Ice Hotels

The Stockhorn village is built each winter on a shoulder of the mountain above Lake Thun in the Bernese Oberland, reached by cable car from Erlenbach. Crews raise it from snow when conditions allow, usually around the turn of the year, and it stands until the thaw takes it in spring.

Guests sleep in chambers hollowed out of packed snow, on insulated mats inside expedition sleeping bags rated for the conditions. The interior holds at a degree or two below freezing whatever the weather outside is doing, which in practice is warmer than the ridge. Washrooms are in a heated service building a short walk from the chambers, and the evening runs to a fondue and a walk out onto the snow once the lights go down.

Two notes of honesty. This property has appeared in earlier editions of this register, and it appears again because the genuine supply of bookable ice and snow hotels worldwide is very small and this register has now worked through it. Rather than invent a fourth or fifth property to balance the page, the set is left at one.