Minus 5 Ice Experience, New York

Minus 5 Ice Bar's unusual experience always starts with a trip to the coat check. But instead of hanging up visitors' jackets, staffers there hand out gloves and parkas. These luxurious duds prepare guests to step inside the refreshingly chilly winter wonderland.

Beyond the bar's front doors lies a multi-chambered palace of ice, where seats, walls, bars, and even cocktail glasses are made of frozen water coaxed to hold a certain shape. The libations within the glasses benefit from the cold as a bite of frost is added to their natural potency. They're hardly the only entertainment available, though. Amid upbeat music, each room of the bar features a unique artistic theme manifested by resident ice artists through a variety of sculptures and pieces of icy decor, many lit by colorful LEDs. Professional photographers prowl the passageways alongside the waitstaff, ready to snap photos for guests to immortalize memories or remind themselves that they didn't actually step into Narnia.