We spent 13 nights in South Korea and stayed in hotels, hanok guest houses, a museum, a temple, a love motel and a hostel. The variety and the experiences were great!
How did we book places?
In Seoul, we used www.BnBHero.com (similar to airbnb.com) and found a small hanok guest house in the area of Seoul where we had wanted to stay (Anguk). We paid for that via the website before we left and had to pay in US$ or Won via PayPal. The four nights came to £171, so c£21.50 per person per night. We were given lots of useful information by the guest house owners and a detailed map of how to get there from the Airport Bus stop nearby. It was also nice to have someone to email in English with some basic questions about the area and South Korea before we left. As we were essentially staying within the family home, albeit with our own en suite shower, toilet and wash basin, they were also able to give us local knowledge, which is always good. I would recommend either of those two websites, particularly if you don’t want to stay in a hotel chain that could be anywhere in the world.
In Gunsan, we had a map that indicated areas where there was accommodation so we drove and parked in the area, walked around and asked in hotel receptions. I would strongly recommend that when doing this you ask to see a room. We ruled out two places based on the rooms we saw, though they were dismissed for having a double bed (we needed twin beds) and being seedy-looking love motels. We did find a “tourist hotel” but it was blatantly a watered down love motel. But it was cheap and clean and even had its own car park.
Everywhere else, we headed straight for Tourist Information places and asked them to book somewhere for us.
Types of accommodation
Hanok guest house
A hanok is a traditional Korean home and hanok guest houses seem to be available everywhere. Traditional means you sleep on the floor, which in winter (and spring, in our case) means the room is heated by ondol (underfloor heating) , you sleep on a yo (a thin mattress like a thin futon- and I emphasise the “thin”) and your “front door” is made of wood and paper.
Love motel
They look seedy and it is apparent from the outside that they are not “normal” hotels, though somehow we ended up searching for somewhere to stay in an area we knew was full of love motels but which we somehow didn’t register as we persisted going from lobby to lobby in search of an available twin-bedded room. They are, apparently, not as seedy as they look, though be aware that love motel areas are quite lively at night time, both inside and outside the hotel, so don’t go there expecting a quiet night.
Temple stay
We wanted to stay at a temple for the novelty factor. We only stayed at a temple rather than doing the whole ritual, as detailed in the photo. But we did have to eat dinner and breakfast as per the strict guidelines, lights out was at 9pm, we went to evening prayer and we chose to watch and listen to the 3.15am drum call to prayer. It is not somewhere to stay for a good sleep and eating dinner at 5.40 pm and breakfast at 6.10 am is a little challenging. Doing the whole stay would have been fun/interesting. It was lovely wandering around the temple complex early in the morning before it was open to visitors. You need to be able to arrive by between 1 pm and 5 pm, depending on the temple and if you are doing a proper temple stay programme.
Hostel
Hostels are very cheap. We had a three-bed dorm for the two of us (a third person could have arrived and slept in the room), shared a bathroom (two showers, one loo, one wash basin) with however many women were staying there and there was a communal kitchen. I expect the hostel we stayed in was indicative of hostels across South Korea.
Hotel
We stayed in a spa resort hotel and two tourist hotels. The resort hotel was simple, clean, reasonably sized and decent. “Tourist hotels” are cheaper and more basic but the two we stayed in were functional, cheap and ok. One included breakfast (very basic), the other didn’t.
Random museum accommodation
One night we drove to an area north of Andong where we’d read in our (unreliable) guide books that we would easily find places to stay. We ended up on the cusp of panic/surely-we’re-not-going-to-have-to-sleep-in-the-car but found a lady who worked at a tourist spot who could speak a bit of English and who was prepared to phone around to get us somewhere to stay. Lovely lady. She even came in the car with us to our accommodation and got a colleague to pick her up. We ended up staying in an empty dorm room that was part of a kind of working outdoor folk museum, ie people lived there but it was a traditional cluster of very old, historically significant buildings. There seem to be places to stay at folk museums, rooms within houses or a dorm room like that. As with the temple, it was lovely being there when no visitors were around.
