It's name means "Meeting Place". It's 200 kilometres inside the Arctic Circle way in the north of Sweden. Jukkasjarvi is the coolest place to stay in Sweden. It's the home of the Ice Hotel, the world largest igloo.
Each year, a team of 20 to 25 people build this extraordinary hotel from scratch in Kiruna in Swedish Lapland. They start in November and it's ready for opening in December. It takes about 30,000 tons of snow and 5,000 tons of ice to create the hotel which measures about 4,000 square metres and can take 100 guests. Large metal supports are used to hold the metre-thick walls of snow in place until the snow freezes - then the supports are removed. Huge balloons are used to make the interior spaces, so lounge areas and rooms have curved ceilings. The ice used is cut specially from nearby Torne River.
The idea began in 1989 when an artist wanted a white exhibition room to show his paintings. Everyone marvelled at the gallery. A few even spent the night. Igloos had served as accommodation for thousands of years in these parts, so why not a hotel?
The only doors in the hotel, made of reindeer skins, are at the entrance. All the bedrooms have muslin curtains. Rooms are lit with long burning candles in wall niches. Fibre-optic lights decorate the magnificent carved ice chandelier in the entrance hall. A Japanese visitor offered £6,000 to have it shipped to his home! They didn't sell.
Throughout the season, you can wander about watching the ice sculptors as they create their transient works. Some are beginners; others come to refine their skills.
One of the wonders of the hotel is its chapel. A place of great stillness and spirituality, it's very popular for weddings and christenings. It can seat 30 to 40 people. This amazing structure has windows carved from ice which changes colour according to the sky outside - a strong blue looks wonderful. Barbro Behm from Kiruna has carved a church every year since 1993 and is winner of bronze and silver medals for ice sculpting at the world championships.
The honeymoon suite, where stars and crescent moons are carved in the ceilings, has a table and chairs carved from ice - and in one corner a mock fireplace. The big bed is covered with reindeer skins.
The Neptune Suite is another wonder. The headboard is shaped like a large shell and the are seahorses sculpted from ice. It's a magical world where you can sleep as a mermaid in the hall of the sea god. The room, like the rest of the hotel, will melt in May and real fish reclaim their world.
A special room is dedicated to a Japanese photographer who was mauled to death by a bear in Russia in 1996. Hoshino specialised in Arctic wildlife, photographing his subjects as close as possible with little aid from telescopic lenses.
Hoshino's World houses an exhibition of his work in a setting of frozen waterfalls and sculptures. The photographs show the artist at his best - a big brown bear creating his own Aurora Borealis as he shakes water from himself against a midnight blue sky; another brown bear with blooded black claws snatching a fish.
For many, the Absolute Ice Bar is the highlight. You enter through what looks like an enormous bottle of Absolut Vodka. You can have a drink "on the rocks" in special ice glasses - or hot coffee, but not in ice cups. You can chat to the bartender - most Swedes speak English - or to the "ice barfly" who leans on the counter all season until he melts away in May.
A staircase leads from the bar to a balcony where you can gaze at the stars, the frozen river, the town of Kiruna, the full moon - and, if you're lucky, the shifting colours of the Northern Lights. This glorious celestial activity comes in cycles - a large one of 11 years and one of 27 days (It takes 27 days for the same sun spot to come round again).
If you don't catch the Lights, there's always the Aurora Borealis Cocktail - a mix of Arctic bramble liqueur and sparkling water. Or Wolf Paw - vodka and lingonberry all packed with a punch and worth the £7.50 it costs. A cup coffee is only £1
Back in your ice room, silence reigns. The walls are so thick nothing disturbs you as you snuggle down into your sleeping bag and drift off. In the morning, you are awakened with a hot drink of lingonberry juice - these berries grow wild in the Arctic.
Activities range from short trips by dogsled or reindeer sledge. If you're interested in the Saami people and their history and culture, you can spend an interesting evening sitting on reindeer skins around a log fire in a Lappish hut listening to stories and music.
If you want to try a snow mobile, you will be shown how to drive one and equipped with warm suits, boots mittens and hats. Then, it's off through the beautiful winter landscape on the frozen river. Five miles away you cross the frozen rapids, where in summer there's white-water rafting, and move into the forest.
Cross-country skiing is another option. Equipment can be rented on a daily basis. Boots, hats, gloves, suits come for about £10 a day.
After all that, an excellent Swedish meal can be had at Restaurang Wardshuset. Reindeer is the speciality for main course, followed by cloudberry for desert. This will set you back about £30 - and house wine starts at £16 a bottle.
When the last guest checks out in late April, the Ice Hotel begins to sink into the river. Nature reclaims its temporary gift.
Kiruna will host the World Championships in snow sculpture in February 2000.