Overnight Arctic Circle Train to World's Largest Ice Hotel

Today we're riding one of the only overnight trains in the world that travels north of the Arctic Circle. Over the next 48 hours, we'll travel 800 miles south from Narvik, Norway to Stockholm in Sweden. And we'll be taking two different trains to get there. Our first train will take us through a winter wonderland, over the border into Sweden, where we'll stop to sleep in the world's first and largest ice hotel. And spoiler alert, we finally saw the north of light. Then we'll board the overnight train that takes us the rest of the way to Stockholm. We've ridden trains all over the world and this specific one has been on our bucket list for years. So join us to see if this journey through the Scandinavian countryside lives up to the hype.

Good morning from Narvik, Norway. We are currently 137 miles above the Arctic Circle. It snowed all night last night and has given us the perfect setting for riding the Arctic train.

This train is so tiny. It's only two cars.

If we're being honest, this first leg is probably the least exciting part of the journey, so stick around.

First impressions. It's very warm, probably less roomy than I would have expected, and I feel like we got jammed on the window seat.

So the plan for the next 48 hours is to take this train three hours to Karuna. Then tonight we are sleeping in the world's largest ice hotel. And tomorrow we'll jump back on the train to continue the 16 hour overnight journey all the way down to Stockholm.

Over the years, bathroom tours have kind of become my thing. So let's dive right into it. They are cranking the heat in here. It's hot. It smells like pee, and the color of the light looks like pee.

I feel like I was a little harsh in my initial review. It's really not bad. It's kind of like an airplane bathroom. What else could you ask for, except for maybe an air freshener?

No one is sitting in the good window seat in front of us, so we're gonna steal it. Oh, that was poor timing. What a view.

Wow. It is stunningly beautiful. And I can already tell you it's worth riding this train, even if need to get from point A to point B.

This is the tiniest train station I've ever seen.

Apparently our train is a little ahead of schedule, so we have an unexpected 20 minute stop in this tiny little town. It is so dreamy out here. I just announced that the cafeteria is open and I'm hungry.

There's snow. Those always Made me nervous. May get two vegetarian wraps. Also two coffees.

We have officially crossed over into Sweden. I'm very sad to leave Norway behind. We've been here for almost a month, which in Karen and eight years is a very long time. We've got to explore Norway first by ship through the fjords looking for orchids. Then we got to explore it in kinging its butt. And then we just got to experience it by train. It all just kept getting more and more beautiful. I really love Norway. We're celebrating with a little snack.

Now that I've gotten into the wrap, I take back my initial review. The middle of it is still frozen. This is like freezer burnt cab.

So crunchy.

Thanks. Clean.

All right, the first leg of the trip is finished. We have made it to Karuna. Now we have to figure out how to get to the ice hotel.

It means end on the right.

Oh, funny.

Oh, it does sloot.

Sloot.

Like digital meter said sloot.

All right. Thank you, sir.

All right. Welcome to the ice hotel.

A lot warmer than I thought it was gonna be.

This is like the storage room where you leave all of your stuff.

Where I might end up leaving tonight.

Okay, so we can't check in to our actual ice room until 6pm until then, the entire hotel is open as basically a museum for people to come check out.

So how cute is nature?

Check it out.

Pronunciation of museum.

I knew you were going to. I even tried museum.

Okay, we're gonna go look at the icemantel now.

This is really cool. It's also really quiet.

Do you dare me?

This is nuts.

Yes. No, don't.

Even.

The chandelier is made of ice. People get married here. It's a chapel.

We gather here today to celebrate the love that Kara has for Nate because she has agreed to stay in yet another frozen accommodation.

Nate's loser.

Big time. A pretty epic place to get married. Amen.

This place is actually so cool. I don't think I need to say this, but in case it's not obvious, the floor is ice, the walls are ice, the ceiling is ice. And if you don't know how science works, in order for things to be frozen, it needs to be below 32 degrees.

What is this? Oh, is this a room? What?

It's so pretty. The way that this works is every winter, over 200 artists, like Ice sculpting artists apply, and they choose one artist for each room. I think there are 55 rooms. Did I make that up?

I think there's like 12 art suites.

