My Heart Soars: Kiruna, Sweden: Part 4 - Day 4 and 5: Ice hotel, return flight

Here is a summary of what is spent on Day 4 and 5.

14/7 Day 4: Drive back to Arvidsjaur. Stopped at Ice Hotel, Jokkmokk and Moskosel.

15/7 Day 5: Flight back to Stockholm

Costs

Day 4

(1) Ticket to enter Ice Hotel - SEK305

(2) Lunch at Ennas, Porjus - Reindeer burger and fries SEK135

(3) Dinner at Moskosel Camping & Stugor - Smoked moutain char (fjällröding) SEK94,50

Day 5

(4) Breakfast at Hotel Laponia - SEK70 (reduced price as we stayed in Camp Gelais when we returned to Arvidsjaur)

(5) Lunch at Camp Gelais - pancakes SEK55, coffee SEK17

(6) Taxi to Arvidsjaur airport - SEK140

The Story

14072024 - We had breakfast and checked out at 10.30am. We saw Ice Hotel on the way to Kiruna and decided to stop here. The ticket to enter inside has increased by SEK10 since I was there the first time in 2018 but I did not enter. I did not enter inside in 2018 because I was not financially stable. This time, I entered as my friend commented that we will not be going inside here again. She has a point.

The permanent part of the Ice Hotel is heavily insulated to keep the hotel at -5 degrees. Thanks to the long daylight hours and strong sunlight during summer, the electrity price is low to maintain the ice hotel. During winter, it is very cold and the chill from outside keeps the ice hotel in tact.

We were given thick winter robes to wear inside the ice hotel as it -5 degrees inside.

There is an icebar and one can buy drinks there. There is no staff manning the icebar as it is too cold. The staff is outside instead.

We went inside each room to see the ice sculptures. Very amazing!

The drive continued until we stoppd at Porjus for lunch. We had reindeer burger! Juicy meat although the burger was flat. Looks are deceiving!

For dinner, we stopped at Moskosel Camping & Stugor. My friend saw the sign for smoked mountain char. I have never eaten it before so I was keen to try too. The staff took out a box of smoked fish and we chose one. It tasted good and was juicy. One can either eat with potatoes or dried bread. We chose potatoes when the staff gave us that option but she said the place is closing soon and potatoes take a long time to prepare... okay, why were we given the option then...

Except for the flies hovering around our food, it was a nice view. It was messy to eat the fish as there were many bones.

We reached Arvidsjaur by 8.30pm and returned the car.

15072024 - The next day, I got an email with the invoice from the car hire company that the car has no damage except for a tiny stone shot on the bumper. The car hire company did not charge us for that. YAY! SO HAPPY!

Before taking the taxi back to the airport, we had a simple lunch of pancakes and coffee.