Frost Bites! Why We'll Just Never Warm Up to the Idea of Sweden's Icehotel

If you want to pay $264 a night (or more) to stay in a hotel made of ice, we have a bridge to sell you, too.

It’s getting to be that time of year for the re-construction of the famous Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden. In case you’re not familiar with Icehotel, let us explain it to you: Every year between October and November, the Icehotel is built from thousands of tons of ice and “snice” (that’s snow-ice, like Tyra Banks’ “smize,” but slightly less stupid). Everything is made of ice and snice – from the lobby to the bar to the furniture to the approximately 65 rooms – we’re talking the floor, walls, even the bed. (We don’t know about you, but solid and freezing is not what we look for in a mattress.) Luckily the toilets are not made of ice.

For several frigid months (usually December through April) about 50,000 crazy people… er, tourists pay to stay in the place, where the temperature hovers between 16 and 23 degrees Fahrenheit. Then the whole darn thing melts come spring.

This year, the Icehotel has really outdone itself – they’ve upped the WTF ante by offering $231,000 couture suites. That means for the price of a heated house almost anywhere else in the world, you can vacay in a custom igloo built to whatever specifications your heart desires. (We can certainly think of about a million other vacations we’d rather do for $231 grand.)

When the unusual accommodation opens its ice doors in December, it will be celebrating 25 years of icy folly. In honor of a quarter century of people paying to torture themselves, Yahoo Travel takes a look inside the Icehotel.