Originally Posted by polarpacific

Hi Emma

I went to the one in northern Sweden for a weekend in 1997. Had a lot of fun snow-mobiling, dog-sledding, climbing a vertical ice obelisk, and lassoing a reindeer.

The temperature was -27 degrees Celcius outside and -7 degrees inside, but you actually feel warm coming into the ice-bar from the windchill, and sleeping on a block of ice with only fur hat and reindeer skin is warmer than you expect.

The most amazing part was the night sky. By incredible good luck that night there was an aurora borealis like a curtain of shimmering green lights and simultaneously the huge bright tail of the comet Hale-Bopp during its closest approach. It was more than 15 years ago already but I will never forget that amazing image in my mind.

In 2009 I went on another winter adventure -- a snow safari to see the wild polar bears in northern Canada. That too is a great experience.

One more fascinating winter destination is the ice and snow sculpture festival in Harbin (China) -- the scale and details are astonishing. However, when I went there in 2011 the temperature was incredibly cold ... must have been something like -40 degrees as you could only take your gloves off long enough for a couple photos before needing to warm up again inside for a while.

Right now I am enjoying the sunshine in New Zealand but may go to Canada in January. Do you know when the Quebec ice hotel season finishes?