Québec City Ice Hotel – 2014 Review

My boyfriend and I went to the Québec City Ice Hotel on January 17^th, 2014 on a coupon deal; it allowed us to stay a night for half price. It was my boyfriend and I’s one year anniversary so we decided to try what we thought would be an amazing experience.

Unfortunately we were quite disappointed in our experience; here is a list of pros and cons:

PROS

1.  The hotel itself is beautiful and detailed with amazing ice detailing all around and snow carvings in the walls;
2. The bar itself (all made of ice) is stunning;
3. The bar staff and drinks were great, the drinks were served in ice glasses;
4. We had a good time snowshoeing;
5. Free parking & wifi

CONS

1. The hotel was not in the middle of no-where like we had expected, there were shops, hotels and restaurants all around (I feel like being outdoors and it being secluded would have added to the experience;
2. There was to restaurant in the hotel, just a small kitchen that sold Gatorade and sandwiches;
3. The staff (excluding the bartenders) were less than impressive and not willing to please;
4. The "Nordik outdoor spa" was nothing more than a hot tub for 8 people that you had to remove the top and put it back once you were done;
5. The hotel had giant lockers for overnight guests, it was crowded all the time, it felt like I was back in high school;
6. 1 bathroom to accomodate EVERYONE, including outside visitors just coming to see the hotel;
7. We had paid extra for a themed room and felt we were ripped off with a room 1/3 completed. (see pictures below)

For a price of about $350/night (not including the extra we paid for the “themed room” it’s not worth staying.  (remember we got this half price … so double that amount)

We liked sleeping in our half-finished room, it wasn’t too cold, the rooms stay at about -5 degrees Celsius, not romantic though as you have your own cocoon shaped sleeping bag (can they not make a couples sleeping bag?) But this didn’t bother us.

My recommendations if you REALLY want to stay at this hotel is to pay for a normal room if you can afford it as paying extra isn’t worth the price as you only have access to the rooms past 9:00pm and have to leave by 8:30am, so you are basically only there to sleep.

OR

You can get a reservation (for less $ a night) at an amazing hotel and just visit the Ice Hotel as all the rooms and bars are open to the public.

We had complained to the manager and he basically told me: “well, what do you want?” …. Me: “Well…. Now I want your boss” and she did nothing but agree that the room looked incomplete and that she would receive many complaints because of it.

Québec City is an amazing place but for what we expected, it was not worth the stay. You would think as this is there 14^th year that these things wouldn’t happen, but at least now you all know what to expect.

These are the pictures; let me know if you agree that our room, compared to the others looks less than half way completed!

Enjoy!

600 pound chandelier!

Our glasses were made of ice! Cheers!

Here is the hallway leading to the rooms!

Notice all the detail in the snow and ice of all of these themed rooms!

Look at the detail in this bed frame!

My favorite room!!

This, below, is what a plain room looks like:

Our room, #29, you can understand how excited we were to see our room after looking at all of the other ones!

Our bed has no details...

A big pile of snow is in the corner of the room...

This is our sail...to me, it doesn't look finished, all the other rooms were so beautiful and nothing about ours stood out. It was literally just an outline of a sail. What a rip-off! 

Us in our cocoons, lol! Goodnight! 

Here is the Ice Hotel website for you info: http://www.hoteldeglace-canada.com/

 xox
Josée

Québec City Ice Hotel – 2014 Review

My boyfriend and I went to the Québec City Ice Hotel on January 17^th, 2014 on a coupon deal; it allowed us to stay a night for half price. It was my boyfriend and I’s one year anniversary so we decided to try what we thought would be an amazing experience.

Unfortunately we were quite disappointed in our experience; here is a list of pros and cons:

PROS

1.  The hotel itself is beautiful and detailed with amazing ice detailing all around and snow carvings in the walls;
2. The bar itself (all made of ice) is stunning;
3. The bar staff and drinks were great, the drinks were served in ice glasses;
4. We had a good time snowshoeing;
5. Free parking & wifi

CONS

1. The hotel was not in the middle of no-where like we had expected, there were shops, hotels and restaurants all around (I feel like being outdoors and it being secluded would have added to the experience;
2. There was to restaurant in the hotel, just a small kitchen that sold Gatorade and sandwiches;
3. The staff (excluding the bartenders) were less than impressive and not willing to please;
4. The "Nordik outdoor spa" was nothing more than a hot tub for 8 people that you had to remove the top and put it back once you were done;
5. The hotel had giant lockers for overnight guests, it was crowded all the time, it felt like I was back in high school;
6. 1 bathroom to accomodate EVERYONE, including outside visitors just coming to see the hotel;
7. We had paid extra for a themed room and felt we were ripped off with a room 1/3 completed. (see pictures below)

For a price of about $350/night (not including the extra we paid for the “themed room” it’s not worth staying.  (remember we got this half price … so double that amount)

We liked sleeping in our half-finished room, it wasn’t too cold, the rooms stay at about -5 degrees Celsius, not romantic though as you have your own cocoon shaped sleeping bag (can they not make a couples sleeping bag?) But this didn’t bother us.

My recommendations if you REALLY want to stay at this hotel is to pay for a normal room if you can afford it as paying extra isn’t worth the price as you only have access to the rooms past 9:00pm and have to leave by 8:30am, so you are basically only there to sleep.

OR

You can get a reservation (for less $ a night) at an amazing hotel and just visit the Ice Hotel as all the rooms and bars are open to the public.

We had complained to the manager and he basically told me: “well, what do you want?” …. Me: “Well…. Now I want your boss” and she did nothing but agree that the room looked incomplete and that she would receive many complaints because of it.

Québec City is an amazing place but for what we expected, it was not worth the stay. You would think as this is there 14^th year that these things wouldn’t happen, but at least now you all know what to expect.

These are the pictures; let me know if you agree that our room, compared to the others looks less than half way completed!

Enjoy!

600 pound chandelier!

Our glasses were made of ice! Cheers!

Here is the hallway leading to the rooms!

Notice all the detail in the snow and ice of all of these themed rooms!

Look at the detail in this bed frame!

My favorite room!!

This, below, is what a plain room looks like:

Our room, #29, you can understand how excited we were to see our room after looking at all of the other ones!

Our bed has no details...

A big pile of snow is in the corner of the room...

This is our sail...to me, it doesn't look finished, all the other rooms were so beautiful and nothing about ours stood out. It was literally just an outline of a sail. What a rip-off! 

Us in our cocoons, lol! Goodnight! 

Here is the Ice Hotel website for you info: http://www.hoteldeglace-canada.com/

 xox
Josée