Hotel of Ice at Bâlea Lac

Built each winter beside a glacial lake high in the Făgăraș mountains, the Hotel of Ice is reached by cable car for most of the season — the road that serves the lake in summer closes under snow. Rooms are carved blocks with fur-covered platforms and heavy sleeping bags; an ice church and an ice bar are rebuilt alongside it. The whole structure is raised from scratch when the lake freezes and gives way in spring, so no two winters produce quite the same building.