I've been wanting to feature this amazing place for quite some time, but I've been humming and hawing about whether it belongs in the green travel category. I mean, yes, its built with snow and ice, something we have no shortage of here in Canada, but, it has to be rebuilt every year, meaning that resources are consumed each time. Well, I've looked into it a little more, and here is what I've surmised:
The ice hotel is built every year in December. It takes about 20 workers for the construction and 10-15 more for the finishing (there's a whole lot of polishing going on to get the ice that sparkly!). Here is what makes the practice sustainable, in my mind: snow is renewable, of course; to construct the hotel, they use pre-forms made of wood and steel that have been prefabricated, and they can use over, even though some of the details change from year to year; there is very little electrical, so the main source of light is fire; and, judging from everyone's snowsuits and that the place is made of ice, there's no heating, hence less energy use. Pretty cool huh? (Seriously, no pun intended!)
The hotel is located in Sainte-Cathrine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier (a bit of a mouthful), Quebec, and is the only ice hotel in North America. A stay is worth about $219 /couple/night (not bad, considering!). They have a slew of winter activities available, but I expect you would spend most of the time gazing around, jaw-dropped, in wonder at this amazing feat. As long as global warming doesn't take it out of operation, I will visit someday.
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