Trail.  This is a modern, working, underground city kind of mine.

Entrance to Kiruna's iron mine.

The LKAB mine is the largest underground iron ore mine in the world.  It can only be visited on a guided tour which is set up through the Kiruna Lapland tourism board.  (For tour times and to make a reservation, visit Kiruna Lapland’s website.)  A bus picks everyone up from the Tourist Office in Kiruna and drives them to the nearby mine.  Once the bus enters the cave-like entrance, the bus begins winding its way down, down, down into the bowels of the earth. 

Schematic of the mine's tunnels.

The roads inside the mine are called slopeways.  There are 400 kilometers of slopeways within Kiruna’s mine.  The levels of the mine are named after their depth.  For instance, Level 540 is 540 meters down and is one of the main levels from 30 years ago.  A restaurant for mine workers is 1,365 meters underground, and the deepest point of the mine is 1,545 meters.

Equipment used in Kiruna's iron mine.  The tires are filled with water.

After donning hardhats, the tour starts deep in the mine with a short film about the mine and the company.  The tour then walks through the level where mining equipment can be seen and the mining process is explained.  You can even take home a baggie of iron ore pellets, which is the form in which most of the iron from the mine is distributed.  One day of mining produces enough iron to build six Eiffel Towers.

In case you’re wondering how an entire town can afford to move, LKAB will pay for the move.  LKAB is one of the most profitable companies in Sweden.

Kiruna Church.

There are a few things to do and see within the town center of Kiruna as well.  One of the top things to see in Kiruna is Kiruna Church.  Kiruna Church is not your standard church.  It is a wooden church built in the shape of a Sami tent, or goahti.  Kiruna Church was designed by Gustav Wickman and was built between 1909 and 1912.  When the church was completed in 1912, it was donated to the people of Kiruna by LKAB mining company.  In 2001, the church was voted Sweden’s most beautiful building. 

Interior of Kiruna Church.

Kiruna Church is in the center of town.  It is one of the buildings that will be saved and will actually be moved to a safer spot.

Interior of Kiruna's City Hall.

Another must see in Kiruna is Kiruna’s City Hall.  This is a spacious building topped with a very unusual clock.  Kiruna’s current City Hall will not survive the town’s move.  Within City Hall visitors can view plans for Kiruna’s new city center, including the new city hall.  The clock tower of City Hall will be saved and will be a highlight of the new town center. 

Artist rendering of new city hall and city center.

While moving an entire town is an incredibly difficult and expensive endeavor, the upside is that Kiruna will be a more beautiful town with a bustling city center with shops, hotels, homes, and public spaces.  Once the move has been completed, which could take 20 years, a park will be created where the old town once stood.

Camp Ripan.

If you’re planning on staying in Kiruna, we suggest Camp Ripan, a lovely hotel on the outskirts of town, but within easy walking distance, even in the winter.  To learn more about Camp Ripan, its restaurant, its spa, and its Northern Lights viewability, read our article about five awesome hotels in Sweden.

Thank you to Kiruna Lapland and Camp Ripan for hosting our time in Kiruna and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.

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5 Awesome Hotels in Sweden

View of the Northern Lights from Camp Ripan in Kiruna.

Part of having a perfect vacation in Sweden is staying at the perfect hotels in Sweden.  We spent two weeks traveling through Sweden, starting in Sweden’s capital city Stockholm for history, then spending time in Swedish Lapland hunting for the Northern Lights and enjoying outdoor winter activities, stopping in Gothenburg in West Sweden for seafood, and finishing for one last night in Stockholm before heading home.  During our travels through Sweden, we stayed at five beautiful, comfortable, and unique hotels in Stockholm, Jukkasjärvi, Kiruna, and Gothenburg. 

Related: Northern Lights: Where to See, How to Photograph

STOCKHOLM SWEDEN HOTELS

Miss Clara by Nobis

Miss Clara by Nobis is a first-class hotel located in an Art Nouveau building erected in 1910 which used to house a girls’ school.  Arteneum girls’ school was first run by headmistress Miss Clara, from whom the hotel gets its name. 

