The biggest SnowCastle in the world
The year-round services in the SnowCastle area are still surprising to people, even though the services have been open year-round for several years already. Before we find out what this year-round means, let’s go back in time. Everything started in 1996, when the world’s largest snow castle was built in Kemi from natural snow and ice. The castle was a joint gift from the city of Kemi and Unicef to the children of the world and gained a lot of attention around the world. Since then, snow castles have been built in the city in winter, where there have been snowy restaurants with ice tables, hotels, chapels, bars and children’s playgrounds. However, the castles always melted away in April, returning to the sea from where their building material was originally taken. The ruins of castles from a couple of decades are already rippling on the shores of Kemi.
Year-round SnowCastle of Kemi
After twenty years of operation, it was time to think about how the castle could also be visited at other times of the year. The SnowCastle area was established in Kemi and the road leading to the area was named Lumilinnakatu after SnowCastle which is LumiLinna in Finnish. We first set out to develop the area’s accommodation services, and Seaside Glass Villas were built by the sea for the winter of 2016-2017, the former motorboat club was renovated into Seaside Lodge, which can be rented for meeting and sauna use. Service Point was built to serve the visitors of the SnowCastle area, where the activity company Sea Lapland Safaris operates today. The SnowCastle365 main building was completed during the winter of 2019-2020, just in time before the corona virus. The main attraction in the building is, of course, the year-round snow and ice experience SnowExperience365 on the ground floor, where you can admire wonderful ice sculptures, slide down an ice slide and dine at the ice tables with advance reservation. You can walk on snow and enjoy drinks by the ice table even in the summer heat. This enabled us to offer snow and ice experiences all year round.
The main building also serves as a meeting and event house. Our reception is located in the lobby and serves both overnight guests, day visitors and meeting guests almost every day of the year. In the lobby you can buy gifts in the souvenir shops and sit down for a coffee or even a glass of wine. The Lumipallo Café is also open on the ground floor during the winter.
Services of the SnowCastle of Kemi
SnowCastle Restaurant on the second floor serves as a breakfast restaurant for our staying customers, a lunch restaurant for meetings and Sampo guests, and an a la carte dinner restaurant. The restaurant premises can be converted and divided into several different meeting and party spaces. In summer, the sea view terrace serves its entire length. The beautiful, modern and bright sauna facilities with a sea view are located on the third floor of the building. From the sauna lounge there is access to the terrace, which also has a jacuzzi as an additional service. The terrace offers a beautiful view of the sea.
In the summer, SnowCastle Camping operates in the area, and in winter we still build snow, but not the world’s largest castle, but the SnowCastle Winter Park, where you can have adventures in the snow maze, go down a tube hill and slide, try the charm of speed on a hoijakka, a traditional type of sledge carousel, and other snow fun. In addition to Sea Lapland Safaris, the Seadventures water sports center also operates in the area during the summer. Mansikkanokka beach is right next to it, and you can quickly walk through the park to the old port, where several cafes and restaurants are open in the summer. In winter, you can easily ski on the sea ice from the SnowCastle area.