There are a few art Suites like this that an artist gets to come and just completely design from the ground up. So they're all going to be different. And now we get to look at them all. We'll save ours for last. This one's really pretty, though. I hope ours is as pretty. There's flowers everywhere. There's even chairs. Oh, it's cold. It's cold.

This might be weird to say, but I'm a big lighting guy since I've been behind a camera almost every day for seven years. The light really makes me happy. And this hotel is beautifully lit. This is cool. This shows you who designed the room and also who did the light design for the room.

I think this was even better. Look, this is cool. They could have done something with this side.

They just keep getting better. This one has animals and music.

Wow. This one feels huge.

And there's a mermaid. Oh, she's like half girl, half seal. The heaviest burden is but a grain of sand.

I am women. I am seal. I am sulky copy Conan. It kind of lost me at the end, but that was so pretty.

I bet when she walks into the next one, she goes, oh, I love it.

It's even better. Okay, this one is. What's the right word?

Abstract. I heard you out there.

It is so cool to be able to check out all of these different rooms. But saving our room for last is a bit of a risk because we will have seen all of them, and we'll either be happy or disappointed. I mean, none of them have been bad, but there's definitely some that are on a different level.

This one has a sunshine and clouds. I love this one.

Yeah, this one's the best.

The headboard and the. Is this a footboard? You call it a footboard?

Whoa.

I feel like I'm in Rome. Look at all the arches. Oh, this is a very, like, childlike theme. It's a frozen row. I love this one.

Whoa.

It's like a video game. Okay, are you ready to go in ours? It's called Fro. It is by a single artist. I'm scared to look. Okay, here we go.

It's very simple.

What?

It's pretty apparent that this person was by themselves. It kind of looks unfinished.

I think the bed might be a tongue. And then this is our table.

What is it?

Welcome to our bedroom. This is the only room that you walked into. It just didn't make any sounds.

I mean, it's fine. All the other ones had two artists. I feel like he just ran out of time. I kind of like this. It's kind of like a bougie, like, statue looking thing.

They walked out and looked at it for two seconds and they're gone. I guess we'll go see the rest of Weiss and come back here when it's time to go to sleep.

We're warming up with some really hot and savory veggie goulash. Got BO. It was 12 bucks, but they don't trip you on the portion size. Oh, I can't stop.

I saw a bunch of kids doing that earlier, but I was way too cold. But now I got these suits and I feel invincible.

All right, we're having a competition to see who can go the furthest down the slide.

Aww.

Well, you really went for it.

You're such a good winner. I won.

This way. This is the most people we've seen all day. And it is the bar, which is also made of ice.

So I scanned the QR code to our suite. Turns out fro is pronounced.

It is the inside of a seed. It is the potentiality before creation. It is protection. It is light. It is life. It is fre.

So our bed is made out of a seed. And the way she's interpreting it is it's the potential of creation, which kind of confirms how I looked at it, which was unfinished.

That's the great thing about art, is there's no right and wrong. There's only preferences.

There's only fresh. Check out how much our lips have melted the glass.

Ah, home sweet home. You may have noticed this is not fro.

There were a few open art suites tonight, and they gave us our pick and we chose Milano. Oh, it feels kind of frozen. So our bed.

We're already in a better spot than where we started in the cave.

If you missed last week's video, we slept inside of a glacier with a lot less comforts than this. We're pretty much living in luxury here.

On top of our mattress, we have what I think is a reindeer skin, which will give us extra insulation, and then these giant sleeping bags and sleeping liners. We just finished brushing our teeth and getting ready for bed in the shared bathrooms, and all we have left is stripping down to our thermals and getting into these sleepy bags, which I'm not looking forward to. Should we do some push ups first?

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Which is super easy if you don't.

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We went to a briefing and they told us to pull this as tight as we could over our face. Leave our mouth out. Cuz if you breathe into the sleeping bag it creates moisture and then that moisture freezes and then you're colder. I'm very warm right now, but I've also been. Oh gosh. On a scale of 1 to 10, how likely are you to sleep through the night?

1.

Well, I just got a text that I didn't want to get, but I kind of wanted to get. It's a random number, but it says there is northern lights outside. Do not miss it.

Is this a joke?

No.

I don't even want to go. I'm warm and happy.