All 92 of Miss Clara by Nobis’s rooms face outwards towards Sveavägen Boulevard.  I would describe the rooms as having functional elegance.  Our deluxe room was expansive with dark parquet floors, high ceilings, and tall windows looking out towards the boulevard and Adolf Fredrik Church.  We had two bathrooms, one which was small and just had the toilet and a sink, and the other large with a sunken bathtub, a vanity, and a large walk-in shower.  The large marble bathrooms even have heated floors, a luxurious addition which feels great both in the morning when stepping in and out of the shower and in the evening after walking around Stockholm all day.  The rooms provide multiple ways to relax with a window seat, a chaise lounge, and a unique design of a chair back bolted to the foot of the bed along with a laptop lap desk in case you need to get a little work done.

At street level, there is a restaurant, bar, gym, sauna, and relaxation lounge.  In the morning a generous breakfast buffet is served in the bar and restaurant serving everything you could possibly want including eggs and meat, yogurt and granola, fruit, smoothies, and thin buttery waffles fresh from the waffle maker, perfect with a dollop of butter and a side of lingonberries.

Be sure to ask the friendly staff for a map of Stockholm and suggestions.  Petter, who was manning the front desk, took the time to explain the layout of central Stockholm and point out all the places we might want to visit, from the palace and museum to interesting neighborhoods, shopping streets, and popular restaurants.

Nobis Hotel

We only stayed in Stockholm’s Nobis Hotel for one night, but what a luxurious night it was.  Nobis Hotel is twice the size of Miss Clara by Nobis, with 201 rooms, and is located in on Norrmalmstorg Square in two interconnected 19th-century buildings.

Nobis Hotel is a luxury hotel, but the designers wanted to make a modern, edgy, and contemporary luxury hotel without the traditional luxury hotel features.  They envisioned a hotel that feels warm and homey rather than opulent and over-the-top.

Our room was large and spacious with high ceilings, large windows, dark wood floors, and muted accents which created a relaxing feel.  Through the windows, we could see Norrmalmstorg Square.

The lounge is a beautiful bright space in the enclosed center courtyard of the hotel.  The ceiling has two glass domes which let in natural light and are surrounded by bright colorful tiles of blue and green.  The walls surrounding the courtyard have rounded towers with scattered small windows, making it look almost like a castle surrounds the lounge.  The lounge is a comfortable place to hang out, like a living room, where guests can relax and enjoy snacks and spirits.

While the designers wanted to stay away from the expected luxury touches like velvet and gold, they still managed to sneak a bit in with the Gold Bar where guests can enjoy a cocktail.  Nobis Hotel also has Caina Restaurant, which serves Italian cuisine, and Bistro, a more casual eatery also offering Italian dishes.

SWEDISH LAPLAND HOTELS

ICEHOTEL Jukkasjärvi

Swedish Lapland is a popular destination in winter for travelers who are hoping to see the Northern Lights. The most well-known hotel in Swedish Lapland is the original and world-famous ice hotel of Sweden, ICEHOTEL Jukkasjärvi.  Because the ICEHOTEL is such a unique hotel, I’ve written an entire article on what it’s like to stay in Sweden’s ice hotel.

Camp Ripan in Kiruna

We stayed in Swedish Lapland for four nights to increase our chances of seeing the Northern Lights.  We spent two nights at the ICEHOTEL then moved to Camp Ripan in Kiruna.  While staying at the ICEHOTEL is a bucket list experience, it was also fun to stay in a hotel within the mining town of Kiruna.  Plus, Camp Ripan is a bit easier on the pocketbook. 

Despite the name, Camp Ripan is not a campground, which is a good thing since foreign travelers to Kiruna are more likely to be visiting in winter than summer and wouldn’t want to be camping in such freezing temperatures.  Camp Ripan’s main building contains the lobby and restaurant, a second building houses the spa, and then there are also strings of connected cabins where guests stay.  Camp Ripan does also offer camping during the warmer months.

