"Design Happens"

Winters in NYC usually make me want to get away, and though my mind wanders to warmer climes, maybe the best plan is to embrace the season for its own particular magic and virtues. A trip to the Hôtel de Glace in Québec — the only hotel in America made entirely of ice and snow — seems like just the thing to change my tune.

This Narnia-esque creation is 500 tons of ice and 1,500 tons of snow to be precise, yet it still has all the amenities you’d expect from a high-class hotel, and then some: theme suites, hot tubs and saunas, an ice bar, a café that can be turned into a chapel for weddings and even a “Grand Ice Slide” for kids and adults alike.

Part of what makes the Hôtel de Glace so special and wintery (aside from the gorgeous, glacial decor, of course) is that it only runs until March 25. Now, if I could only get a guarantee that it would feel like spring by then…

Briana is a writer and senior editor for HGTV.com. Her self-described design style is "mid-century modern magpie." She lives in a Brooklyn apartment with her fiancé, their spoiled dachshund, Chauncey, and approximately one million old shelter magazines. She cannot wait until she is a home owner, and can wallpaper and/or tile just about every available surface.