a crystalline structure slowly rises above the wintry landscape 30 minutes west of Quebec City. It's the Ice Hotel, a 32-room property with a short season but a long reputation. Designed to melt the heart of guests, the hotel was the brainchild of winter sports enthusiast Jacques Desbois, who read a magazine piece about a similar property in Sweden. Since its inception in 2001, the Ice Hotel has hosted 220,000 visitors and 10,500 brave souls who have actually stayed overnight.
Although its design is different every year, the Ice Hotel has tripled in size since it started. Beyond its rooms and suites are art galleries, exhibition rooms, interior courtyards, an ice chandelier that hangs from a lobby with an 18-foot ceiling, and such surprising touches as Jacuzzis, fireplaces, heated washrooms, and a movie theater. There's even a chapel for people willing to put their marriage on ice -- literally.
The N'ice Club reception room holds 400 people and the Absolut Ice Bar serves 200, with an intimate Scandinavian-style relaxation place reserved for those who prefer meditation to mixed drinks. The whole place is natural, with 30,000 square feet of hotel carved from 12,000 tons of snow and 400 tons of ice. Even the furniture has been carved out of ice blocks. At peak capacity, the hotel can pack 84 people into its 18 rooms and 14 theme suites. The more the merrier, as body heat helps stave off chilly Canadian nights.
Guests manage to keep warm by engaging in assorted activities, from dog-sledding to snowmobiling, ice-skating, ice-fishing, and cross-country skiing. Swimming is not listed. The Ice Hotel must be doing something right: it will open its first spinoff on Dec. 23. The N'ice Club Mont-Tremblant, about one-tenth the size of the hotel, can accommodate 200 people at a time. Made of 1600 tons of snow and 100 tons of ice, it will provide private alcoves, a dance floor, and a bar with cocktails served in glasses carved from ice.
The constant interior temperature will be 28 degrees F. Both the hotel and its igloo-like imitation key a watchful eye on the thermometer; once it tops 32, the carefully-crafted structures start to melt. That's why the season for the smaller ice structure at Mont-Tremblant ends on March 19 - less than three months after it starts. The Ice Hotel's season is also short, running from January through April, 2006. Bookings are brisk during the 2006 Quebec Winter Carnaval, slated for Jan. 27-Feb. 12, and Valentine's Day, immediately after the festival closes.
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