The Ice Hotel (french: Hôtel de Glace) in

Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier Saint-Gabriel-de-Valcartier () is a municipality in the Capitale-Nationale region of Quebec, Canada, located in the Jacques-Cartier River valley. It is home to the Canadian Forces Base Valcartier since World War I. History In 1647, Robert Giffa ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

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is the first and only true

ice hotel An ice hotel is a temporary hotel made up of snow and sculpted blocks of ice. Ice hotels, dependent on sub-freezing temperatures, are constructed from ice and snow and typically have to be rebuilt every year. Ice hotels exist in several countri ...

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History

The Ice hotel opened on New Year's Day in 2001.Business brisk at Quebec's 'ice hotel'
, CBC, January 2, 2001 For its first year, it was located in

Montmorency Falls The Montmorency Falls (french: Chute Montmorency) is a large waterfall on the Montmorency River in Quebec, Canada. Location The falls are located on the boundary between the borough of Beauport, and Boischatel, about from the heart of old Q ...

Park, on the outskirts of

Quebec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Communauté métrop ...

, with plans to move to the nearby Duchesnay resort in

Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier () is a town in Quebec, Canada, located in the regional county municipality of La Jacques-Cartier, in the administrative region of Capitale-Nationale. The Jacques-Cartier River passes through the city. Lo ...

for its next year. It had been built there from 2002 to 2010. In 2011, the Hôtel de Glace moved to a new site, in the Charlesbourg neighbourhood of

. It was built there until 2016/2017. The hotel was located 5 km north of downtown

, on the first slopes of the

Laurentian mountains The Laurentian Mountains ( French: ''Laurentides'') are a mountain range in southern Quebec, Canada, north of the St. Lawrence River and Ottawa River, rising to a highest point of at Mont Raoul Blanchard, northeast of Quebec City in the Laurentid ...

, in the Charlesbourg borough. It is the first and only ice hotel in

and is built each December for an opening date in early January. The hotel has a three-month lifespan each year before being brought down in April.Ice Hotel Is Tourist Hotspot
,

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

, Brian Dakss, January 6, 2006 It had 11 double beds when it first opened in 2001. It has now 51 double beds, all made of ice and followed by a solid wood base and comfortable mattress. When the time comes, a cozy sleeping bag, an isolating bed sheet and a pillow are delivered to the rooms. Only the bathrooms are heated and located in a separate insulated structure. It takes about a month and a half to build with 50 workers. The Hotel makes its own snow using a special mixture to adjust the humidity. It is built with metal frames, it is allowed to harden for a few days, and then the frames are removed. The hotel is made of 30,000 tons of snow and 500 tons of ice and the walls are up to four feet thick. In 2017 the hotel moved to its current home at the Valcartier Vacation Village, a large family resort in

that also has a large indoor water park, winter tube slides, and an outdoor water park in the summer.

Description

The hotel is usually made (the

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

and size may vary from season to season) in arches of 16 feet (5 m) over rooms, and larger and higher spaces for a grand hall, a chapel, a bar and a grand ice slide. The walls are over 4 feet (1.2 m) thick on average. All furniture is made of ice. As in the Kiruna ice hotel, the bar serves drinks and cocktails in ice glasses. Amenities include indoor heated washrooms and outdoor hot tubs.

Tourist site

The hotel has been described as a "tourist hotspot" and is backed by Quebec's tourism department. Tours are available in French and in English, seven days a week, and the hotel is otherwise open to the public.Visitors warming up to Quebec's ice hotel

The Jamaica Observer ''Jamaica Observer'' is a daily newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety o ...

, Tania Fuentez, May 25, 2003 After the thirteenth season, the official statistics reported over a million visitors and 43,000 overnight guests.Ice Is Nice for a Winter Wedding
,

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

, Susan Catto, December 19, 2004 In its fifth season, it hosted around 70,000 tourists.

Weddings

There is a

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

where weddings are celebrated. The Hôtel de Glace has been described as one of the "10 dream wedding locations."10 dream wedding locations
, Irish Independent, Ian McCurrach , May 27, 2009 After the Thirteenth season, 275 weddings had been conducted since its opening.

References

External links