Our accommodation details
Based on two (female) friends sharing
Seoul
Four nights – www.BnBHero.com “Hanok Homestay near Ankuk subway station” – 계동 67-14, Jongno-gu (종로구) – booked from the UK online – – £43 per room per night – breakfast available but not included.
Thoughts:
I had written to the owner beforehand to check that there would be two yo on the floor as we were friends who didn’t want to share a bed. I was told we could both sleep there. We arrived early in the evening, tired and in need of sleep. It transpired the room was the size of the double yo that was on the floor with about 30cm of floor space around three sides of the yo. I think my friend was very close to walking out and booking into a hotel at that point. Indeed, she was the one who had suggested a bed in Seoul might be nice after a long flight and jet lag.
Neither of us slept at all well for our four nights there, though in actual fact we didn’t sleep well anywhere we stayed. As the room was so small, we had to leave our luggage outside. The en suite shower room, which consisted of a shower attachment, a wash basin and a toilet was far smaller than you can possibly imagine. The whole room was the shower cubicle so everything in the room got wet when you showered.
Traditional and cute though the room was, we didn’t feel it was a room we could hang out in, as it were. It was reasonably priced by UK standards, particularly for a nice area in Seoul, but it was merely somewhere to (try but fail to) sleep.
I would not stay somewhere that small or sleep on the floor for at least the first night after a long flight and a missed night’s sleep.
Also, very sweet though the owners were, I was reminded that there is a time and a place for staying in a family home and it’s not usually when you’re tired or when you stay out late and cause the owners to worry that you’ve got lost, etc. I know all that was really nice and there are good things about feeling part of a family while you’re on holiday, but sometimes that just isn’t what you want. I would not stay there again but would strongly recommend the Bukchon Hanok Village area as it’s quiet and there’s a lot to see and do in easy walking distance and it’s near the Metro.
Facilities:
Bedding clean and lots of spare duvets so we could have a duvet each and duvets to make the yo feel a bit thicker/less uncomfortable, only small towels available, hairdryer on request, kettle and instant coffee or green tea, ondol far too hot for me to ever sleep, no TV, free wi fi, sausage pillows that I find very uncomfortable. Lovely location and that it was a quiet area but I wouldn’t stay again as it was too small and there are probably hundreds of other hanok you could stay in around there and surely they’re not all that small.
Near Andong
One night – Ocheon Historic Site/Andong Gunja Village (folk village/museum) – 29, Gunjari-gil, Waryong-myeon, Andong-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do
경상북도 안동시 와룡면 군자리길 29 – found for us by a helpful lady at a nearby Confucian temple early that evening – £33 for the room (50,000 Won) per night – no breakfast and no food available on site.
Thoughts:
I loved staying here, despite the biggest, meanest spider ever (which we ended up getting a resident to remove) and the longest, most curious centipede-type creature ever. It was one massive room with ondol and yo and there was a huge shower area, one toilet and one wash basin. It was essentially a women’s dorm with room for maybe six. It is in a peaceful location amidst trees. There were three walls of wood and paper walls so it gets very light with sun up and you can hear everything outside (mostly cat fights). Neither of us slept well but it rated highly for novelty place to stay.
Facilities:
Bedding wasn’t freshly laundered, spare yo meant we could sleep on two to make it a bit thicker/less uncomfortable and ondol far too hot for me to ever be able to sleep, kettle (but no cups or drinks), fridge, small towels only, no TV, no wifi, lots of bugs. Much as I enjoyed the novelty, I wouldn’t stay again as I feel we were lucky not to be sharing the dorm and the bugs and heat were a huge issue.
Gyeongju
Two nights – Luckywon hanok guest house – 214-2 Hwangnam-dong, Gyeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do – booked for us on the day by the Tourist Information office by the bus station – £33 for the room (50,000 Won) per night – includes DIY packet noodles and green tea available in the kitchen for breakfast.
Thoughts:
Two of the most uncomfortable nights of my life: hard floor and thin yo. The location is lovely (quiet and near Tumuli Park), easy to park, clean rooms, pretty courtyard style garden and left to your own devices as you are not staying in the owner’s house. There is absolutely no security as the door is held shut by a spoon in a loop, but it didn’t feel like a place where theft was likely to occur and the owner was around most of the time. If you don’t have your own breakfast or don’t want dried noodles heated up for breakfast, nowhere is open before c10 or 11 am in the immediate vicinity.