This is why we've been above the Arctic Circle for over a month and have yet to see the northern lights.

This is our last chance, isn't it?

Yeah. We're going way far south tomorrow. Crap.

Will you go confirm?

Yeah, I'll go and then I'll text you.

I'm not getting out unless they're really good.

Come on.

I can definitely see them a tiny bit, but I'm gonna hang out and see if they get better. Whoa, that's a good one. Look at that.

I Would just like to make it known that I'm out here and I'm cold. But look. Wow. It's just appearing.

It is official. We did not leave the Arctic Circle without seeing the northern lights. Look at that. Okay. I'm so glad we got out of bed for this. This is amazing.

Oh, my gosh. Look at it jiggling. And the stars are sparkling.

I'm so warm, but don't want to get out.

That is, like, so good.

Oh, my gosh. Nate.

Oh, good.

Charging.

Crazy. I was actually just talking to the lady that works here, and she said this is the first day that's come up above the mountain.

Oh, my gosh.

It's so beautiful, I could cry.

I just got out of the shower. My hair's soaking wet. Oh, my gosh, it's freezing. My hair's freezing. Feel it.

Yeah, it's crazy.

We have been in Norway for 28 days, and this is the first time I have felt the sunshine on my skin. I can't believe.

Has gotten so much colder, but I think it's perfect weather to be riding the Arctic train, which has just arrived. 13 hours to Stockholm starts now.

Welcome to Wegen 11.

Was that German?

No, it was Swedish.

Push. Oh.

Coming in. No one's in here.

Sorry. Welcome. It's so tiny. Look how tiny the bed is.

Oh, my gosh.

I think there's towel art up there. Or there's a person in there sleeping. I think we brought too much stuff. This tiny room.

Oh, no. Oh, this one's huge. I can get one bag up there. We don't travel quite as light as we used to.

Jingle it around and see what happens. That's not going anywhere. Oh, yeah, our backpack. Sit. No problem. So cold.

That's us. Yes, yes. Is there someone else coming in this room or we have it all to ourselves?

No, you have it all.

Thank you so much.

Goodbye, Kiruna. You were cold and beautiful. Now that we kind of have our stuff put away, let me show you around our home for the night. First of all, so many hooks behind our coats. We have this little table. Here's a ladder to get up to this super tall bed, and we have our very own sink with soap and plastic free water bottles, three of them in room temperature control. Like, usually, like, the whole train is whatever temperature they set it to. But I think we can make it hotter or cooler, I guess. Who's sleeping in the heat tonight?

We have an outlet. So if there are three people in here, that will be a little awkward. There is free WI fi, apparently we'll have to test that out. Another key card. This is a little hint. We're gonna check that out later. I love having a window, especially in the morning. We can actually see the views. That'll be really nice. Oh, this is huge.

It looks kind of gross.

It doesn't look good. We have two more outlets. There are reading lights.

Never mind.

Lots of buttons. Blackening Santal unskaas med devitilling tag personnel.

Look at this.

Towel art. No, it is not towel art. That's pretty much it for the room. There's also a restaurant car. So before we put the beds down and figure out how those work, I need some dinner. Let's go.

She has no clue a toilet. Restaurant car is.

Do you?

Oh, it feels so warm right here.

We're going around a curve right now. It's like.

Should have worn a jack. It is absolutely freezing between cars.

Are we sure there's a restaurant car? Like, scale 1 to 10.

How positive? 7. Looks like you've had several drinks.

We found it. It's the same confession. Dan. We don't loose a walk right there. Dinner wasn't much of an experience. There's no tiny room. But we're just going to take our food and your room. Just don't close them.

Don't.

I don't see them.

Oh, come on.

Is this all right?

Oh, my gosh.

Let's keep going.

That's actually not the first time Kara's trying to break into someone's room on a train.

This is ours.

Wow. Luxury. Whoa. That is hefty.

Yeah, I'm very happy about that. I'm hungry.

Bean lasagna probably would not have been my first choice, but it was the only other vegetarian option on the menu. It wasn't the wrapping that we had.

On the last stream. Bon appetit. That tastes pretty good. Now, the questionable part is this kale salad. Has they pulled these out of the fridge and put them in the microwave and heated them up and left the salad in there. This is microwaved kale.

