I visited Edinburgh's newest Christmas attraction and here are my thoughts
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Located on George Street, the Polar Ice Bar is making its Edinburgh debut and it’s already proving popular with a number of weekend slots already sold out in the run up to Christmas. I went along on Monday afternoon to check it out.
Entry to the bar is priced at £14, however this also gets you a drink token that you can redeem against one of their two in-house cocktails, and unfortunately you can’t use your EH postcode to get the discount.
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Hide AdInside you’ll be greeted with a brilliantly laid out ice bar, complete with little nooks to sit and have a drink with friends or family. For those concerned about the cold, you needn’t worry. Fetching blue jackets and gloves are provided by the bar to make sure you aren’t too cold during your stay.
The drinks themselves are served in tumblers also made from ice. If I had a complaint here, I’d say that the rims are a bit on the thick side which left me covered in the contents of my drink a couple of times.
You get two alcoholic options and one mocktail, Ciroc Winter Cosmo (Ciroc Blue vodka, Triple Sec, Cranberry and citrus), Spiced Apple Ciroc Cocktail (Ciroc Blue vodka, warming spiced apple and citrus) and Winter Cranberry Spritz (mocktail) (Rosemary infused cranberry spritz). I had a taste of both the alcoholic options, the Cosmo is perfectly sweet as you’d expect and the Spiced Apple was a winner in my opinion. If you want to try both the drinks, you can purchase extra drink tokens for £6.50 each.
I would imagine that the bar is almost certainly better experienced at the weekend. With it being a Monday afternoon, the atmosphere was maybe a little flat with people visiting the ice bar before going anywhere else. If it was a group of people who were maybe in the middle of a night out, it maybe would have felt a little bit livelier.
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Hide AdThat said, you don’t get a whole lot of time. You are limited to a 30 minute stay in the bar although, considering the low temperatures, I’m not sure how much more time you would want to stay.
30 minutes is also plenty of time to grab some extremely Instagram friendly pictures. The bar itself is filled with intricately designed ice sculptures. I took a bit of time to go and check them out. There’s also an opportunity to get your picture taken upon the incredible ice throne, although you might be hoping you’d worn some thicker trousers if you take up that opportunity!
All in, the Polar Ice Bar is maybe a bit pricey at £14 but it was still a fun experience, if not one that I’d rush back for. The decor is impressive and the drinks are tasty, which is what you’re hoping for.
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