Unleash Your Wild Side on These 9 Winter Adventure Stays

Published December 4, 2023

12 min read

If you’re looking for an active winter vacation, there are two strategies: Head toward the snow and cold to ski, sled, and skate; or get as far away from the white stuff as possible. At these nine North American lodges, there’s a hibernal experience for everyone, not all of which require a warm hat and mittens.

Hôtel de Glace, Québec, Canada

Winter fun: Ice skating, snow tubing, sleeping on a slab of ice

The Hôtel de Glace, 20 miles northwest of Québec City, is North America’s only ice hotel. Each winter, sculptors use 2,000 blocks of ice and 35,000 tons of snow to build a grand entrance hall, wedding chapel, bar, and 30 guestrooms to open in early January.

“One of the challenges is to have the three elements—snow, ice, and light—work together,” says the project’s artistic director, Guy-Olivier Deveau. “If you put an ice sculpture right in front of a snow wall, it will be invisible. You have to create some contrasts to make the elements pop.”

After spending the night on a frozen bed, guests can take a hot shower at the Hôtel Valcartier next door and go snow tubing or ice skating at the neighboring winter playground.

Embrace the cold at ice hotels and igloos around the world

Flamingo Lodge, Everglades National Park, Florida

Winter fun: Birdwatching, hiking, or paddling

Shipping containers—some elevated on stilts—were used to construct the new Flamingo Lodge near the southernmost visitor center of Florida’s Everglades National Park. The only hotel in the park replaces earlier structures felled by hurricanes. In addition to bright, simple rooms, guests find an indoor-outdoor restaurant and views of Florida Bay.

From the lodge, hike the Guy Bradley or Coastal Prairie trails to spot herons, egrets, ibis, and spoonbills. Or rent canoes or kayaks and paddle through mangrove tunnels and rivers of grass on the 99-mile-long Everglades Wilderness Waterway.

The new lodge “really is beautiful,” says Charlie Arazoza of the Alliance for Florida’s National Parks. “The birdwatching out of Flamingo is incredible and the best place to see a crocodile in Florida is at the marina.”

Métis Crossing, Alberta, Canada

Winter fun: Stargazing, Indigenous storytelling, snowshoeing

Stargaze and learn about the culture of Canada’s Métis, people of mixed Indigenous and Euro-American ancestry, from the new domed skywatching cabins at Métis Crossing.

The 512-acre cultural center—on the Saskatchewan River 80 miles northeast of Edmonton—has near-zero light pollution. This makes night sky viewing around the campfire particularly spellbinding, as Métis interpreters explain how their ancestors used the stars to chart routes across the plains. The heated cabins, which cluster around the main lodge,

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