Facilities:
Clean bedding, small towels, use of a communal kitchen, use of a PC and the internet (no wi fi for your own devices though), television, thin but pretty yo, suffocatingly hot ondol so no chance of sleep for me. Aesthetically and for the location I would stay again but I don’t think I actually could stay again as it really was the most uncomfortable place I’ve ever slept.
Haein-sa
One night – Haeinsa Temple Stay – 122, Haeinsa-gil, Gaya-myeon, Hapcheon-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do
경상남도 합천군 가야면 해인사길 122 – turned up just before the complex closed to the public at 5 pm – c £27 each per night (40,000 Won) – includes dinner and breakfast at strict set times.
Thoughts:
Fabulous experience but very tiring. Had sole occupancy of a large ondol with en suite shower room with toilet and wash basin. It is an experience rather than a pleasure and is well worth doing. The temple area is peaceful, calm and relaxing and it is an amazing opportunity to gain an insight into life in a Buddhist temple. The food is vegetarian and the plates you eat off (fortunately self-service) are huge so it’s easy to overload your plate. You are not supposed to talk while you are in the dining area (giggling potential) and you are supposed to eat everything on your plate, though there is a food bin in the area where you leave your dirty dishes. Do not underestimate how tiring it is doing 108 kneeling to standing salutations, though you don’t have to do that many if you’re not doing the full programme, just staying and eating there as we were. I would definitely recommend a temple stay, though two days makes more sense, but I would want a good bed and not too far to travel the day after as it really does mess with your normal sense of eating and sleeping routine!
Facilities:
Dirty shower room, dirty bedding, small towels only, no wifi, no TV, no kitchen facilities, ondol so hot we had to keep opening the door, lot of potential for bugs in summer, drumming at 3 am for c15 minutes, parking in front of the dorm (up a manned road, entry to which requires you to say “Temple Stay” – we struggled to get there as it wasn’t obvious where the temple car park was amidst the vast national park so drove around the park a lot, then parked and speed-walked (v near closing time) c20 minutes up a footpath to the visitor entrance, then back down to get the car, then found the road, which required doing a c300 degree left/up turn, we were then blocked by the non-English speaking guard who only let us through when I said, in desperation, “Temple Stay”). I would recommend it but I wouldn’t stay there again, though I would stay at another temple. I only wouldn’t stay as it was grubby and unbearably hot with the ondol. I assume there’s air conditioning for the summer?!
Damyang
ne night – Damyang Resort Spa & Hotel – 399 Wonyul-ri, Geumseong-myeon, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do 전라남도 담양군 금성면 금성산성길 202 – woman at ticket office in Damyang Bamboo Museum spoke great English and suggested we treat ourselves to this hotel so she phoned up and got us a 15% discount – c£105 for the room per night (157,000 Won) – includes one free entry per person per night to the spa.
Thoughts:
Our first proper beds after eight consecutive nights on the floor so it was lovely. Clean, functional and a pleasant room to spend time in. The hotel is out of town and has parking, there are pleasant views from the window but it is not a particularly attractive hotel, not that that matters. There is a bar and restaurant downstairs, not that we used either. The spa was lovely. It is not attached to the hotel but is next to it. If you have never been to a single-sex, naked spa it would be quite daunting but it was just like onsen and spas in Japan (see a later post about spas and what to do if you have no idea) so it was a relief that one of us knew what to do. This hotel wasn’t in walking distance of a food store (that we found) so either stock up in town or be prepared to drive out to a store or restaurant. I enjoyed it but I would have liked it more if it had been prettier.
Facilities:
Small towels AND big towels (ah, the luxury), comfy and clean beds, bedding and room, TV, use of PC with internet (no wifi), no underfloor heating but it was quite warm, kettle and tea bags and instant coffee, massive car park and entry to the spa (where you need to bring your own shampoo, soap and, ideally, flannel or sponge). I would stay again, though there isn’t much to do in Damyang and the bamboo museum and forest could easily be visited in one day.
