orangeTT

I posted about two weeks ago that my girlfriend and myself would be trekking to the Ice Hotel (located about an hour west of Quebec City) for a New Year's Eve vacation.

Well I wish I had some better news and photos to boot, but alas the story goes something like this ...

We took my TTR up for the entire 1200+ mile journey, across snow and ice covered roads most of the way. This car is amazing. I mean ... I had it last winter and realized just how incredible the Quattro system is (with snow tires of course), but this trip really pushed the limit. We were out in the middle of nowhere. And I mean NOWHERE. Steep snowy hills, ice covered highways, etc. The car was glued to the road.

As you might guess, it illicited quite a few stares from the native Quebecois. And as the Vermont border patrol guard put it: "Was' that? One o' them-there Owdees? BMW makes a car look just like that ... Don't see too many o' them 'round these parts. Not too much use for dem here." Right.

Anyway onto the interesting stuff ...

First the bad:
We got to the Ice Hotel on New Year's Day. "Checked in" ... which consisted of the reception staff telling us that we had to first go down as a group and take a tour of the Hotel before they'd let us wander around on our own. This tour wasn't happening for another three hours. Fine. They told us to go grab some dinner at the restaurant they have onsite. (The Hotel is built on land owned by the Duchesnay Ecotourism station ... it's almost like a series of ski lodges or pavillions) So we eat, come back, wait around some more ... wait around some more ... and then some more. No one seemed to know what anyone else was doing. We could really only see the front of the Ice Hotel and not much else as it was dark and the rest of the Hotel leads into the woods. There did seem to be an inordinant amount of construction going on, but I figured perhaps that was normal.

We arrived at about 5:30. We didn't end up going on the tour until about 8:30. There was a great deal of waiting around, which was a little frustrating to begin with. And on top of that, no one had rooms assigned and the Hotel staff didn't want to figure it out until everyone had been on the tour. (???) So we take the tour, which lasted an hour or so. And the first thing that hit me was, after we walked through the hotel lobby, we walked into the area where the Absolut Ice Bar and Foyer were SUPPOSED to be. That hadn't been built yet! Not only had it not been completed, but it hadn't even been started! Incidentally, this is the largest and most focal part of the Hotel so for this not to have been built yet really didn't compute with me. I really didn't know what to think. But I had my girlfriend with me ... I didn't want to start b**ching about it right there so I bit my lip. As we're moving around the hotel, from room to "soon-to-be-built" room, the story unfolds. Winter came roughly 3-4 weeks late so the hotel construction was way behind schedule. However, no one called to mention this to me. Approximately half the hotel was either not completed or not even in the beginning stages of construction. I was absolutely furious. What was even more perplexing was that none of the other hotel guests on the tour seemed to mind. My girlfriend and I toyed with the idea of staying and making the best of it, as we'd come so far already. But ultimately we decided we'd rather have the full-blown experience. After much delay and a whole lot of convincing, I was able to get the Director of Operations to refund our money. They initially tried enforcing the "no cancellation" policy on me. I didn't want to have to call my credit card company and cry "fraud", and fortunately it didn't come to that.

Apparently with all the commotion surrounding the Hotel staff trying to finish the Hotel, they failed to communicate to the guests that it wasn't completed.


And now the good:
There was one woman in particular there who I was dealing with at first who basically told me that, because of their "no cancellation" policy, I was ****e out of luck. I told her that was unacceptable and she allowed me to speak to the Director. He was a very understanding man who's very passionate about the hotel, its construction, its history, etc. After only 10 mins. or so of deliberation, he happily refunded our money and told us that he really hoped we'd come back in the coming months.

So ... I WILL be going back. My first trip up was not the best it could have been and I'm perhaps a little TOO understanding. But it's something I've wanted to do for the past few years now and I'm willing to cut them some slack.

The Hotel itself is unbelievable. It's essentially a giant igloo. Where the outside nighttime temperature hovered around 6 degrees F, the inside temp of the hotel is around 30 F. The Hotel is constructed out of high-density snow, suitable for building. Once it's allowed to set and harden, it's impossible to stick a finger into it. The snow is all man-made. The tour guide explained to us that even if they received four feet of natural snow, it's a b**ch because they have to shovel and plow all of that out to make way for their own snow. Once completed, the Hotel houses 40-50 rooms I believe, a cinema, a bar (this will be huge ... 20 foot high ceilings and approximately 20 feet wide by maybe 50-60 feet long), a wedding chapel, an Inuit Indian museum, an art gallery, and various ice sculptures scattered throughout the Hotel (including a few in every room). Everything is constructed from ice or snow. The walls, ceilings, statues, furniture, floors, bed frames, windows. Everything. It's simply beautiful. There's really no other word to describe it. And if you, as I, am willing to bare the cold, I think it's entirely worth the trip.

We didn't end up taking any pictures because we didn't bring our cameras on the tour since we figured it'd be easier when the tour was over to come back in and go along at our own pace. Big mistake.

We spent the following three nights in Quebec City, so the entire trip was most definitely not a bust. It's a very old city with a very authentic, classic European flavor. I'd definitely visit there again as well.

ttracy

when they expect it all to be done?
I live not too far off in Vt. (with my owdee) and have been thinking of zipping up to check it out.
But I definitely wouldn't want to waste a trip on NO BAR.