Indias first igloo caf hopes to slide Kashmiri ski town onto world tourist map

The café, named Snowglu, boasts artistic carvings that adorn the interiors of the dome of snow. Guests sit on top of snow chairs covered in lamb skin and have their Shangri-kehwa teas and kebabs served on the snow tables. 

The café is the first of its kind in India. 

“My idea is not to earn money but to bring Gulmarg to the tourist map of the world,” Snowglu owner and creator Syed Wasim Shah told Arab News.

“And to show that India is not less than other developed countries in building snow sculptures,” he added. 

With almost 300 daily visitors, the café has captured international attention and enjoyed extensive media coverage since it first opened in early February. 

Shah, who runs the Kolahoi Green Hotels and Resorts in Gulmarg and is a snow sculptor, first created the igloo café as a pilot project in 2021. He took inspiration from an igloo hotel he had visited in Switzerland. 

Last year, a prototype café he built attracted at least 150 people daily, encouraging the 42-year-old to create an even bigger attraction. 

This year, after more than two months, around two dozen workers, and about $16,000, Snowglu stands at 11.5 meters and has a diameter of 13 meters. 

The café, which can seat up to 40 people across 10 tables, is now the world’s largest, Shah said. 

An igloo café in Switzerland, which is 10 meters tall and has a diameter of 13 meters, is the current world-record holder, according to the Guinness World Records. 

“I have already written to the Guinness World Records and hopefully their team would come here and certify it as the world’s largest igloo café,” Shah said. 

“We want to bring new experiences to Gulmarg and we want to show that people from India do not need to go to Switzerland to see the igloo, we can also do it here,” he added. 

With winter’s end coming soon, there’s only a few weeks left to experience Snowglu, where guests can book to enjoy wazwan, a multi-course meal in Kashmiri cuisine comprising mainly meat-based dishes. Visitors are also expected to pay an entrance fee of $2.60, a charge aimed at discouraging random visitors from entering the structure to prevent it from melting. 

The igloo, which will be dismantled on March 15, might only be a starting point for bigger snow projects, as Shah plans on creating an igloo hotel where people can spend the night. 

Happy customers have been relishing the snow café experience. 

Akshya Jain, a tourist from Gujarat state, said the igloo café “added value” to her trip to Kashmir. 

“I was not aware of such a concept,” Tilotma Bhandarkar, a tourist from the western Indian state of Maharashtra, told Arab News.

“I feel really nice that I came to Gulmarg and had such an experience,” Bhandarkar said.