Background: The intensive care unit is a department where critically and acute sick patients are being treated. The department has specialized routines, equipment to treat and screening. Nurses on a intensive care unit are responsible for the treatment of patients as well as the leadership of the workforce. The nurses are also responsible to acknowledge the patient’s relatives. Therefore, it is of great importance for the nurses to understand relatives’ experiences in this situation, to be able to give treatment of good quality to relatives too. Aim: To describe the experience of relatives to patients who are being treated at the intensive care unit. Method: A literature review of scientific articles with a qualitative standpoint, aimed towards the experiences of relatives to intensive care unit patients. Results: Relatives experienced that a lot of factors affected them negatively. Routines, equipment and treatment were experienced as unfamiliar and confusing. The situation made it hard for the relatives to experience being close to the patient. Relatives experienced that good communication and information made the situation positive. Relatives experienced that being a part and having a say in the patients’ treatment were important. Conclusion: To be a relative at the intensive care unit can feel unfamiliar and differ from other kinds of departments. There are rules, equipment and situations that makes it difficult for the relatives to see the context of the situation. It is of great importance that the healthcare is attentive and give the relatives the possibility to understand the context.