This week, high in the Bernese Oberland, above Gstaad the Iglu-Dorf (igloo village) hotel is one of seven such sites in Europe and Scandinavia, which are rebuilt from ice and snow every winter, before melting away again in spring.
Carved from about 3,000 tons of snow, the ice hotel can house 38 guests in igloo suites furnished with deep-pile rugs and down sleeping bags. The experience is clearly more novelty than luxury though, as apparently no one stays more than a night – not least since the hotel has no running water or showers. The only ‘bathing’ available is a hot, bubbling Jacuzzi, and outside whirlpools for the brave.
All the ‘rooms’ are uniquely carved, with ice beds and furniture, and vary from 6-bed igloos for families, to a romantic suite with its own whirlpool ‘bathroom’.
Although the hotel looks like a wind-blasted mound of snow with doors in from the outside, the interior is surprisingly ‘well-appointed’, with spectacular lighting and ice ‘friezes’ carved into the walls by Inuit artists brought in from around the world. Cost: from £104 pp per night.
If you really can’t stand a night on ice, then one of the heated geodesic Hot-Iglu tents might appeal, each of which has a double bed and its own wood fired heater. Hot-Iglu prices range from £190 pp per night, including lots of extras, such as mulled wine dinner, bedding, night-time snowshoeing or walking, breakfast, and Prosecco.
Other locations include Davos-Klosters in the Parsenn ski arena, Engelberg-Titlis in the Trubsee, Stockhorn and Zermatt where you can sleep at altitude of 2727m next to the Matterhorn. Iglu-dorf.com
