Ice Hotel Quebec 2027: Dates, Prices and Sleeping on Ice

1. The 2027 dates: two windows, not one

Most people look for a single opening date. For the Ice Hotel there are two. Visits, day and evening, open on 26 December 2026 and close on 21 March 2027, still « subject to the weather », according to the Schedule page on the official site. Overnight stays in the ice rooms only run from 4 January to 13 March 2027. So you can see the sculptures about nine days before the first night (26 December, then 4 January), but nobody can sleep there before 4 January.

This double window explains most of the mistakes you’ll find online. Some pages give one range for the whole site, others get one of the two end dates wrong. The table below lists the official dates and the construction markers.

Source: valcartier.com, Schedule page (in French), checked on 25 October 2026; construction from the About page, checked the same day.

The 2025-2026 season was announced early, ahead of Christmas 2025, thanks to favourable conditions, according to Carrefour de Québec (in French). That precedent guarantees nothing this winter. The official site repeats « weather permitting » for that reason: read the 26 December opening as a planned date, not a fixed one.

The ice restaurant follows its own calendar. The Fairmont Le Château Frontenac dinner is announced for January 2027, with no exact date. In the pages we checked, no 2027 date is published for the ice bar.

2. The site: a hotel built again every winter

Hôtel de Glace, Village Vacances Valcartier

Visits from CAD 25.99 26 Dec 2026 to 21 Mar 2027 About -4 to -5 °C inside Day or evening visit

The hotel is rebuilt every year from snow and blocks of ice, because the structure melts in spring. The official site talks about its 26th winter and its 10th construction at Village Vacances Valcartier. It describes about 3,000 ice blocks, six metres high, over a surface of about 4,900 m². The official About page also sets out the construction calendar, which starts in November if the cold sets in and wraps up around mid-January.

The building has rooms and suites, an ice bar, an ice chapel and a large sculpted hall. Every winter it gets a theme and new sculptures. The 2026-2027 season is titled « L’hôtel prend vie » (« the hotel comes to life »), according to the official site. The pages we checked don’t detail the 2027 sculptures.

Highlights

• Rooms, suites, bar, chapel and grand hall in the same ice building.
• A structure that changes every year, with a new theme and new sculptures.
• An inside temperature of about -4 to -5 °C according to the official site. Québec-Cité says about -5 °C even when it’s -30 °C outside.

Pixidia tip: book your visit slot online at valcartier.com and arrive about 30 minutes before your time, as Québec-Spirit recommends. The visit ticket gets you into the hall, the sculptures, the chapel and the ice bar, where a cocktail costs extra.

The site doesn’t stand alone. If you’re staying a few days in the area, a private 3-hour snowshoe outing makes a good add-on to a winter visit, without going near the ice bar. This tour isn’t linked to the Ice Hotel: it’s an outing in the same region, aimed at people staying several days who want to get out of the building. Viator lists free cancellation. The price on the card below is in euros, per person based on two adults, while the rest of this article is in Canadian dollars.

Snowshoeing with mountain goats, 3-hour private activity from €74.96 per person (based on 2 people) · ★ 4.9 (109 reviews)

Book my snowshoe tour

3. 2027 prices: what’s published and what isn’t

Two prices are published for 2027 on the official site. The visit ticket starts at CAD 25.99 for the Grand adult rate, with a range going up to CAD 42.99 depending on the date and the package. A suite for two people is listed from CAD 485 a night on the event page on valcartier.com, which Voilà Québec also reproduces.

Source: valcartier.com and its event page, reproduced by Voilà Québec (in French), checked on 25 October 2026; the cocktail price comes from the Canada-Spirit guide (in French), 2026 edition.

Be precise about what these figures don’t tell you. The suite listing doesn’t mention taxes, breakfast or a breakdown by room type. No price grid by room category is published in the pages we checked, and this guide won’t invent one. Another source mentions $685 before tax for a suite, with no year or detail: we didn’t use that figure because nothing explains it.

Prices you find elsewhere need a careful read. Canada-Spirit gives an adult visit at about $30, but its guide is a 2026 edition: that’s not the 2027 rate. « From » prices from travel agencies don’t compare either. One lists $250 with no currency given, another CAD 400 (Cityzeum), and neither says what’s included.

The package that combines the night, dinner and shuttle isn’t published anywhere in the pages we checked. Ask the hotel directly before you compare.

4. Sleeping in ice: what the night actually asks of you

The cold is the real issue here. The room is kept at about -4 to -5 °C according to the official site: milder than the outside air on a hard cold day, but still very cold for your body. Light sleepers and people sensitive to the cold should think it over. Québec-Spirit advises against the night for people sensitive to the cold and for anyone with circulation problems.

