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Get Down with Dracula at Romania's Rebuilt Ice Hotel This Season

Where: Balea Lac, Romania

Eerily sculpted headboards adorn rooms at the Balea Lac Ice Hotel

It's been over a year since we last reported on an ice hotel, which we took as a sign that the kitschy travel trend had seen its final day pass. But rounding out this unusually mild winter season is news about the latest contender in (relatively) cheap and chilly accommodations: Romania.

The Balea Lac is one in a series of European icy lodgings that are rebuilt to compensate for melting and other seasonal changes. Temperatures inside top off at a spine-tingling 35 degrees Fahrenheit, though rest assured, every stay includes a "specialist sleeping bag" and some furs.

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Romanian Ice Hotel Open 'Till May-ish

Where: Balea Lac, Romania

We knew the Romanian ice hotel existed, but weren't sure anyone else did (other than the Bucharest Daily News, of course).

On Wednesday the Lake Balea (Balea Lac) Hotel officially opened to the public. Like the other ice hotels, this one is also entirely made of snow and ice.

No worries about avalanches, the 37-year-old owner, Aurelian Nica, is a trained mountain rescuer. And he's psyched, "a dream come true," he says. Last year's attempt melted before anyone ever knew about it. Higher altitude and a great Siberian-cold front leave little room for premature melting for the 2006 season.

The hotel can be reached only from a highway linking the cities of Brasov and Sibiu to the Balea Lake resort, where tourists can board a cable car leading to a cabin and the ice hotel.

The cost ranged around 20,000 lei or USD$6,600, which seems awfully cheap to us. Hey, anyone want to build an igloo and charge people to sleep there?

Related Stories:
·   Ice hotel opens in Romania's Transylvanian mountains [Bucharest Daily News]
·   Igloo-Tels Are SO Winter 2006 [HotelChatter]

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Igloo-Tels Are SO Winter 2006

Igloos are popping up all over the world. Less than a month after Germany announced their plans for Iglu-Dorf, we hear Romania is the next hot, er... cold spot.

High in the Fagaras Mountain Balea Lac resort, the newest igloo-tel will open on February 1, 2006. Balea Lac resort will remain open for four months, or until it melts, then like all ice hotels, wait for its rebirth the following winter.

Here's the good news: Unlike it's Canadian cousin, this ice hotel has yet to be booked up this season. With eight double rooms and a bar, space is limited, so if you want to experience frost bite-nights in `06, you can still get an igloo in Romania.

You can expect to pay about 19 euros for a single.

The hotel has a capacity of 1,440 people per season and owners say eight people have already booked rooms.

We suspect more people would book in if there was a website, or any information in English, such as a phone number or address--all of which we have yet to find. Even the Romanian tourist authority doesn't have the hotel listed. All we found was an article in the Bucharest Daily News.

Does it exist? Will it exist? Send us any info you come across.

Related Stories:
·   Ice Hotel to open in Balea Lac resort [Bucharest Daily News]
·   New German Ice Hotel [HotelChatter]