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Aren't We Over This Ice Hotel Thing Yet?

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  Site Where: Garmisch-Partenkirchen/Grainau at Zugspitze, Germany
March 20, 2009 at 3:10 PM | by Jenna | 5 Comments


The "Romantik" suite. Please note the disco ball.

We need to be careful with our money, people. The Ice Hotel craze was big and cool (har har) back in '06, but aren't we over that by now? Dropping big bucks to sleep in freezing cold temperatures is... well, sort of what we do in our poorly-maintained NYC apartments in the winter anyway. Not to be frigid (ha!), but this hotel trend — and its baffling staying power — is one, we must admit, we simply don't understand.

But the Times UK isn't over the ice hotel thing just yet — they've gone and reviewed Germany's relatively new Iglu-Dorf, touting it as "the lone traveller's low-cost answer to Sweden's famous Ice Hotel."

They say:

While a room in the original Lapland chill-out hotel will hit you for £238 a night - you can cut this by sharing - these German igloos charge the lonely soul only £91. [...]

Before fondue, we divide up the ice rooms: three six-person communal rooms and several doubles linked by icy corridors. Tonight the hotel is almost full with 24 guests - more igloos are being built - and I'm looking around warily. A couple on my train were ludicrously tactile. I fear I may be a frozen gooseberry. I want frigid room-mates. Phew, the lovebirds head to a “romantik” suite, where a €100-a-head supplement buys privacy, zip-together sleeping bags and an en suite bathroom.

We say: real budget travelers sleep outside.

P.S. Okay, fine. It's kinda sweet. We're just trying to be cold (ha! again!) — but this place had us at the disco ball.

5 Comments

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  1. jenlaceda

    HotelChatter Member

    Ice Hotels are cold as death

    Never really liked the concept. I would sleep outside with a sleeping bag in the Canadian winter AND pay myself 100 Euros!
    March 22, 2009 at 10:54 PM
  1. dagobert

    HotelChatter Member

    No way!

    I nevver would pay for a night in the fridge.
    April 14, 2009 at 7:50 AM
  1. michaelfox

    HotelChatter Member

    Wow! but...

    * Liked -- Amazing scenery

    * Disliked -- The wait between leaving cold accommodation and getting keys for warm accommodation

    We've been there. Just quite expensive.

    from the designers of custom banners and signs and speed training society

    April 23, 2009 at 8:21 AM
  1. dhitt

    HotelChatter Member

    icy!

    I've never even heard of these.  But they sound awesome!  I love the idea of being really cold and then getting under all those animal skins with someone and getting really warm and then falling asleep.

    Then wake up to breakfast and get the Heck out of there!

    I wonder if there is one of these in North America.  I wonder if starwood owns one?  I subcontract for starwood but I'm sure I could get an employee to book it!

    thanks, the pic is what did it.  I'll have to look it up.  Not what I expected to find on here.  I thought I'd be giving away "secrets" on how to save on meetings in hotels... lol.

    April 28, 2009 at 3:03 PM
  1. trikole

    HotelChatter Member

    Why in the word!

    I really dont get why in the world people would pay for that. Go hiking somewhere cold, that surely will be far more fun:) from http://www.launchdeck.co.uk/ - complete online marketing package!
    May 12, 2009 at 7:33 AM
  1. Ramon1982

    HotelChatter Member

    Agreed

    What if someone tries to melt the ice, is that an act of destroying property? :D

    reverse | jump

    December 21, 2009 at 1:10 PM

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