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Ice Hotels

Romanian Ice Hotel Open 'Till May-ish

February 3, 2006 at 9:40 AM | 0 Comments

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]