Last Updated on februarie 4, 2014
The first three igloos in Romania were inaugurated on the night from Friday to Saturday (February 1), at an over 2,000 m altitude, in the Fagaras Massif, at Balea Lac, Sibiu County (north-west of Bucharest), where six English tourists who were on holidays in Romania wanted to spend the night at a temperature no higher than 2 degrees Celsius, when outside there was minus five degrees and layer of snow almost 1.4 m deep, according to weather forecasters.
‘We had a request from an agency from England. Last night we had 16 Englishmen who took everything, the rooms in the Hotel of Ice and the three igloos. The tourists made a trip to Romania, they were in Brasov [central Romania], after which they came to Balea Lac, used the winter park, drove the snowmobiles, went sledging, took accommodation with us, in the ice hotel and in igloos,’ Vasilica Popa, who is in charge of marketing with the Hotel of Ice, told Agerpres.
‘We have only one igloo available for this night. Accommodation costs 600 lei (about 134 euros) a night for two persons,’ explained Vasilica Popa.
Romanians and foreigners as well, especially British, come to Balea Lac, especially on weekends, to have a unique experience of living in ice buildings. What attracts tourists most in staying in igloos is “privacy.”
The ice hotel at Balea Lac is again taken entirely this weekend as it was on New Years Eve.
Built three years ago near the ice hotel, the three igloos at Balea Lac resemble the ones abroad, where they have such tourism.
One can only reach the Hotel of Ice by cable car, a return ticket costs 50 lei per person.
Situated 60 km away from Sibiu, the Balea tourist area is hard enough to reach. There is not even some regular bus service. Most tourists come here by their own cars or in organized groups, by coach, on National Road (DN) 1 and then on DN 7. As DN 7 Transfagarasanul is closed in winter, all tourists have to go by cable car to reach the ice buildings and the chalets.
