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Published: March 16th 2011
We had been wanting to go visit the Ice Hotel (Hotel de Glace in French), since it opened in January, but it just hadn't worked to get in there. On the last Friday of Paul's spring break we decided it was now or never. We had stayed in the Ice Hotel in January 2001 as a wedding gift from Karen and Laurel, the first year it opened so we were anxious to see how it had grown and changed. Back then there were just 8 rooms (would be called suites by today's definitions). this year there were a total of 36 rooms, 15 of them suites. The hotel is in a new location this year, the site of the former Zoo in Quebec City. For the last few years it was actually quite close to us here in St. Raymond, down the road at the Duschenay Tourist Resort. Being right in town gives them a lot more day tourists I am sure, which is their bread a butter income. It is interesting that the cost to stay hasn't gone up a huge amount since we stayed in 2001. Then it was about $200/person per night. Today our guide said that room
typically started at $230 per person (I think that was for a regular room), and you could get a last minute deal for $150 per person per night. They had a family special of $530 for the family, so we decided that was a bit stiff for us.
The Hotel is larger than before but has the same awe inspiring snow and ice sculptures decorating it. This one and the one in Sweden are the only two in the world that are completely free standing made of ice. There are no internal steel structure to hold it up (they use steel forms to make the hotel and then remove them once the ice is set).
They now have a beautiful chapel at one end. Our guide said that they did about 18 marriages here this year. In the past they have done more. The main entry halls are full of beautiful ice and snow scuptures. The theme this year was Biodiversity. There is now the main ice bar and then a second Pinnacle Bar that features just local Quebec liquers. The highlight for the boys was the indoor ice slide. It was really neat. It is decorated with
penquins all down the edges of it. P and M had rain pants on as it was raining today, so they were really fast on the slide. Especially little M.
The regular rooms were pretty basic. No decorations, just snow walls and the fur covered bed in there. Much like a large igloo. I don't think I would pay that much for a regular room. Might as well splurge and get a suite. Each suite is decorated by a professional ice sculptor and each suite has a different theme. Some of them were really amazing. Many of them had different colored LED lights in the ice to set the mood in the room. There were even a few rooms with fire places! The fire places are insulated so that they don't give off too much heat into the room and melt it, but it gives you the cozy feeling of a fire. They now have hot tubs and a sauna outside for the guests to warm up before bed. The bridal suite has a fireplace and its own private spa. It rents at $400/person per night. The beds are a foam mattress on an ice base with cariboo hides
or other blankets over the mattress and then the sleeping bags over that. Back in the first year when we stayed there, all the rooms had some sort of ice sculpture in them. Not as fancy as the suites today, but they had ice chairs, etc to give them some cache compared to the basic room today. Our room had cariboo hides on the bed. Today it seemed those were only on a few suites, the others had artificial fur or other coverings.
One thing that we decided from our visit today is that if you do want to stay there, I would recommend not going in March. It was raining outside today so it was starting to melt inside. The rooms were incredibly humid (like our igloo last weekend), and I would guess that you would get chilled with all that humidity as the night wore on. She said they put candles in the rooms to reduce the humidity, but I think you really are better to go earlier in the year on a cold day. No matter what the temperature outside, it doesn't get below -5 inside.
In the bar area the seating is all on
ice seats with cariboo skins to cover them and the tables are ice. P wanted to get an ice drink so we let them share one. At $3.50 for a shot of lemonade it wasn't cheap but they were so excited to drink from an ice glass it was worth it.
Definitely a place worth visiting if you are in Quebec in the winter.
Click on the photos to see a larger version to really see the ice details.
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Lana
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Ice Hotel
Tracy these pictures are amazing. This is definitely something that I have to see.