HotelChatter

The Ice Bar
The Nordic Sea Hotel is not unique in having an Ice Bar - that is, a permanent bar area sculpted entirely out of ice, where customers pay a fortune to drink a limited amount of (usually) vodka out of frozen glasses for a limited period of time. Paris has one, London too, Quebec, even Shanghai.

But the Nordic's is apparently the grandfather of the Ice Bar family. Our Man In Stockholm refused to take us there on the grounds he's been already, but he described it as "a tiny, freezing cold room with ice pictures carved into the ice walls." Apparently:

"they dress you up in a silly cape with a big fur hood and pass you huge ice cubes filled with small dribbles of vodka. I dropped my first glass because of the huge bear gloves and I couldn't hear or see much because of the hood."

He claims the 'Ice Bear' cocktail (blueberry liqueur, elderflower juice and blue Curaçao with Absolut Vanilla) is the best option, but that after his 45-minute slot in the freezer he'd rather have had a hot chocolate. And you'd best not think about how much each sip is costing you. If you are tempted, book in advance, because there's apparently a respectable waiting list. Who'd have thought it.

If you really want to boast, go one further and get your mates together to have dinner on ice plates - a mere SEK 1600 ($240) per person with a minimum of 15. Gin-spiced reindeer's on the menu, with a starter of something called 'bleak roe'....do let us know if you HotelChatterers ever try this.

The Hotel
The Nordic Sea Hotel only opened a few years ago, a 7-floor design hotel on a quietish street off a main avenue right in the centre of Stockholm. It has all the facilities you'd expect of a new design hotel but nothing that stands out, and by the looks of it the clientele are mostly oldish businessmen. Locals know it only for the Ice Bar.

So if we were you, come bedtime we'd head across the street to its younger, trendier, sister hotel, the Nordic Lights.

[Photo: Seamusiv]