Just for Chills...

Baby, it's cold outside - and inside, too, if you are sleeping on ice blocks from the Torne River. But a little Fairy Queen and a dash of Golden Compass can turn any Nordic stay into an Arctic paradise.

Sweden's Ice Hotel is just that - a shimmering experience in carved crystals and ice blue snow on the northern frontiers of Sweden some 130 miles from the Arctic Circle.

As soon as winter's sting approaches each November, a global team of snow builders, architects, designers and artists converge on the sleepy dark village of Jukkasjärvi. Snow guns hum, snow clouds drifts along the nearby Torne as the frozen condensation is sprayed on huge steel forms and allowed to settle into thick icy blocks. Soon the forms are removed, leaving a maze of freestanding corridors of snow. These become the walls and frames of the ice hotel, built anew each winter, into four sexy white guestrooms that begin to melt with the first crocuses. The Ice Hotel opens December 10 and closes April 18.

After a winter's day snow shoeing , dog sledding, reindeer riding or tracking moose on horseback around Jukkasjärvi, the outdoor temperature drops beyond the zeros but the inside air, hovering between 17 and 23 degrees, feels like a day at the beach. After dinner (these can be a menu served on frozen ice plates in the Ice Hotel Restaurant as well as local fish and hearty soups and stews served in a 17-century log cabin called the Homestead), it's vodka toddies in the Ice Bar and some super stargazing at the Aurora. The dazzling charged particles of winter's sky show are nearly guaranteed in these parts.

But bed - despite being just an ice block one well, more ice blocks and snow - looks amazingly inviting no matter what the sky is doing. The reindeer skins keep the cold and moisture out while thermal sleeping bags and blankets keep things toasty. Sleep is quiet and deep in your own little frosty tomb. And it would not be fun to get up from this safe place were if not for the cup of hot lingonberry juice placed bedside in the filtered morning light.

Each room sleeps four comfortably, although two is the usual number of occupants. The Ice Hotel has caught on as a romantic getaway, a place to say vows in a breathtaking cathedral of ice, a place to renew marriage and commitment.

As nowhere as the Ice Hotel is, the road to Lapland is just as close as the airport -- and that is in Kiruna, about 10 miles away. SAS has daily flights and there is even an overnight train that runs from Stockholm to Kiruna.

Standard rates include room, breakfast, towels and winter overalls, boots, hat and mittens. Everything else is extra - whether it is transfers between airport and hotel by dogsled, sweating in the sauna, or guided night wanderings into the tundra. Packages can be created with excursions to nearby ski resorts or stays in the hotel's "warm" rooms if your tooties get a little too tingly for a second night's stay.

Call the Wizards today to make reservations!