My family of 5 adults and 1 child booked a 4 bedder in the hotel in December 2012. It was very spacious and overlooks the low houses. It's really an apartment with 3 bedrooms and a study. The masterbedroom comes with a kingsize bed and a tv while the larger of the remaining 2 rooms could fit 3 single beds. The reception is not impressive but the receptionists were able to communicate fairly well in english and could help us with directions. Fortunately for us, it had been snowing intermittently and we could enjoy the view of the "snow capped" roof tops. We had a long stay and was a little bored with the breakfast spread. Not much variety and the cafe stopped putting out fresh food closer to 10am on weekdays. So if you had stepped in at 10 min to 10, you are likely left with a cup of coffee. At 10, the staff absolutely would not help bring you any food at all that they had kept away.
I am not sure why but we had experiences of cleaners not replenishing the toiletaries, including toilet paper. we had to remind the hotel several times to do that. So that is a minus for the service.
The hotel is located in Insadong where there are a few streets of interesting art and craft shops, souvenirs shops and the usual FACE Shop, Natural republic, Etude House etc. There are plenty of restaurants serving Korean food and it's actually quite difficult to find alternatives. Over on the other street closer to the exit no. 5 of Jongno- 3 ga station, is a wonderful food street. The food stalls come out in full force at night and line both sides of the street. We tried a restaurant selling fried spice chicken only and it was pretty good. I realised that there are quite a few pubs selling similar fried chicken as an accompaniment to the drinks and they certainly dont taste as good as the fried spiced chicken. On another side of the street are restaurants selling mainly pork dishes and the pig's heads are proudly displayed in each of the shop fronts.
The hotel is less than 5 mins taxi ride to the palace and to SamChong dong, a rather hip area with eclectic mix of shops selling costume jewellery, accessories, clothing, shoes and many coffee shops and italian restaurants. Realised that Koreans do enjoy a cuppa and there are so many "brands" to choose from here.
Myeongdong is also about a 10 min sub way ride away. To use the subway, you first have to buy a store value card from 7 eleven and top up the value of the cards at the station. There is a different card for kids and the cost of travel is lower. But there are no concessions for senior citizens unless you are Korean. each trip is just over a 1000 won. We took a hour ride to a station to get to the Korean Folk Village and it was the same fare. Amazing. By the way, unless you have really not much to do, I would suggest giving the village a miss. Its' really quite contrived although i did get some nice pictures. If you still plan to go, after you get off the station( sorry cant remember the name) go to the Tourist Information Counter outside of the station and you will be directed to a bus stop about 100 m away to take a free shuttle that runs every 11/2 hours. If you missed the bus, just hang out at the shopping plaza which also houses the subway station. There are plenty of restaurants on the top floor (5th I think) and a department store within.
The hotel is also walking distance from the theatre where we caught Jump!, the acrobatic performance. You can just turn up and buy the tickets just before the show as I could see that there is not much of a crowd although on the day we went, there were plenty of school children. The performance is quite slapstick but i could see that the children had a ball of a time.
Overall, i am likely to choose another place to stay only to explore other areas but not because of anything I strongly dislike about this hotel.
- Also Known As:
- Fraser Suites Seoul Hotel Seoul
- Fraser Suites Seoul Hotel
- Fraser Hotel Seoul
- Seoul Fraser Hotel
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