Staying in Kiruna

Kiruna is ideally placed for touring around the north of Sweden and Norway.

We are only a few minutes' drive (or bus journey) from the world famous ice hotel, where you can visit and see the ice sculpted rooms and the ice church, and have a drink in the ice bar. In the same village on the Torne river is the old village church where you will find inscriptions made by travellers from as early as the 17th century, when they thought they were near the end of the world.

Just north of Kiruna is Esrange, the rocket launching site. Here satellites, rockets, and high altitude balloons are regularly launched to research the impact of climate change, the nature of the northern lights, or the impact of zero gravity.

Moving from complete darkness midwinter to complete light midsummer, Kiruna's seasons bring a huge variety of changes to the landscape, and every season has something new to offer the visitor. Magnificent snow and ice landscapes glitter in the sunshine and then give way to the varied flora of summer as the hills turn to lush green. Then the autumn brings rich orange and brown colours to the landscape, and the start of winter brings the vivid red twilight hours, and ice particles create all kinds of magical effects in the sky.

At any time of the year there is landscape to be explored on foot, in a car, or by train. By car the main road out of town takes you into the heart of the 'fjäll' area, along the shoreline of the huge Torneträsk lake. Here you will see the mountain ranges of Sweden and distant Norway, and it is easy to stop along the way to explore, or at a couple of places where you can find lunch. The railway line carries the iron ore from the mine in Kiruna out to Narvik on the Norwegian coast, but it also carries passenger trains that pass twice a day, providing an unforgettable journey through the mountains.