Whoa. Wow.

That was dark. Good news. The bathroom is very normal. Toilet, sink, there's soap, paper towels, and it doesn't stink. I really appreciate when they clarify this. Otherwise, I'm too nervous to drink it. And if I'm thirsty, I'm like, I could be drinking it, but what if it's not good? But this always concerns me. Does this mean don't flush the toilet paper? There are a lot of toilets that don't want any toilet paper. But it just kind of looks like a napkin. Which I think means, like, all the other stuff people try to push. Yeah, Pretty uneventful, which is a good thing.

Okay, so I think we're on our own to make our beds for the night. We were trying to decide if we should convert our bench into a bed or if we should just pull this down. And when we checked.

Was already made. We have a little seat belt. That way we're rolling around these Swedish trainers tracks.

So I have to get. Sorry. Oh, I have hit a wall. Nate wants the top bunk and dig it up there.

Just pull this down. You have a little ladder.

What's up there this time, A giraffe or an elephant?

Oh, I know. It's a slug.

You need to go to sleep. Not quite, But I almost have enough headroom to sit up on the top bunk. It's more spacious than it looked up here.

Oh, wow. It's pretty soft.

Oh, I'm gonna miss you.

Love you.

I'm gonna kick you that all night. Bring me some coffee.

There we go. All right. Good morning.

Are you okay?

Are you okay?

Oh, my gosh.

Don't do that.

Ow. Gosh, I just hit my shin so hard.

How do I know if you're being serious?

I.

Good morning. Overall, very good night of sleep and a lot warmer than the ice hotel. Well, this thing rattled all night.

I was. I was so confused when I walked into the milk car this morning. You know, like when you're half awake and sometimes you just feel like you're going crazy? I was like, I could have sworn. This is not what the milk car looked like last night. But apparently, at some point in the night, we switched out milk cars. This one's much bigger, much nicer. It has tables. There's more food options. But really, I'm just here for the coffee.

Morning.

It feels so weird that it's light outside before 8am we haven't seen anything like this in the last month. I will say, if you're thinking about booking the Arctic Circle train, I thought winter was the right decision because it'd be snowy outside and it'd be the right atmosphere for traveling in the Arctic Circle. But looking back, it's just dark outside the whole time. So if you really want to ride this train for the experience and see some of Sweden, I'd recommend booking it in the summer.

All right. We are about to be in Stockholm. I never pass up the opportunity to take a shower on a train. This will be number four, and I'll let you know how it stacks up.

Overall, I'd say that was A great shower probably ranks number three. The Orient Express being number one, the Maharaja Express number two, this one, and then Amtrak. My only two complaints are that the water does not stay inside of the shower. This is my original towel, and it was soaking wet because I left it on the ground. And you just have to push this button over and over again to keep the water going. They do also have a hair dryer.

In about 10 minutes, we will arrive to Stockholm Central Station, which is the end station for this train.

Before you get off the train, please.

Take a closer look around you so you don't forget anything on board.

I need a coffee.

Getting off the strainer.

What?

Whoa. It's not frozen and it doesn't move. Before you go, can I tell you what I am most excited about right now? We are writing a daily travel newsletter called the Daily Drop. It keeps you up to date with the top travel news as well as the best deals, and we are getting amazing feedback. And I feel like I can say that because I'm not actually the one writing it, so I'm not, like, bragging on myself. We're actually using the tips and tricks that we talk about in the newsletter as well. That's why we got upgraded to this executive room, which also includes free breakfast and free lounge access. Yes, there are lounges inside hotels. I did not know that until a few years ago. So if you want to become a better traveler or just start traveling for cheaper, definitely give it a read.

It's free and it's the best.

Honestly, I am so excited about. We have so many plans for this newsletter. This year. We're giving away more trips. Like, we're going to be talking about it a lot, and you're going to want to be subscribed.

Call this dance the Aurora.

Nate found a sled thingy. You're not very fast.

It looks more fun than they actually are.

Oh, my gosh. They also have champagne, beer, cider shots. Nose. I mean, I'm tired. Look how red my nose gets just from walking outside for five minutes. Did you open one of these?

No. Really?

You did? I did open one.

Yes.

What a satisfying sound.

This is more like it.