Want to experience North Pole from hotel? Shell out $100,000
If you have ever wanted to visit the North Pole, albeit with a cozier experience than say, a survival expedition, now's your time. For about a month, a Finnish luxury travel company will be hosting guests inside an Igloo-styled hotel at the North Pole, provided you have $100,000. That's about Rs. 71.5 lakh in Indian currency. Still interested? Here's all about this luxury trip.
Luxury Action, a high-end travel company based in Finnish Lapland and Stockholm, Sweden, is behind the dreamlike project. The company specializes in offering Arctic excursions and according to the founder and CEO, Janne Honkanen, they had been getting a lot of customers interested in knowing more about nature in the Arctic. That's how Honkanen decided to set up a North Pole Igloo hotel.
Reportedly, the North Pole Igloo hotel will be made up of 10 heated, glass-walled igloos, allowing guests to sleep under the stars amid icy bliss. Who knows? You may even be able to see the Northern Lights while lying in your bed. The hotel will start welcoming guests in 2020, however, only for April, due to extreme weather conditions in other months.
During the stay, guests will see glaciers and "dim and twilight-y" daylight hours in the North Pole and meet the indigenous populace. Honkanen said you may even get a chance to meet Arctic scientists or seals, polar bears, Arctic birds, and other wildlife. However, temperatures there range from minus 20 to minus 40, warned Ted Scambos, an Earth Science and Observation Center research scientist.
Further, Honkanen said, "In April it's really safe and nice to travel; [otherwise] we're speaking about extreme conditions." Reportedly, the three-to-five night excursion will start with a two-day stay at Svalbard and include one night at the North Pole. The package includes a flight from Lapland to the North Pole, a camp manager, arctic wilderness guide, all meals, security, and thermal clothing.
However, Honkanen said that he does not want to offer guests a hollow travel experience for $100,000. He said his goal is to expose travelers to how climate change affects the fragile Arctic ecosystem so they could evaluate their own role in it. Honkanen said previous guests have reached out to tell him how they have taken steps to reduce their carbon footprint.
Furthermore, Luxury Action's North Pole excursion itself is environmentally sustainable. "We have to think about the environment and nature and having a minimum footprint. Everything we bring out, we bring back with us," he told The Post. However, Scambos said that the April experience wouldn't expose guests to "the stark reality that this ice can't survive" the way peak summer would.
