Alta was the northernmost port stop of our 2025 Arctic Circle cruise aboard Ambassador Ambience and it was wonderfully snowy when we pulled back the curtains of our cabin to look outside.
Our balcony faced part of the industrial port and the airport runway, and during our day and a half here we’d quite often see trucks heading out to clear snow for any planes.
We had a full day of things to do planned and the first of those was a brief excursion of just a few hours the reasonably short distance south from Alta to Sorrisniva Hotel.
It wasn’t the main hotel itself that we were interested in – although that’s where you can find toilets, a café, and a small tourist shop if you’re after any of those things – but rather the Igloo Hotel. On a cruise that saw us ticking off a lot of northernmost things in the world, this was another.
The important thing about the igloo hotel at Sorrisniva is that it’s not one of those ice hotels you sometimes see in cities which turn out to be barely-glorified freezers in warehouses. Ah, the experience of drinking in a venue that recreates all the fun of meat-packers sneaking off for an alcopop during work hours. The igloo hotel opens from December to the end of March every year, built fresh from the snow each time, and it invites artists to come in and sculpt decorations from ice or in the snow walls of the bedroom suites that the hotel contains. Each year there’s a different theme for the artwork so you could come back time and time again and see a different layout and different sculpted artworks.
Initially, there was a bit of a crowded wander, poking heads into all the rooms, so, after being frustrated for the umpteenth time by certain people thinking they had a monopoly on posing in front of snow and ice sculptures for a few dozen photos, we headed into the main, ice column-supported hall of the igloo hotel and made our way to the ice bar at the far end. Our tour entry had included a small, wooden token that we could exchange for some alcoholic blue stuff in a glass made from ice. It wasn’t great, it wasn’t awful. It was blue. And you had to drink it quickly before any heat from your hands or gloves caused the glass to crack.
Taking time out to have the drink gave everyone else who’d turned up to look around the igloo hotel – not just our tour group, but other independent travellers too – enough time to move on from the rooms, and gave us the chance to conclude a look at them and take photos in relative peace.
You can, of course, book to stay at the igloo hotel, and you’d be right in thinking that it’s not cheap, and that’s before you even consider that this is Norway. It’s also very basic with your amenities literally being the room with some furs on them. No en-suite. Not even a door in the standard rooms. You’re paying for the experience, but definitely research what that experience is going to be before you book.
Some designs were better than others, as you’d expect, but it was such a wonderful thing to see as a whole that we decided that if we were ever to come back up this way – and if it was in that December to March window when the igloo hotel was actually built and open – then we’d almost certainly visit again because the designs would change each year. Plus, we’ve absolutely no interest at all in husky rides which seems to be an obsession of everyone else who cruises to this part of the world.
The igloo hotel also included a chapel. Presumably to pray the place doesn’t melt on you while you sleep.
Most people headed straight into the main hotel after seeing everything there was to see in the igloo hotel, probably in search of a coffee if our experience of cruisers is any guide, but we traipsed around the back of the hotel into the knee-high deep snow – it’s such a novelty for us to get snow like this so we made the most of it – and we were glad that we did as we found a few reindeer tied up with sleds. The hotel apparently offers rides as part of a Sami experience and this appeals far more than the husky option if you ask me. We stood a respectful distance away to take some photos because you shouldn’t pester animals, and I’d like to say that other visitors to Sorrisniva did the same. I’d like to say that.
After a quick look at the gift shop for some souvenirs it was time to head back to the ship but we were told we could get out in Alta town centre if we wanted and take a later bus back as there was a regular shuttle service throughout the day. We did want this, so in the next post in this cruise travelogue series we’ll take full advantage of this opportunity to visit the Northern Lights Cathedral in Alta.