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For those of you looking to spend some quality time with your significant other… don’t go to the ice hotel near Quebec City, Canada!But for those of you looking for a uniquely Canadian experience (crowds cheering! beavers flapping their tails!), a chance to stay overnight in a pretty cool igloo, and a reason to just plain come back to visit Canada… the Ice Hotel is the place to go! |
Sponsored by Hilton Hotels, the Ice Hotel is absolutely huge – there’s over 50 rooms, each one theme with a unique ice carving! In addition to the rooms themselves, there are even intricate ice sculptures across the hotel’s halls, a movie theatre with fur pelts on the ice benches, an ice bar with shot glasses made out of ice, a jacuzzi (it’s just outside of the ice hotel so it won’t melt the place down), and even a wedding chapel.
Average room temperature varies from -2 to -5 degrees Celcius depending on who you ask. The bed is a very uncomfortable panel of wood covered by furry but thin animal pelts and is surrounded by lit up blocks of ice. I’m not sure if the person who arranged the construction of the bed was made to sleep on it, but he/she should have. It felt more like a table then a bed!
My hopes for a romantic night with my boyfriend were squashed when I found out that the arctic quality sleeping bags were really made for one person only and the ice hotel staff strongly suggested that the two bags would not be zipped up together since the sleeping bag must be tighted tight around your face so you don’t lose any heat. Very romantic, no? On top of that, they then tell you that you’ll stay warmer if you take all your clothes off and throw it into the bag next to the bed — I was not looking forward to putting those frozen clothes back on in the morning. My funniest moment was right after getting into the sleeping bag, taking off all my clothes and tying it up real tight around my face, then realizing I had to turn the lights off.
Luckily, my boyfriend and I had jumped into the jacuzzi after enjoying at live concert at the ice bar’s, so I had plenty of warmth left in me. That jacuzzi gave us the inner warmth we needed to make it through the night. Well almost anyways… at 5am, my boyfriend decided to quit and ran inside the nearby log cabin to warm up next to a burning fire with a cup of hot chocolate.
Since the ice hotel is most impressive in the early light of the day, you are asked to leave your room at the insane hour of 8am – “Unless you want to be part of the tour,” the staff warned. Let me tell you, I was seriously considering taking part. Just like your mom, they were right… in the morning, the hotel glowed with light blue rays of sunshine from within. Some of the best pictures from my experience came out at that time.
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So, get ready for a night you’ll remember – for all the right and the wrong reasons!
Here is the official Ice Hotel homepage for more information and bookings: http://www.icehotel-canada.com/en/index.en.php
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TOP THINGS TO DO/SEE IN CANADA’S ICE HOTEL
- Outdoor Jacuzzi is lots of fun…. especially if it’s snowing!
- Go dog-sledding
- Sleep there overnight in a theme rooms, like the Egyptian room. Did I miss something, when was the last time Egypt had snow?
- Eat Caribou at the local heated restaurant. Mmmm. But stay away from the Maple Sap whiskey. Yuk. Still then, there is a local brew called Caribou, a mix of Whiskey, Red Wine and various other alcohols — Quebec’s answer to staying warm overnight!
- Tour the ice hotel… and see everyone else’s room. There are over 20 themed rooms. Just don’t lick the walls.
- Drink vodka out of Ice glasses — No, your lips don’t stick to it, but it is tough to drink from it because the rim is 1″ thick.
- Go tobogganing, snowshoeing, icefishing, skidooing — costs a little extra
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