When you tire of the endless sandy beaches and azure waters of warm climes, but you are not quite ready for space travel, head to Lapland for a dramatic, mystical getaway. The snow igloos that pop up each winter to complement the 20 spectacular glass igloos and 31 luxury log cabins at Kakslauttanen resort in Saariselkä, Finland, are definitely cool in all meanings of the word.

Far away from city lights, this is an excellent place for viewing the aurora borealis from September to April.

Hotel Kakslauttanen consists of 25 log cabins, a restaurant with souvenir shopping facilities and two saunas.

Close to the resort is the Igloo Village that offers the unusual highlight of accommodation in genuine igloos made of snow.

Icehotel is an hotel built out of snow and ice, situated 200km north of the Arctic circle, in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, near the Torne river. Jukkasjärvi is an old Lapp word meaning ‘meeting place’ and has been exactly that, as well as a market place, for more than half a millennium. If you are planning on visiting it (and it is well worth a visit) make sure you do so in the winter, some time between December-April.

Like the Alta Igloo Hotel it is erected at the beginning of every winter and allowed to melt away in the spring, returning the building and furnnishings back to the river, out of which it was carved.