The cabins are very modern and simple but accented with bright touches like green couches and pillows.  The wood floors and furnishings are light wood.  During the winter, windows look out onto the snow, usually marked with tracks from small animals.

My favorite feature of Camp Ripan is the spa.  Every day we were out in the cold, either enjoying winter outdoor activities, like dog sledding, or exploring the town of Kiruna.  Spending an evening at the Aurora Spa was so relaxing!  After changing into a swimsuit and robe in the dressing room, you enter the spa by walking through a rock covered hallway with water running down the walls and along the walkway like a stream.  There are a few different saunas to choose from with different scents promoting relaxation.  Outside of the saunas are showers to rinse off under, with a choice of a standard shower or the more traditional bucket of ice cold water.  There’s an indoor pool or, for the very brave, a heated outdoor pool surrounded by the snow outside.

Camp Ripan also has a very good restaurant, which is White Guide rated and serves seasonal food inspired by the Swedish, Sami, and Torne Valley Finish cultures.

One of the main reasons we chose Camp Ripan as our hotel in Kiruna is because even though Camp Ripan is in town, it is located on the outer-edge of town, which I hoped meant there would be less light pollution if the Northern Lights showed themselves.  It turned out this was a good hunch.  On our last night at Camp Ripan, we left the spa to find the Northern Lights dancing in the skies.  Just behind the hotel, near the cabins, is an open area that is also the beginning of Midnattssolstigen, Midnight Sun Trail.  Just steps away from our cabin we were able to set up our tripods and get some spectacular shots of the Northern Lights.  The lights in the park turned off soon after the aurora borealis started, so there was very little light pollution, though the light coming from the hotel provides the perfect amount to take Northern Lights selfies.

GOTHENBURG SWEDEN HOTEL

Hotel & Ristorante Bellora

Hotel Bellora is a boutique hotel in the center of it all, right on Gothenburg’s main street, Kungsportsavenyn.  Many great restaurants are within easy walking distance of Hotel Bellora, including Gothenburg’s newest Michelin-starred restaurants.  Hotel Bellora also has two restaurants of its own, Ristorante Bellora and sister restaurant Brasserie Lipp where breakfast is served.

Rooms are small and functional with city views.  Floors are dark hardwood, walls are covered with wallpaper that looks like the buildings of the Greek islands, and little bookshelves by the bed hold books of all different genres in case you forgot to bring reading material.  A nice extra touch was the bottled sparkling water and coffee press.  Just across the hallway from our room was a balcony looking over the main street below.

I was amused by a sign in the bathroom listing items the front desk could supply for guests who had forgotten any of them.  Ear plugs, mouth wash, and sewing kits are provided free of charge, but they’ll also provide items like boxers and socks for a small fee.

If you’re planning a Swedish holiday, you won’t go wrong by staying at one or all of these hotels in Sweden.  

Thank you to all of the hotels listed in this post for partnering with us to make this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own. 

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What It’s Like to Stay in Sweden’s ICEHOTEL

Welcome to Sweden's ICEHOTEL.

Almost everybody has heard of the famous ICEHOTEL.  For many, a night in Sweden’s ICEHOTEL is a once in a lifetime experience—though there are a few who don’t understand the appeal of sleeping on a bed of ice in below freezing temperatures.  However, if you’ve never stayed in an ice hotel, you might not know very much about the realities of sleeping in a hotel entirely made of ice.

How the ICEHOTEL Began

The ICEHOTEL celebrated its 25th anniversary during the 2014/15 season.

The ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi, a town within the Kiruna Municipality of Sweden, is the world’s original ice hotel and celebrated its 25th anniversary this past season.  Kiruna is a relatively new town, founded in 1900 to support its iron mine.  During our tour of the ICEHOTEL, we were told the story of the French artist Jannot Derid who wanted to create a reason for people to come visit this freezing destination.  He traveled to cold places around the world for inspiration and became intrigued with the art of ice sculpture in Japan.  In 1989, he constructed the first ICEHOTEL, erecting an ice building in which to display the ice art exhibition.  Every year since, the ICEHOTEL has been constructed along the shores of the Torne River. 

