Ice Hotels

Hotel of Ice at Bâlea Lac

Bâlea Lac, Romania

Bâlea Lac is a glacial lake at just over two thousand metres in the Făgăraș mountains, reached in winter only by cable car — the Transfăgărășan road that serves it in summer closes under snow. The hotel is cut each season from ice taken out of the lake itself, and dismantles itself in spring when the whole structure melts back into the water it came from.

The plan changes year to year: a vaulted central hall, rooms ranged off it, sleeping platforms of ice under thick furs and insulated bags, and an adjoining ice church that has held actual services. Guests eat and warm up in the chalet next door, then walk out across the snow to a room that will not exist in four months.