Family Holiday Destinations Podcast

Harbin Ice Festival: A Family Travel Story from China

• Jessica Palmer • Season 1 • Episode 9

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In this episode of the Family Holiday Destinations podcast, we share our experience of swapping summer weather for minus 20 degrees at China’s famous Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.

Before diving into the story, we run through the latest family travel news, including Royal Caribbean’s Voyager of the Seas debuting in Brisbane, a new no-licence boat hire option on Great Keppel Island, and the announcement of Australia’s first indoor snow resort, Winter Sports World Sydney.

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Then, we wrap up with a practical travel takeaway, breaking down sustainable travel for families into the simple and achievable “three Ps” — people, place and planet — and how thoughtful choices can make family holidays more meaningful without the guilt.

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If you love real family travel stories, honest reflections, and practical inspiration for your next adventure, this episode is for you.

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Thanks for tuning in to the Family Holiday Destinations podcast! For more travel tips, destination guides, and family-friendly inspiration, visit our website at familyholidaydestinations.com. Until next time, happy travels and safe adventures!

Welcome to the Family Holiday Destinations podcast, where we inspire your next family adventure. I’m Jessica Palmer, mother of two and founder of Family Holiday Destinations.

Today’s episode is a little different. Instead of a guest interview, I’m sharing one of my own travel stories — an experience that took us from summer temperatures straight into minus twenty degrees, and completely changed the way we think about winter travel as a family.

Before we dive into that story, let’s quickly run through some family travel news you might want on your radar.

First up, some big cruise news for Aussie families.

Royal Caribbean has officially welcomed Voyager of the Seas to Brisbane, marking the ship’s first-ever season homeporting from Queensland. For families, this is a pretty big deal. It means more cruise options departing closer to home, and far more flexibility in how long — or short — your holiday can be.

Voyager of the Seas will be sailing from Brisbane across the 2025–26 season, offering 20 itineraries ranging from quick three-night getaways right through to twelve-night adventures. These cruises cover Queensland’s coastline as well as the South Pacific, including destinations like Nouméa in New Caledonia and Port Vila, Mystery Island and Luganville in Vanuatu.

One of the biggest wins here is the increase in shorter cruises. Three- to seven-night sailings, including weekend departures, make cruising much more achievable for families juggling school terms, sport commitments and busy calendars. There are also festive sailings planned for Christmas and New Year, which could be a stress-free way to handle the holiday season without cooking, cleaning or entertaining at home.

Onboard, Voyager of the Seas is designed with families in mind. There’s Splashaway Bay for younger kids, FlowRider surf simulators, glow-in-the-dark laser tag, ice skating at sea and multi-storey waterslides. Parents aren’t forgotten either, with adult-friendly spaces, a full spa and plenty of dining options.

Staying in Queensland, there’s also some exciting news from Great Keppel Island.

A new no-licence-required boat hire service has launched on the island, making it easier for families to explore beyond the main beaches without joining a tour or hiking long distances with snorkelling gear. GKI Boat Hire offers small, stable boats that are simple to operate and don’t require a boating licence, making them approachable for first-time boat users and families wanting a relaxed day on the water.

This opens up access to quieter bays, flexible snorkelling sessions that work around kids’ energy levels, and a sense of independence while still staying close to shore. It’s also a great example of small-scale tourism that supports both visitors and the local community.

And finally, looking ahead a little further into the future, Australia is getting its very first indoor snow resort.

Winter Sports World Sydney is set to open in Penrith in 2028, bringing real, chemical-free snow to Western Sydney — 365 days a year. This $700 million development will include a 300-metre ski run, beginner slopes, Australia’s largest indoor snow-play zone, Olympic-grade training facilities and an on-site hotel.

For families, this means no long drives to the mountains, no worrying about snowfall, and no seasonal closures. It’s positioned to become a major family attraction, especially with the new Western Sydney International Airport opening nearby.

Alright — now that you’re up to speed on what’s new, let’s move into this month’s story.

Today, I’m reading one of my personal travel stories from the Family Holiday Destinations website, titled: “From Summer to -20°C: Our Family’s Harbin Ice Festival Experience.”

This trip took us from warm-weather travel straight into one of the coldest environments we’ve ever experienced as a family — and it challenged a lot of our assumptions about winter travel with kids.

