We plan to be in Kiruna at least on Monday before the wedding (24th February, 2020).
There are lots of things to do here and most of them involve snow and the outdoors.
You can fly from Stockholm to Kiruna in 90 minutes. Every day all year round there are usually 2-3 direct flights from Arlanda. You can book through SAS airlines or Norwegian airlines. You can have a dogsled collect you from the airport and take you to the icehotel if you wish - this costs you a fair bit more though.
You can travel by train all the way from Stockholm to Kiruna. You can choose the night train and sleep away the hours until you arrive in northern Sweden. From Kiruna you can go all the way to Narvik in Norway and then you will be travelling on Swedens most beautiful railway line between Torneträsk and Riksgränsen (where you can go alpine skiing!)
Länsstrafiken Norrbotten operates the roads to Kiruna from Haparanda / Tornio on the Finnish border and from Narvik in Norway.
Many visitors come to Kiruna by car. Traveling through Sweden’s various landscapes and natural habitats is exciting. For those traveling from Stockholm to Kiruna, it can be a distance of over 1,300 kilometres (think similar distance from Melbourne to Brisbane). There is a lot to see and experience along the way, and Sweden is a safe country to travel by car.
But our preference is that you don’t drive to Kiruna - we would hate for you to have an accident driving in snowy and icy conditions.
There are many car/ferry/train/bus connections from Norway/Sweden/Finland - you can essentially fly into any port and catch a train/bus/plane to Kiruna - the Scandinavian frozen world’s your oyster. There’s a nice ferry that takes most of the day from Stockholm to Turku or Helsinki .
The ice hotel is in Jukkasjärvi, about 16 km from Kiruna, northern Sweden. They have warm rooms and the rooms in the ice hotel that are funnily enough, cold. There’s not much accommodation in Jukkasjärvi itself, so Kiruna is the next best option. If you wish to have a night in the ice hotel then it is generally suggested that you have only one night, and this be at the start or end of your stay. You can’t access the room until 6pm (sunset is about 4ish) and checkout is the usual 10am. It’s a pricey night but, you’ll probably never have the chance again. We have booked a room at Camp Ripan, Kiruna.
Note that it will be school holidays in Sweden at the time of the wedding. Accommodation is filling up fast so please promptly book this. The booking sites, think Expedia, booking.com, trivago etc were starting to sell out of accommodation but rooms could still be found on the hotel's own sites.
Its the end of winter in the arctic circle - so its going to be cold. Really cold. The ice hotel will be -5°C to -7°C but there is potential for it to be as low as -40°C outside. Expected temperatures are between -20°C and -2°C. Freezing in anyone’s language.
So layering will be the order of the day. You will need at least:
Jackets and boots need to be a size bigger to accommodate the layers and thick socks.
Cotton is not great - its cold, wear wool or polyester
Ski gear is great - but you don’t really need the big bell-bottom ends on the pants. A wind proof jacket, is great if you’re exercising, you can take off the fleeces and keep your outerwear on. Inner wear needs to be tight to trap the air and the outerwear bigger to accommodate the layers.
The wedding will be in the ice hotel where it is -5 degrees but the reception will be in a warm restaurant at 20 odd degrees. Whilst its tempting to just buy the clothes that are dark coloured, searching for things that brightly coloured such as signal red or cerise or sky blue photograph better than navy-blue/black. If you are skiing/snowboarding, gear can be hired easily.
Kiruna is an underground mining town, mining iron ore. They’re in the process of moving the city 2 kilometres down the road, so the city is in a state of flux.
Åre in central Sweden is Northern Europe´s biggest and brashest sports resort, offering virtually every skiing style and a huge range of other winter sports and activities. It is generally considered to have the best downhill ski runs in Sweden and the Åre-Björnen part of the resort is excellent for newbies.
Åre offers awe-inspiring black pistes and highly challenging off-piste slopes, as well as Skistar Snow Park Åre. It also has an abundance of easy skiing for children and beginners. Åre and nearby Duved (10 km) also offer world-class slopes for snowboarding, telemark and carving. Heli-skiing is also available.
In addition to skiing there´s a wide range of other activities, such as snowmobile safaris, dogsledding, ice fall climbing and much, much more.
Being famous for its nightlife, you won´t find many places in Europe that party as hard as Åre during the season. Bars and live music venues, Tott Hotel, Fjällgården and Åregården are busy from 3 p.m. on and there is a mini-city-sized offering of high quality restaurants and eateries.
The northern most resort - A 1.5hr drive or 2hour bus ride from Kiruna wins it for having no terrain park and almost no trees (it’s way too far north). We’re talking mostly off-piste at Sweden’s northernmost ski resort where you can catch the Aurora borealis in wintertime, and snowboard in a t-shirt summertime under the blaze of the midnight sun. Snowboarding rarely gets more exotic than this.
The Funäsfjällen ski area lies 580 km northwest of capital city Stockholm and is Sweden’s largest ski area, consisting of the resorts; Ramundberget, Tänndalen, Funäsdalsberget, Tännäskröket, Tänndalsvallen, Kappruet and Bruksvallarna Cross Country. The area has 60 mountains over 1,000 metres in height and all types of skiing are on offer. Check out the heli-skiing and perhaps Sweden’s best cross-country skiing trails.
Sälen in south central Sweden is actually six ski resorts in one, connected by four ski areas; Lindvallen, Högfjället, Hundfjället and Tandådalen – offering a combined 100 slopes. In total the resort offers some 160 downhill runs, 9 connected green slopes, family skiing areas, 300 km of cross-country skiing and 3 snow parks. Why not try telemark skiing while you are here? This resort is very popular with Swedish families. Another good family resort in this area is Stöten, the northernmost ski resort in the Sälen mountain range.
Gifts: please no gifts, unless you’re hell bent on purchasing a gift that we must have, your gift is your presence.
Currency: Sweden is part of the EU but like England uses its own currency, the Swedish Kronor (SEK).
Language: Swedish but the Swedes have a great command of English.
Sami: the Sami people are the indigenous folk of Scandinavia and Russia. Like many countries with indigenous folk, they have it hard. Jokkmokk is the town where you can buy things and visit their museums and craft galleries. The church is built in the tradition of Sami with spots to store the bodies of the folk who died during the winter.
Internet availability: WIFI is generally easily available in order to avoid excess roaming charges. Alternatively, buy a Swedish SIM card and use that for the duration of your stay.
Manners: in Europe it is ill mannered to wear outside boots in the house, instead, wear socks or slippers.