Quebec’s Hôtel de Glace (Ice Hotel) turns the big 1-0 this winter, and while it’s matured over the last decade, the Club-Med-meets-art-gallery-meets-meat-locker happily retains its youthful insouciance.
Open January 4 to April 4 as part of a resort area a half-hour north of Quebec City called Station Touristique Duchesnay, the hostelry squats at the bottom of a hill occupied by the more conventional Auberge Duchesnay hotel. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but this year’s interior is a veritable crystalline wonderland. Translucent ice-block walls and columns alternate with hard-packed snow throughout the main lobby (the desk with the ice check-in book’s a nice touch, as is the ice slide at the other end), nightclub, museum and chapel (worry not, the pew benches have furs laid atop them on them).
The 36 rooms (starting at $181) fall into three categories: basic (just a little snow cell with an ice bed and table; little else); artistic (groovy decorations carved into the walls, from Indian braves, bears, and naked ladies to galaxies and extravagant abstractions accented with colored lights); and deluxe (the forementioned artistic option plus hot tubs and fireplaces).
Most folks work one night on ice into a two- or three-day stay at the Auberge. By day you play — snowshoeing, snowmobiling, ice fishing, dogsledding, cross-country skiing, and so forth. Then after dinner (and a nice one, it was), you head down to the ice bar for electronic music and all manners of libations poured into square ice tumblers: the Sortilège maple whiskey does a body good.
Around midnight, some head to the hot tub and dry sauna (there’s a heated bathroom right nearby) before hitting the (frozen) sack. They give you a detailed orientation on how to get in and out of your sleeping pack, dressing and undressing, and what to do or not to do with your stuff (most of it you lock up in the heated reception building). Unlike some other guests I spoke to, I didn’t find it claustrophobic, nor did I have trouble keeping warm.
But I admit, I did pass on the customary 3 a.m. bathroom run.
(photos by ©Xdachez.com)
