Exactly what it s really like to sleep in a snow hotel

via Smarter Travel<br>No one goes to a snow hotel for eight hrs of sleep. For some, the pull is simply the novelty. For others, from the badge of honor to make it during the night. (Usually a couple of people end up bailing, but there's always a warm location provided to retreat to). For almost everyone, once is more than sufficient for a lifetime. <br>I've spent the night in three different snow hotels, 2 in Canadand one in Norway. After the first time I did it in Quebec City, I had the mindset of, "Okay, checked that off the travel bucket list, " nevertheless a new one popped in Montreal a few years later, just six hrs by car from my house in Boston, I thought, "Well, why not see what that one's such as. " Then, when a stay in the Kirkenes SnowHotel in Norway had been an optional excursion after a Hurtigruten Northern Lights cruise this winter season, I just couldn't resist. <br>My friends think this is a pretty weird activity for me. I mostly don't like winter, and sometimes I don't leave the house for days on end when the temperature dips below 20. But , for me, staying in a snow hotel is an idealized version of winter: Everything will be pristine and beautiful. <br>RELATED: Tour's Best Ice Hotels and Igloo Villages<br>There are things common to all snow hotels. Ice sculptures decorate the hallways and bedrooms include walls of snow graced along with carvings that only last for a couple months at best. There's the requisite ice bar where drinks are usually served in ice cups. Furs cover chairs made of snow. And almost always, there's the profound quiet late at night when everyone is tight in their sleeping bags. <br>And below is the thing no one expects: Once you aren't tucked into your bag rated intended for arctic expeditions, you're warm since toast. The problem comes when you have to get out of your bag to visit the bathroom, which I invariably becomes a necessity. That's the way i know about the silence at night, by the way. But that's just a minor irritation. <br>Essentials<br>Yuriko Nakao<br>Everyone wonders about precisely needed to stay at a snow resort and the answer may surprise a person. Not much. The hotels give you everything you need for a comfortable night's sleep. With Kirkenes, that included clean wool socks, a head sock, the sheet sack, and of course a resting bag rated for minus-30 levels Celsius. <br>The beds at Kirkenes have normal mattresses with an additional thermal insulation layer. Ice blocks placed around the beds make it seem like you're sleeping on ice, but you're not. The illusion only needs to move so far. The temperature inside the snowfall hotel is a constant minus-4 levels Celsius, so you do need your usual winter gear for running around around. <br>Bathrooms, showers, a sauna, restaurant and lounge are in the heated lodge, open all night and easily accessed from the snow hotel. Word to the wise, if you think you will have to visit the facilities in the night, attempt to book a room as close as possible. <br>RELATED: Zaniest Winter Festivals in the World<br>Mathieu Belanger/Reuters<br>You usually get a tutorial on how to get in and out of your bag and what to wear. The key? Less is more. If you wear too many layers, you get too hot. When you get as well hot, you sweat, and then a person unzip the bag, which causes you to get chilled and then it's very difficult to get warm again. <br>In Quebec, the tour guide suggested sleeping nude and keeping your clothes tucked into your bag so they would certainly stay warm. In Norway, they will suggested wearing just undergarments and socks. Regardless of what you wear, there will be a moment when you're wriggling into your clothing and trying to stay in your bag, when if anyone was watching they will think you might be having some sort of the seizure-but the upside is you won't be cool that long. <br>Extras and Excursions<br>Gary Meters. Prior/Getty<br>Since sleeping, in the end, is a fairly short part of the experience of staying at a snow hotel, most offer a slew of fun winter activities, through snowmobiling to dogsledding, and anything else you can think of relating to winter. <br>I went to Norway in March, when the North Lights are supposed to be spectacular, but I hadn't really seen all of them on the cruise; Kirkenes gave me yet another chance to catch the elusive lights. Late at night, stalling my bedtime, I was finally rewarded with a sighting. It felt almost poetic. <br>RELATED: 8 Places to See the Northern Lights<br>But hands down, my one of my favorite routines at any snow hotel I've been to was the option to go arctic king crab fishing on the frozen fjord of Kirkenes. Those who signed up were outfitted with full snowsuits, bundled onto sledges pulled by snowmobiles, and taken over the fjord in order to saw a hole in the ice and pull up the giant creatures. After we got what appeared like an enormous catch, we were taken to the farmhouse where the guide prepared the crabs over an outdoor fire and served them up inside. I am just pretty sure I've never had a lot more delicious meal, and it made a lot of lobsters I've had pale when compared. <br>The hotel had a few resident reindeer which were fun to visit, as well as kick sledges free to use, which usually a friend and I enjoyed while race each other. Which brings me to another highlight of sleeping in a snow hotel. There's a camaraderie you create with all the other overnight guests. <br>Come morning, over coffee and breakfast every day in the warm dining room, you trade stories with your fellow overnighters, gather your standard certificate declaring you made it through the night, and wonder if you'd probably ever do it again. <br>In my situation, I know the answer is yes. <br>More from SmarterTravel:  <br><br>10 Perfect Mountain Towns to See in Winter  <br><br>10 National Recreational areas That Are Better in Winter  <br><br>10 Relaxing Major resorts Where You Can Escape Winter  <br>Read the original story: What It's Really Prefer to Sleep in a Snow Hotel by Kim Foley MacKinnon, who is a contributor to SmarterTravel. <br>Read the initial article on SmarterTravel. 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