Past POIs - Ice Hotel [Quebec City, Quebec]

During a February road trip, we went to the Ice Hotel in Quebec City, also known at the Hotel de Glace.

Me in the Pirate Room.

Initially I thought that it would be neat to sleep over but after looking at the cost and what it means to sleep there (over $200 a person/night, or $400+ per night), I easily said no and we just paid to visit the site instead.  Do note that the price is high because they actually rent a room at a nearby hotel for you as well in case you don't like it and to shower and other things (the ice hotel only has toilets).  Also, you aren't sleeping on a block of ice, you will sleep on a mattress that is placed on top of an ice block with an arctic sleeping bag.

Ice Slide featuring Olaf.

For $18 (price may vary), you get a tour of the complex which gives you some background on how they build the structure and some of the types of rooms that they have there.  It is a bit steep in price but I think it is worth a visit.  After the tour, you are free to explore the site on your own (you can visit all the rooms and the areas).  Besides the rooms, there is a great hall where you can mingle with people since there is music and a bar, there is a chapel, and even a slide as well.

The hotel itself is built every year starting in roughly December, open to guests in January and torn down in April.  It takes roughly a month and a half and 60 people to build with a combination of snow (over 15,000 tons) and ice (over 500,000 tons).  Although it is called the Ice Hotel, the interior temperature is not as cold as you would think since snow is actually a good insulator keeping the temperature at roughly -2 C to -3 C (28 F).

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

2014 - Quebec City (Day 3)

Today is our second full day in Quebec City, which is also our last day before we head back home tomorrow.

This morning for breakfast we had a fruit salad, regular salad with polenta, and a mango/banana smoothie.  The breakfasts here have all been fantastic.

We decided today to do the Ice Hotel, see the Montmorency Falls, and wander Quebec if we had time.  We started with Montmorency Falls, with some troubles finding it on our GPS, we ended up at our destination and it is amazing (I think this may be better during winter than summer).

It is 275ft tall which is 98ft taller than Niagara Falls.  We were parked on the upper area of the falls, so we had to find a way down which is possible with a long long stair case.  This is a use at your risk staircase during the winter.  Some of it is really slippery.

It is worth it to see it down at the base.  The base is completely frozen and you can wander around all you like.  Due to how the falls is structure, the mist of the falls actually freezes into an ice bump.  It is hard to explain, so just look at the picture.

The hill in front of the falls is actually created from the mist of the falls as it freezes.  It is actually really cool.  You can just slide down all of these hills.  There are even some crazy people who do ice climbing in the area!  As you can see, I was enjoying climbing my mountain of an ice cube compared to the people in the back.

Very cool site.  Worth a visit in the winter if you can.  Next we went to the Ice Hotel.  The Ice Hotel is a relatively new attraction (about 15 years old), and is rebuilt every year.  I was pretty excited to see what it would be like when I compared it to the Bonhomme Ice Palace, but I was a little disappointed.  It is not that it is a boring and uninteresting site, it is just that it wasn't what I expected.  There are roughly 10 suites which are themed in the hotel, otherwise you get a generic room with no theme/decorations inside.  There is a chapel, a grand hall, an ice slide, and a bar.  All of which is pretty interesting.  I guess my disappointment was the fact that the hotel is not actually made of ice.  It is made of snow and ice.  So the building itself is not transparent (which in hindsight makes sense), but it is white and looks like a really big igloo.

Well, that's the end of this trip.  Tomorrow we drive back home!  Till next time!