The bed and the sleeping bag are the points reviews talk about most, for better and for worse. One visitor admits she doubted she’d get through the night, then slept without trouble once she was settled. That’s one account, not a guarantee. To judge the place before booking a night, the day or evening visit is a separate option: it gives you access to the hall, the sculptures and the chapel, without committing to the night.

5. Dinner at the Fairmont’s ice restaurant

Ice restaurant, Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

Thursday to Saturday 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm Reopening January 2027 Booking recommended

The gourmet dinner isn’t run by the Valcartier hotel. It’s served by the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac, in Old Quebec. The restaurant page (in French) lists service from Thursday to Saturday, 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm, with booking recommended through OpenTable. It mentions a guided visit, a welcome cocktail and a chartered shuttle from Old Quebec.

Three details are missing from that page: the price per person, the cancellation policy and the exact shuttle times. Don’t guess them: ask the restaurant before you book. Appropriate winter clothing is required for the whole evening.

6. Getting there from Quebec City: car, taxi or shuttle

About 30 minutes north of the city

About 30 min by car Free parking Taxi CAD 50 to 70 one way Shuttle: times to be confirmed

By car, the trip takes about 30 minutes from central Quebec City, and parking at Valcartier is free according to Canada-Spirit. Without a car, a taxi or ride-share costs around CAD 50 to 70 one way, per the same source. That’s an estimate, not an official rate.

A shuttle from Old Quebec is mentioned by Québec-Cité (in French), which names the operator Unitours, and by the Fairmont. Neither page gives a timetable or a return fare for 2026-2027. A third-party listing describes the shuttle as « discontinued ». The two official and partner pages we read say otherwise, but confirm by phone before you count on it.

Source: Canada-Spirit (in French), Québec-Cité (in French), Kéroul (in English), checked on 25 October 2026.

7. Children, reduced mobility and people sensitive to the cold

No minimum age appears on the official pages we checked. Guides still advise against overnight stays for young children, because of the cold and the walk to the heated building. For day visits, Canada-Spirit gives a child rate of about CAD 20 for ages 5 to 16, but that figure comes from the 2026 season and needs confirming. Children under five get in free, according to the same guide.

For reduced mobility, the Kéroul listing describes a snow path with no doors, indoor corridors at least 92 cm wide, two Skivel chairs available on request, and accessible toilets in the neighbouring Valcartier hotel. The entrance has steps, and the room layouts change every year. The Quebec leisure companion card (carte d’accompagnement loisir) is accepted. As the listing isn’t dated, confirm these points by phone at 1 888 384-5524 before you book.

On the cold, the advice repeated by the press and attributed to Environment and Climate Change Canada stays simple: cover your head, hands and face, shelter from the wind, and watch for signs of frostbite. Press articles cite a wind chill alert threshold of -38 or lower, lasting at least two hours. We didn’t check that threshold on the official page, so look at current alerts on weather.gc.ca.

8. Quebec Winter Carnival 2027: don’t mix the two up

The Quebec Winter Carnival runs from 5 to 14 February 2027, according to the official Carnival site. Its Ice Palace is a temporary structure in Old Quebec, built for the event, and it doesn’t offer overnight stays. The Ice Hotel, by contrast, is set up at Village Vacances Valcartier for its whole season and offers visits and nights. None of the sources we checked suggests a link between the two.

If the Carnival is your reason for going, book early. Québec-Spirit notes that the Carnival period is the most expensive and the busiest. The palace dates, the activities and Bonhomme are covered in our guide to the Quebec Winter Carnival 2027.

If you know the Icehotel in Jukkasjärvi, Sweden, the comparison comes to mind fast. The Valcartier site drew inspiration from it, according to its official page. Its dates and prices belong to the Quebec season. Our guide to the Icehotel 2026-2027 covers the Swedish site separately.

What other guides don’t tell you

These points come from comparing the travel guides we read with the official or reference pages. Each one links to its source, consulted on 25 October 2026.

• Québec-Spirit gives a wrong window. « 7 January to 29 March 2027 » matches neither official window: visits run to 21 March and overnight stays to 13 March. valcartier.com, Schedule page (in French) (consulted on 25 October 2026).
• Canada-Spirit gives a wrong closing date. Its guide says the season ends on 24 March 2027; visits end on 21 March and overnight stays on 13 March. valcartier.com, Schedule page (in French) (consulted on 25 October 2026).
• The 2026 price isn’t the 2027 price. Canada-Spirit gives an adult visit at about $30, while the official 2027 grid runs from CAD 25.99 to 42.99. valcartier.com, Schedule page (in French) (consulted on 25 October 2026).