Unusual? Yes. Unique? Possibly. Most hotels are made from bricks and cement or concrete and steel, this one is made from ice and snow. Skilled ice artisans (or should that be icetisans?) build the hotel every winter slightly differently each time. If you want to volunteer to help them, apply online! If you want to design a room entirely from ice and snow, you can enter their annual competition, you need to be from Quebec University though to do so. And if you win, you can see your idea incorporated into the final design when the hotel is built in autumn for a December opening.

In 2012, the hotel featured an ice slide for those who don’t mind chilly bums, a bar and restaurant, and a breathtaking ice-chapel. In the outside sauna and baths, you have the experience of catching a snowflake on your tongue while steam rises from the heated water. Your room is constructed entirely from ice. Some rooms are sub-zero and there you snuggle into your special Nordic sleeping bag. Other rooms have a free-standing fireplace where you notice with a smile that even your champagne flute is crafted from ice.