You don’t have to travel to the North Pole to find Frosty’s winter wonderland.
The company that has built a frozen fortress in New Hampshire for the last seven years has returned again in 2021. Ice Castles is an award-winning frozen attraction located in four cities in the U.S., including Woodstock, an hour drive up Interstate-93. It is opening for the season on Jan. 14.
The attraction is built using hundreds of thousands of icicles placed by professional ice artists. The castles include breathtaking LED-lit sculptures, frozen thrones, ice-carved tunnels, and slides, fountains.
The castle is more than 20 million pounds with some 12,000 icicles grown daily to construct it.
The ice is farmed on metal racks sprayed with water to make icicles. Those icicles are then harvested, placed by ice artists and sprayed by sprinklers. As the water from the sprinklers freezes, the icicles grow larger and larger. It only takes a few weeks to cover the site of the castle, on Clark Farm Road in North Woodstock.
The popular attraction requires advance ticket sales, as capacity is limited, especially this year. Of course, since it’s a giant ice creation, the weather may also close the site.
Tickets can be reserved on the website icecastles.com. Weekday rates are $14.99 for children (up through 11) and ages 12 and up are $19.99. Weekends and holidays, including school vacation weeks, are $19.99 for children and $24.99 for ages 12 and older. Tickets are timed for entry, but once you are in you may stay as long as you like. However, there is no re-entry after you leave.
If anyone in your group isn’t feeling well, do not visit and reschedule your tickets for another time, at least 24 hours in advance is preferred. All sales are final.
COVID precautions at the Ice Castle also include keeping six feet of distance between parties, all staff will be masked, and guests must be masked when interacting with employees or in common areas. High touch surfaces are sanitized routinely and crawl spaces, canyons and tunnels will be one-way traffic.