How the ICEHOTEL is Built

The ICEHOTEL's lobby.

Sweden’s ICEHOTEL opens every year in December and closes in April.  The building materials, blocks of ice, are harvested from the Torne River every March before the river melts and stored in production halls.  The ICEHOTEL is brand new every year, as the previous year’s hotel melts back into the ground.  The only part that looks the same from year to year is the central pillar hall which is created using forms that are covered in snice, a mixture of snow and ice.  The forms are removed once construction is finished, so the ICEHOTEL is, in fact, a freestanding ice structure. 

The ICEHOTEL's Pillar Hall at night.

The ICEHOTEL usually has about 65 rooms of different kinds: deluxe suites, art suites, Northern Lights rooms, ice rooms, and snow rooms.  For the 25th anniversary, there were 16 art suites designed by 46 artists from 12 countries.  A contest is held every year so artists can submit their ideas for the art suites.  The winners are chosen and then the winners travel to Jukkasjärvi to turn their visions into reality.

Touring the ICEHOTEL

Prime Mate art suite.

The ICEHOTEL, including the individual cold rooms, are open to the public daily between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m., meaning guests do not keep their items in their rooms as the ICEHOTEL is more of a museum during the day.  Guests and visitors can walk through the rooms and take pictures throughout the day and can also join a guided tour that explains the history and process of making the ICEHOTEL.  Visitors who are not guests need to pay an entrance fee.

ICEHOTEL Cold Rooms

Cordoba art suite.

What you may not know is that the ICEHOTEL has both cold rooms and warm rooms.  Most guests of the ICEHOTEL choose to stay only one night in a cold room and then spend the rest of their nights in a warm room.  A word to the wise, spend your first night in a cold room so you can be sure to get a good night’s rest the evening after.  We found that among most couples we talked to who had spent a night in a cold room, one had no problem sleeping (and kind of looked at the other one like they were a wuss), and the other half of the couple was slightly miserable.  I’ll let you guess who was who in our relationship.

Forest Fairy art suite.

When you check-in to a cold room, you will check-in at the dressing room, which is used by cold room guests when they aren’t sleeping.  In the dressing room, guests get wall lockers to store their stuff, and if you’re staying in an art room, you get a dressing room.  Our Northern Lights room came with a wall locker, but we jumped the chance to upgrade to a dressing room so we’d have more room for our stuff and so we could charge all of our cameras, phones, and other equipment.  If you stick with the wall locker, you can also use the tiny electronics charging lockers.  The dressing room has a large seating area with a fireplace to hang out, plus his and hers bathrooms with toilets, showers, dressing areas, and saunas.

Polar Night art suite.

When you check-in to either a warm or a cold room, you are also provided with mittens, boots, and warm coveralls which you can use for walking around outside and also for booked outdoor activities.  Speaking of activities, you can choose to book your own activities independently or you can book them through the ICEHOTEL, usually at the same cost.  Some of the activities offered are snowmobiling, dog sledding, reindeer sledding, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, ice sculpting, and horseback riding.

Spring art suite.

No matter the temperature outside, the temperature inside the ICEHOTEL is a constant negative five degrees Celsius.  When you’re ready to turn in, you will be provided with super warm sleeping bags that are designed to withstand far below freezing temperatures.  If you’re a couple, you’ll be given the choice between a two-person sleeping bag or two individual sleeping bags.  Opt for the singles.  You’ll also get a tube sheet to slip into first.  

Time Piece art suite.

Guests staying in a cold room should be sure to join the how to survive the night in negative five degrees tour.  You might be surprised to learn that less is actually more.  It’s best to wear good thermals (we love our his and hers Under Armour ColdGear), warm wool socks (Wigwams are the best), and a hat (Under Armour again).  Don’t wear additional pajamas.  The heat from your body warms up the air within the sleeping bag, and additional clothing just slows down the process.  

Related: Winter Travel Packing List: What to Pack for Outdoor Activities

7.5 °Rø art suite.

The beds in the cold rooms are platforms of ice with foam sleeping pads and reindeer pelts lying on top.  You actually get warm pretty fast and the only time you really feel any cold through the night is if you decide to turn over.

