L ike an expedition to Antarctica without the penguins, this ice hotel provides all the comforts of a traditional hotel except one -- heat. But living through the experience and telling your friends about it is half the fun. The hotel is constructed from 4,750 tons of beautifully sculpted, yet architecturally sound snow and ice. The four-foot thick walls are ice. The floors are ice. The 16-foot ceilings are ice. Yes, even the beds are ice. So is the rest of the furniture and the decorations. But spending an evening here isn't exactly "roughing it" in this luxury igloo. Guests are treated to two art galleries (the art is also made of ice), a movie theater, and a bar where vodka is served in glasses made of ice. No cold toes in the night here. The beds are lined with deer furs and guests snuggle down in sleeping bags on a mattress. The year it opened, 2000, the hotel had a capacity of 22 guests, and it was sold out. In 2001 it moves to the Duchesnay Resort and will be expanded to accommodate 85 people. There is one part that is, mercifully, ice-free. That's the bathroom, which is kept in a separate heated building. Still, you can just hear someone asking, "Is it cold enough for ya?"
The first ice hotel was built in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden in 1990.
Because of the insulating properties of ice, the igloo always remains between -4 and -6C no matter how cold it gets outside.