Over a decade ago, I watched men and women clad only in swimwear dive into a pool carved from a frozen river. The outside air temperature was minus ten degrees Celsius (warm for that time of year), and these brave souls swam all the way to the other side, pulled themselves out, and slid their feet into some slippers while a robe was placed over their shoulders. Now, 14 years later in the same city, this time with kids in tow, I wondered if I would witness this fascinating spectacle again. You see, it’s all part of the fun that is the International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival, held once a year in the city of Harbin in China’s beautiful northeast. 

We start with the same frozen river, the Songhua, that captivated me completely last time we were here. Except this time, it’s buzzing with people of all ages enjoying the attractions on the ice. Chinese ballads are blasting from portable speakers as we zip down ice slides on rubber tyres, drive donuts in a Can-Am on the frozen ice and decline many an offer for other rides, such as being pulled on a giant inflatable behind a 4WD on the ice. 

At minus 20 degrees, we are suitably dressed with thermals, mid-layers and snow suits, but Mother Nature is a force to be reckoned with in this part of the world, and the cold finds a way to creep in. We slip into a small snack shop set up on the ice, and I buy a hot ginger Coke to warm up. I’m not a fan, but it does the job it’s supposed to, which is to warm me up from the inside out. Even if I do feel a bit sick afterwards. 

Although the frozen Songhua River features mightily in Harbin’s Landscape, it’s not the main attraction of the Harbin Ice Festival. For that, you need to head to Ice and Snow World, Sun Island Park and Zhaolin Park.

Ice and Snow World, Harbin Ice Festival

Straight from the pages of a fairy tale, Ice and Snow World at the Harbin Ice Festival features castles, slides and sculptures all made entirely from – you guessed it – ice. They are not just for viewing from behind a rope, either; many of them can be walked over and through. Carefully, of course, because stairs made of ice require a degree of caution. In a world filled with technology that can sometimes cause a divide between the generations, it’s nice to see the ice slides being the firm favourite from toddlers through to grandparents. You don’t need any special equipment for the smaller ones; you simply slide down on your snow boots or your bottom. Often, unintentionally, both. At 521 metres in length, the largest ice slide is preceded by a long wait, and only those over the age of 14 years are allowed to attempt it.

Chinese ballads feature heavily once again, as does the sound of our feet crunching in the snow. Despite the crowds, the landscape is a pristine snowscape with not a single wrapper of rubbish to be seen. Children are squealing in delight as they are pulled around the complex on tyres by their parents, and I am happy to discover that this time around, the cold is a lot easier to manage with the addition of hot taps in the public toilets and a shopping centre with a food court, all heated of course. Bemoan the squat toilet all you want, but with temperatures now bordering on negative 25 degrees Celsius, the last thing I want to do is have my bare backside make contact with a freezing cold toilet seat. Although mastering the squat with this many layers takes skill and a few swear words uttered under my breath.

At age 12, my son attracts the attention of a few Chinese mothers with young girls throughout the day, the mothers fawning over his hazel eyes and ridiculously long eyelashes. They call their daughters over for a look, embarrassing both sets of kids in the process. I giggle to myself that if he were to come back in another few years, he might need a chaperone. 

Sun Island Park, Harbin Ice Festival

Not too far away is Sun Island Park, home to the international snow sculpture competition part of the Harbin Ice Festival. Here you will find ice and snow sculptures of gigantic proportions. In fact, in 2007, a sculpture here was awarded a Guinness World Record for the largest snow sculpture at 200m long and 35m high! While most of the structures in Ice and Snow world are made from hard ice, here, the sculptures appear more fluffy and snow-like.

Ice and Snow Sculptures from all over the world are represented here, heavily influenced by popular culture, with many movie characters and iconic imagery on display. 

Much like last time, the entrant’s sculptures are mind-boggling, and I enjoy this much more than Ice and Snow World, which gives off more theme park vibes. Sun Island Park feels more family fun, with fewer crowds, virtually no waiting in lines and a pleasant absence of loud Chinese ballads blasting through the speaker. Instead, there is a free live concert with dance music, where we join in dancing on the ice. We also slide down free ice slides and jump into a zorb ball for the first time. Maneuvering the Zorb Ball is physically much harder than I envisioned, and isn’t helped by the heavy boots and many layers of clothes I am wearing. I require help to get out by the attendant, much to the amusement of my husband. 