Our Northern Lights art room.

After you’ve accomplished the grand feat of spending the night in a cold room, you’ll receive a diploma with the date, the indoor temperature, the outdoor temperature (ours was -10 degrees Celsius), and the statement that you survived a night at the ICEHOTEL in Jukkasjärvi 200 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle.  It is then time to move into a warm room.

ICEHOTEL Warm Rooms

The ICEHOTEL's warm rooms.

The ICEHOTEL has three kinds of warm rooms: arctic chalets, kaamos rooms, and Nordic chalets.  These rooms have all the comforts of a regular hotel room, including private bathrooms.  At every turn our room had reminders that we were staying at the ICEHOTEL: an icicle shaped lamp, an icicle shaped light in the headboard, and even an icicle shaped cutout in the shower drain.  Someone had even built a snowman right outside our window.

Eating at the ICEHOTEL

Icehotel Restaurant.

When you’re in Jukkasjärvi, you’re pretty much there for the ICEHOTEL and the activities.  There are only two restaurants in town, and one of them is the Icehotel Restaurant.  The other is the Homestead restaurant, a 15-minute walk down the street.  

Bleak roe, onions, and sour cream served on an ice block.

At the Icehotel Restaurant, I had the set menu, with some of the courses served on a block of ice.  The first course was bleak roe, onions, and sour cream served with a potato rosti, a very traditional Swedish dish we saw on many menus.  Next was cured and lightly smoked arctic char with a fennel puree, arctic char mousse, and sea buckthorn.  My favorite course was the fillet of reindeer with Jägermeister sauce, potato, vegetables, reindeer moss, and cloudberry jelly.  Reindeer meat is some of the leanest and most tender I have ever had.  Dessert was caramel tuile, nougat ganache with truffles and arctic bramble sorbet.

Café and lounge behind the ICEHOTEL's main reception.

There is also a café behind the main reception area where sandwiches and drinks can be purchased throughout the day.

Drinking at the ICEHOTEL

ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL: BOOOM.

After dinner at the restaurant, be sure to stop in for a drink at the ICEBAR BY ICEHOTEL, the original ice bar.  Cocktails and champagne are served in glasses made entirely of ice.  Cocktails are inspired by the year’s art suite themes and feature Nordic ingredients.

The Ice Church

Ice Church: In the Glade.

Also on the property is an Ice Church that is built every year along with the ICEHOTEL.  More than 100 (very short) wedding ceremonies are held in the Ice Church every year.

The Northern Lights at the ICEHOTEL

Northern Lights spotted above the ICEHOTEL.

In addition to the once in a lifetime experience of staying in an ice hotel, you’re probably also visiting because you’re hoping to see the Northern Lights.  Jukkasjärvi is such a tiny town there is very little light pollution.  If the Northern Lights start dancing overhead, the best place to see them from the hotel is right on the frozen Torne River just yards behind the hotel.

Related: Northern Lights: Where to See, How to Photograph

I have to admit I had mixed feelings while staying at the ICEHOTEL.  For the months leading up to our stay, I was incredibly excited.  I thought it was fun to stay in a cold room for one night (and one night only).  But partway into our stay I began to feel like maybe it was gimmicky and wondered if it was really worth the cost.  I partly attribute these feelings to the lack of sleep the first night, as we stayed up late hoping to see the Northern Lights then went to our cold bed disappointed we hadn’t seen them, sure that night had been our best chance.   However, this feeling only lasted for a short time.  As I sat eating breakfast in the Icehotel Restaurant on our last morning I felt sad we were leaving and realized I had developed a great fondness for the ICEHOTEL and all its little touches like the icicle logo etched into the glasses and the diaphanous curtains hanging from the ceiling to mimic the Northern Lights.  I went into our stay at the ICEHOTEL thinking it was a once in a lifetime experience we were lucky to be able to enjoy, and I left feeling the exact same way. 

Thank you to the ICEHOTEL for hosting our stay and making this post possible.  As always, all opinions are my own.  

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