Fairbanks Ice Museum

Lonely Planet review

Certainly the most bemusing sight in the city's downtown - and by far the best place to chill out - is the Fairbanks Ice Museum . This hour-long experience takes place in the historic, musty-smelling Lacey Street Theater, which you'll likely have largely to yourself. First comes the screening of the film Freeze Frame, which employs dramatic editing to chronicle the World Ice Art Championships, an ice-sculpting contest held in Fairbanks each March.

Then the lights come up to reveal an array of life-sized crystalline carvings ringing the theatre. They're all stereotypical Alaskan scenes - howling huskies and bears wrestling salmon - and some are slightly melted or broken. Inside chilled rooms there's an ice-igloo you can walk through, an ice-chair to pose in, and, not to be missed, an ice-slide that offers a bracing two-second ride. The finale is a rather perfunctory carving demonstration in which a sculptor uses a drill to etch a flower into a block of ice. Despite its absurd charms this place cannot possibly be economically viable; see it soon before it goes belly up.

Shows are held every hour.