16 · Ice Hotels
Hôtel de Glace
Québec, Canada
The only ice hotel in North America, built from snow and ice for one winter and then let go
Rooms are cut from packed snow, with ice used for the beds, the seats and the carved detail. A bed is a block with a base, hides and a cold-weather sleeping bag on it. Walls are thick enough to hold the inside near freezing point, and the carving is redrawn each season.
The hotel has been built each winter since 2001 and is taken down again in spring, so its plan changes from season to season. Snow is blown over arched forms to make the vaults, and ice blocks are set for the beds, the bar and the chapel. Guest rooms, a slide, exhibition halls and a chapel sit under the same vaults, and heated buildings beside them hold the washrooms.
The hotel is built at Valcartier, north-west of Québec City, beside a large recreation park in the valley of the Jacques-Cartier. The setting is flat, open and surrounded by conifer forest. From outside the building looks like a long white mound in the snow rather than a structure with a facade.
Last gone over · June 2026
Three distances, one hotel: none of it is a promise about a stay. We work from published sources and say so plainly; the month at the foot of the page is when we last went over them.