The travel blog for couples - Written by Melanie Waldman
Quebec's Hotel de Glace, the only ice hotel in North America
When I had the recent opportunity to stay over at Québec’s Hôtel de Glace, the only ice hotel in North America, I jumped at the chance.
The only problem with “jumping” and “ice” in the same concept:
No matter how beautiful your surroundings, you’re bound to wipe out at least once.
Rue Saint-Louis in Old Quebec City
After traipsing across a freakishly wintry Europe back in the early aughts, I would have thought I was done with snow, ice and city wandering in the same trip.
But I hadn’t yet been to Québec City.
Sure, it can easily dip into negative Fahrenheit, but with 400-plus years of history, a passion for fairy lights, a cuisine based largely on pies and a slew of magical apertifs, the whole city pretty much had me at “bonjour.”
A giant knuk and Bonhomme at the Quebec Winter Carnival's Day Parade
When’s the last time you both rode a Ferris wheel through a flurry of snowflakes?
Or wandered open-mouthed through a pavilion of glittering ice sculptures?
Or whooshed down an icy hill in a rubber raft, catching air and squealing with pure delight?
Might be time to get yourselves to the Great White North for Quebec’s Winter Carnival, going on now through February 13!
Bonhomme, the official ambassador of Quebec Winter Carnival
This morning finds me half-awake in the Toronto Airport on a 4-hour layover, cozy and increasingly caffeinated in Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge.
Thanks to my Star Alliance miles, I’m flying coach; thanks to a generous fellow travel blogger, though, I’m hooked up for first-class lounge access on my journey to Québec City.
Later today, I’ll meet up with yet another fellow travel blogger to revel in the Winter Carnival, go snowshoeing on the Fields of Abraham, check out North America’s only ice hotel, and even drive to Montreal for a one-night stay.
I’m looking forward to some (temporary) freezing fun and trying Québecois specialties like the Caribou, a four-spirit cocktail guaranteed to make you not mind that it’s, well…zero degrees Fahrenheit.
