Ice hotels

December 30, 2007 10:11 PM

Has anyone stayed in an ice hotel? Particularly the one in Quebec?

I'm thinking of taking my husband there for his birthday in the early spring. Any input would be appreciated!

posted by LittleMissCranky to travel & transportation (3 comments total)

Have you seen this? Ice Hotel Quebec on YouTube
posted by dujoducom at 11:29 PM on December 30, 2007 [1 favorite]

I went on a day visit in 2004, and I would not stay there from what I saw -- it didn't look to me that anyone actually did.

1. It was really dirty. Lots of people trek through the rooms during the day, to see them -- and it's worth heading there to see -- but this leaves the floors pretty messy.

2. The rooms have no doors, and no where to put anything.

(I wondered about this when I was there -- if people were staying there, where was there stuff? How could have any privacy? But I see from the website that you get a parallel reservation for a room at the non-ice hotel next door, so that you can actually properly stay somewhere. They seem to give you arctic sleeping bags for staying in the ice room if you want to sleep there just for the experience.)

3. Obviously, there are no bathrooms -- there is a central one, but you would have to suit up for a trip.

I think if you are the sort of folks who don't mind going without those niceties that the word "hotel" conjure up, you'd be okay, plus you can always go to the hotel next door. I would rather stay somewhere nice in Quebec City and take day trip out there, maybe do some snowshoeing at a local wilderness area while I'm out of the city.
posted by girlpublisher at 6:10 AM on December 31, 2007

It looks like if you make a reservation, you get a room at another nearby hotel as well. So, the idea seems to be, you go do whatever you want in the ice suite, and then get a night's sleep in a real hotel.
posted by beagle at 9:58 AM on December 31, 2007