Outside:
Entrance to the Ice Bar:
The Ice Bar:
The Wedding Chapel
A hallway:
Reception desk & Lobby:
A "theme" stateroom:
The floor plan:
A must-see, in my opinion.
Certainly interesting to see, but I prefer more traditional heated places to spend the day.
Did you go there Greg? What was the room temp?
We visited, but did not stay overnight. From the FAQ:
"What temperature is it inside the Hôtel de Glace?
In addition to being a great windshield, the thick snow walls keep the Hôtel de Glace well insulated. The ambient temperature varies only by a few degrees between -3°C and -5°C, no matter what the outside temperature is."
"How do people sleep in the Hôtel de Glace?
All our beds have a solid ice base, with a wooden bedspring and a mattress on top. Mattresses are covered with blankets, and people sleep inside arctic sleeping bags designed to stay warm in temperatures as low as -30°C. We recommend that you slip inside your sleeping bag wearing just thermal underwear to keep humidity to a minimum."
Many years ago, Leadville Colorado (elevation 10000 feet altitude) built a ice castle in 1896. Google it. Not THAT large. They have a winter fest every February. I lived there and worked for 13 years. WW
32,000 square feet. Built in December, to close in March. Each year. Great engineering and craftsmanship.Outside:
Entrance to the Ice Bar:
The Ice Bar:
The Wedding Chapel
A hallway:
Reception desk & Lobby:
A "theme" stateroom:
The floor plan:
A must-see, in my opinion.
Ice hotels are constructed in a number of places in the world, but to my knowledge, all of the others are in pretty remote locations where very few people live. Some require quite elaborate travel arrangements. This one is ten minutes outside of Quebec City. We drove there in our own car and parked in the parking lot.
It says something about Canada that a place reliably cold enough to build an Ice Hotel every year has a (metropolitan) population of three quarters of a million people.
I just looked that up. An impressive feat indeed, especially at the time. But it was done with a different sort of construction, using girders, notably to hold up the ceiling. The various Ice Hotels around the world these days are generally made entirely of snow and ice. All of the rooms have arched ceilings, some have columns of ice as well. I saw a video of how the one in Quebec is built a few years ago. It involves wooden forms which are removed once the snow has hardened enough to support its weight.
Sounds cozy until you get up at 3 AM to pee. I'd have tried it 20+ years ago, but not today.
I wouldn't be able to walk for a month, after.
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