Jeonju
Two nights – Jeonju Hansung Tourist Hotel – 199 Gosa-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do 560-802 – woman at second tourist information office we asked at found us and booked us this hotel (which was also in the guidebook but which we’d ruled out) – Saturday night c£54 per room (80,000 Won), Sunday night c£47 per room (70,000 Won) – basic breakfast included (never appreciated toast so much!) and a VERY bijoux and tense underground car park.
Thoughts:
Jeonju is a very expensive, very touristy town and it is very popular with Korean visitors on the weekends so we couldn’t find anywhere cheap or with vacancies or which wasn’t Seoul-sized-bijoux so it was a relief to find this hotel and to have beds rather than the yo we were expecting. The room was very basic and the bathroom was quite big but very shabby. We had ruled it out prior to arriving in Jeonju on the grounds that our guide books had said the rooms at the front are very noisy. We did view a room before we committed, it was at the front and we didn’t hear anything so took the room. It is very noisy until way past bed time. We both slept with earplugs in and there’s no way I would have fallen asleep without them. It’s in a lively, youthful part of town and there are plenty of places to eat and drink. It is only about 10-15 minutes to walk into the old part of Jeonju though. It’s fine. The breakfast was very basic but I really did enjoy eating toast. The coffee was beyond foul.
Facilities:
Decent beds and bedding, clean enough, shabby, not a room you’d want to hang out in, TV, free wifi, car park (but tense in more ways than you can imagine), small and large towels, a degree of control over the temperature in the room, VERY noisy front bedrooms, fridge, kettle and tea bags and instant coffee. I could stay there again but I wouldn’t particularly want to (the reception area lulls you into a false sense of posh-ness) but it was the cheapest option for the two nights we wanted to stay. My first night there, with ear plugs firmly installed, I had the only full night’s sleep of the two weeks.
Gunsan
One night – Gunsan Tourist Hotel (?)- in the midst of an area of Love Motels – found by wandering into and straight out of love motels; this one was a little more “touristy” than “love” – £33 for the room (50,000 Won) – car park, no breakfast, no restaurant
Thoughts:
I had a bad feeling about Gunsan from start to finish. The area we ended up staying in was blatantly a love motel area. We never felt threatened by anyone or anything but I didn’t feel comfortable there at all. We found this hotel after a day trip to Seonyudo island and it was probably about 6 pm and we headed for that area because hotels were marked on the map. It wasn’t in the centre of town, though it was in a busy area, and I doubt we’d have stayed there if we’d gone there by public transport, probably staying nearer the centre of town. The room was fine, though with cheap fittings. The corridor was dark and each door had a different coloured light above it and there was a high tech door system of locks and buzzers. The only indication it was a little more “love” than we’d wanted was the advertising on the tissue box, which was solely for “dates”. The area probably put me off Gunsan, though I didn’t like what we saw when we drove to the harbour area through the town centre.
Facilities:
Ok beds though a slight crinkle of a plastic sheet, TV, free wifi, car park, secure (complex door locking and our window looked straight onto the wall of the neighbouring building, which was c10cm away), small and large towels (I think), complicated mood lighting, small but functional room. I would not stay there again.
Suwon
One night – Hwaseong Guest House (hostel) – 4 Paldallo 2-ga, Paldal-gu, Suwon, Gyeonggi-do 442-022 – somebody from the nearby palace ticket office escorted us to this place – c£10 each per night (15,000 Won)
Thoughts:
As a hostel, it was fine. We hadn’t wanted to stay in a hostel or not have en suite but it was the only place we could find when we were tired and carrying our cases. The rooms are decorated with memorable, modern floral wallpaper. The rest of the place is shabby but ok. There are single sex bathrooms with one toilet, one wash basin and two showers. Fortunately there were only a few other people staying. There is minimal sound proofing, our three-person dorm (a bunk bed and a single bed) had a window onto the internal corridor and was very stuffy but opening the window meant a lack of privacy (I hung my towel over the window in the end). Nice to have a kitchen area. For £10, I shouldn’t really complain as the location was great (near the palace, lots of shops and restaurants and within the fortress walls) and we didn’t have to share with anyone else.
Facilities:
Beds and bedding surprisingly ok, fairly clean, decent kitchen, no towels, very basic, owner speaks a little English, lack of privacy and able to hear too much from other people and other rooms, good location. I would not stay here again.