Iceland’s ION Luxury Adventure Hotel is one of the best places in the world to see the Northern Lights.
The swanky hotel was made from an abandoned building that belonged to a nearby geothermal power plant, and has won many awards, like the 2014 World Boutique Hotel Award for Europe's best sustainable boutique hotel.
Stylish and industrial-chic, the hotel uses sustainable materials in an environmentally friendly way. Sinks, for example, are made of recycled tires, furniture of driftwood.
There's a lot of energy in the area: the 45-room hotel, which is less than an hour from Reykjavik, sits among mountainous lava fields, at the foot of a dormant volcano, near a geothermal power plant, and surrounded by hot springs.
Smack dab in Iceland’s Golden Circle, and close to Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the hotel is an adventurer's paradise, and offers activities like hiking up the volcano, horseback riding across black sand beaches, snowmobiling on glaciers, and diving, fly fishing, and river rafting in glacial rivers and waterfalls.
The hotel also has a spa, fair-trade restaurant, and the famous Northern Lights bar, a glass cage designed for optimal Northern Lights viewing.
Story by Sophie-Claire Hoeller and editing by Carl Mueller
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