Balea Lake ice hotel construction kicks off

Construction of the only ice hotel in Romania has kicked off, the one at over 2,000 meters altitude, in the Făgăraș Mountains, at Bâlea Lac, in Sibiu County, a tourist attraction that will open on Christmas Eve, representatives of the company that owns the construction announced in a press release.

“The new Ice Hotel at Bâlea Lac is being built, a unique tourist attraction for Romania. For several days, the glacial caldera of Bâlea Lake has been bustling with activity: the sounds of chainsaws in operation, water pumps, snowmobile engines… There is a construction site atmosphere, with craftsmen and excitement, as construction work on the 18th Ice Hotel has begun. Unique in this region of Europe, the Ice Hotel at Bâlea Lac will certainly be, in the coming months, just like in previous seasons, the most sought-after destination for foreign tourists eager for adventure, novelty and a lot of adrenaline,” the press release states.

This year’s construction is similar to those of previous years, because “the construction technology is similar to that of past years (ice ‘bricks’ cut from the ice cap formed on Lake Bâlea are used, which are combined with a ‘mortar’ of snow and water, as well as very large quantities of snow well-soaked with water, poured over the formwork, left to freeze for a few days), and the shape of the rooms and other premises is igloo-like, with different diameters.”

At Bâlea Lac there is a natural snow layer of 56 centimeters of snow, according to meteorologists. “This year, the weather conditions recorded at Bâlea Lac have been very good since the beginning of December, so we started building the Ice Hotel a little earlier. I think that for over a decade we haven’t had so much snow, consistently low temperatures and such a thick layer of ice at this time of year, and this situation makes us very happy. Therefore, the weather conditions being ideal, we started strong and by this time we have completed the walls and roofs of the first seven igloos. We continue to work with ambition and if the weather doesn’t play tricks on us, we will be able to open for visits and receive guests on Christmas Eve, as is the tradition at Bâlea Lac,” says Arnold Gunter Klingeis, manager of the Ice Hotel at Bâlea Lac.

According to the quoted source, each room of the hotel is to be named after a great composer or conductor. The hotel owner wants to invite the famous Dutch conductor Andre Rieu this winter to visit the Transfăgărășan and the Ice Hotel at Bâlea Lac.

At the end of the works, the Ice Hotel at Bâlea Lac (season 2024 – 2025) will consist of 12 igloo-type rooms, a bar, a restaurant with a dining area, an access hall and an intermediate area. Temporary art exhibitions will be opened in the Ice Hotel, in collaboration with the Cluj Art art gallery in Cluj-Napoca.

The furniture (the bed bases in the rooms, the bar, the tables and chairs in the restaurant) and all the decorations in the hotel will be made of ice. “Each season, the Ice Hotel at Bâlea Lac has attracted several thousand visitors, Romanian tourists but also from many countries around the world. Annually, the most guests of the Ice Hotel are the British, a travel agency from across the English Channel, specializing in organizing stays in unusual places around the world, with special packages for the unique hotel in the Făgăraș Massif”, the press release also states.