Staying overnight at the Hôtel de Glace Once the hotel closed to daytime visitors, we head- ed down to relax in the hot tubs and sauna reserved for overnight guests. It’s highly recommended to spend some time here before settling in for the night to bring up your body’s core temperature. And it def- initely works: by the time we dried off, changed and settled into the cold-rated sleeping bags provided by the hotel, we stayed toasty warm all night. It was -13 degrees Celsius when we woke up, but while we were snug in our beds, we hardly felt it at all. Staying overnight in an ice hotel is a unique, surpris- ing and definitively northern experience. And while there’s no question it requires embracing winter like a Quebecer, it’s invigorating and not nearly as frigid as you might imagine it to be. This winter road trip is as Canadian as it comes, and it’s one you’ll remember for a lifetime. Mi
impressive chandelier in the main lobby, the ice ho- tel needs no structural support within its walls at all. Many of the hotel suites are styled with themes, meaning you could find yourself sleeping in a snowy garden, a mad scientist’s lab, or an icy recreation of downtown Quebec City itself. You can even enjoy a drink at the bar in a cocktail glass made of ice! The ice hotel stays open for self-guided tours until 9 p.m., but you don’t need to wait that long for the fun to begin. With an overnight stay at the Hôtel de Glace, you also have access to a suite inside the resort. This gives you a secure place to shower and store your be- longings, and a retreat in case you’d prefer to escape the cold. We arrived for our reservation, checked into our re- sort room, and then headed out for some exhilaration on the tubing runs before grabbing a bite to eat at one of the resort’s restaurants.
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