Zhaolin Park, Harbin Ice Festival

By now, we’re starving, but the kids are finding the cultural differences in food a little hard at this point, so we grab a cab to a Pizza Hut near Zhaolin Park, where a robot delivers our order. Zhaolin Park is an underrated attraction of the Harbin Ice Festival, and surprisingly, it’s free. Despite the below-freezing temperatures, it’s best to visit at night because the ice sculptures, lanterns and slides are lit up with coloured lights.

Here we discover a new dessert, strawberries on a stick coated in toffee and completely frozen. It’s ridiculously sticky but is the first of a few desserts we find in Harbin that quickly become favourites. Chinese ballads once again feature in the background while we navigate an icy maze and watch the kids run up and slide on their boots on a particularly slippery section. I’ll never grow tired of watching the smartly dressed elderly couples strolling through the park, arms locked at the elbows. 

Cable Car and Central Street

With the three major attractions of the Harbin Ice Festival done and dusted, we set out to stroll down the well-known Central Street (Zhongyan Street). While ice sculptures don’t feature, this cobblestone pedestrian-only street has its own charm with Russian-influenced architecture, overhanging decorations, a sea of black, white, and red snow jackets, and the discovery of another new dessert, a Russian-style bread shaped into a cone and filled with soft-serve ice cream – Chimney Bread.

At the end of the stroll, we find ourselves back on the Songhua River, looking up at a Cable Car that we rode all those years ago across the frozen river when it was just the two of us. It seemed a little rough around the edges back then, but all of that appears to have been smoothed over with updated cable cars and a tourist-friendly ticket booth. What once was a cold climb up some concrete stairs to the cable car departure point is now filled with cheerful heated sweets shops just asking to add kilograms to your waist, and when you are deposited at the Russian Village on the other side of the Songhua, its even worse, as the gondola officially disembarks at a ‘chocolate castle’, where you guessed it, chocolate abounds. 

After getting lost in the village, the sun has gone down by the time we take the cable car back over the other side of the Songhua River. Harbin city and the ice festival lights are surreal from this height, as is the reality of how large the frozen river actually is. We look down to see the 4WDs from days ago still merrily towing people around on the ice, albeit now toy-sized, and I remember that 14 years ago, the rides were limited to a few Clydesdale horses and some odd-looking sled bikes. How times have changed.

But fortunately, some things haven’t changed, like the beautiful Russian-influenced Sophia Church, the Chinese ballads blasting through the speakers, the sounds the snow makes when it crunches under your boots and the hum of people having a good time at a joyous time of year in an environment that is no less than brutal. These things will never leave me, and really, that’s the whole point of travelling so far for an experience such as this.

After sharing that story, I want to shift gears slightly and leave you with a practical takeaway — because travel stories are inspiring, but it’s the small choices we make along the way that really shape the kind of travellers we become as a family.

Sustainable travel is one of those terms that can feel overwhelming, especially for parents. It often comes bundled with guilt, pressure or unrealistic expectations. But in reality, sustainable travel for families isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being a little more thoughtful where you can.

One of the simplest ways to approach this is through thinking about the three Ps: people, place and planet.

People is about the communities you interact with. That could mean choosing local guides instead of large international operators, eating at small family-run restaurants, or staying in locally owned accommodation. Even small decisions like buying souvenirs made by local artisans help keep money within the community you’re visiting.

Place is about respecting the destination itself. Travelling outside peak season, exploring areas beyond the most crowded hotspots, and learning a bit about local customs before you arrive all go a long way. With kids, this can be as simple as explaining why certain places are protected or why certain behaviours are expected.

Planet focuses on environmental impact. This doesn’t have to mean radical changes. Not using single-use plastics, choosing wildlife experiences that prioritise animal welfare, offsetting flights where possible, or supporting conservation-focused activities are all realistic steps families can take.

When kids see their parents making thoughtful choices while travelling, they learn that travel can be kind, respectful and meaningful — and that’s a pretty powerful souvenir to bring home.

So that wraps up our chat today, and our journey through one of our most memorable family travel experiences.

I’m sure there are many other great experiences out there to be had, and we would love to hear some of yours.

Thanks for joining me on this journey through family travel. I hope this episode has inspired you to think a little differently about where you go, how you travel, and the stories you create along the way.

For more tips, detailed guides and first-person stories, head on over to the Family Holiday Destinations website at familyholidaydestinations.com.

And until next time — happy travels, and enjoy making those family memories.